Spoken Palestinian Arabic Transcript of Ahed’s Interview with AJ+

Do you need listening practice in Palestinian Arabic?

In this post, I will share the Arabic transcript of Ahed Tamimi’s interview with AJ +. I also copied the English translation provided by AJ + so that it will be easy to compare both Arabic and English version of the sentences simultaneously.

Months ago, Ahed Tamimi was released from prison for slapping an Israeli soldier.

Today, you’ll learn some words in Palestinian Arabic from her.

احنا انشالله رح نكون الجيل الي بيسلم للجيل بعدنا الحرية

We, God Willing, are going to be the generation that hands over freedom to the next generation

لو حتى مقدرناش بيسلم الجيل بعد ما الحرية, نقدر انو نخلي الجيل اللي بعدنا

Even if we can’t pass on freedom to the next generation, we can make the generation after us

يثورعلى كل هاي الاحتلال وكل الظلوم عشان نقدر انو نحرر فلسطين

revolt against the occupation and all the injustices in order for us to free Palestine

BECOMING A PALESTINIAN ICON

لما كنتي بالسجن, شو اكتر اشي اشتاقتي؟

When you were in prison, what was the thing you missed the most?

اشتاقت انو اتطلع بالنجوم بسماء بدون ما اشوف شبك

I missed gazing at the stars in the sky without looking through bars

او انو امشي بالشارع عادي بدون كلابشات بدون اربع مرات توقعي

Or walking on the streets normally without tripping on shackles four times

احكيلي عن اليوم اللي ضربتي فيه الجندي, شو صار؟

Talk to me about the day you slapped the soldier. What happened?

كان الجندي يضلو يجاكرنا وينزل الدرج من درنا

The soldier was trying to provoke me and he would come down the stairs of our house.

بحكيلو انو ما تنزلش من هون بالنهاية هذا بيتي

I told him, “Don’t come down from here.” After all, this my house

بوقتا سمعت انو ابن عمي تصاوب بوجهو واخدوه على المستشفى

During that time, I heard that my cousin had been shot. He was shot in the face and then was taken to the hospital.

بوقتا الجندي اللي طخ ونزل واقف يطخ على الشباب من الباب الدار

After he shot him, the soldier came and started firing at people from the door of our house.

ف انا بحكيلو انو روح, مش حقك طخ من عنا من الدار يعني

I told him to leave and that it’s not his right t0 shoot [people] from our house.

طبعا هو ضل جاكرني بوقتا انا يعني عصبت وضربته

Of course, he continued to provoke me and that’s when I got angry and slapped him.

ما خفتي؟

You weren’t scared?

بالنهاية يعني واحد مش لازم يخلي الخوف يسيطرعليه

At the end of the day, a person shouldn’t allow their fear to take control of them.

من وين جبتي هاي الشجاعة

Where did you get this courage from?

انو انتي بنت تضربي واحد جندي مسلح ممكن يموتك؟

You, a girl, to slap an armed soldier who could probably kill you?

اهلي مربين انو دائما ما اسكتش عن الغلط

My parents raised me to never stay quiet when something wrong is happening.

انو دائما اوقف بوش الغلط

That I should always stand in the face of any wrongdoing

هاي الشجاعة يعني ردة الفعل على وجود الجندي اللي في بيتي

My courage was a normal reaction to the soldier being in my house

او على ارضي او بلدي او يطخ على اهل البلد

or on my land, or in my country, or shooting at my people

بعدما ضربتيه توقعتي انو ييجوا يعتقلوكي؟

After you hit him, did you think you’d be arrested?

اه توقعت. نزّلوني كلبشوني عن اول الدرج

Yeah, I expected it. They brought me down, handcuffed me at the top of the stairs.

حطوني بسيارة الجيش, تعمدا يضلوا يسبوا علي

Then they put me in the armored vehicle. They kept swearing at me,

يستفيزوني عشان اعمل اي اشي ليزيدو التهمة علي

provoking me just so I would react, just so they could add more charges against me

بس انو انا دائما حاولت اكون انو هادية. بعدين نقلوني على التحقيق

But I tried to remain calm the whole time. Afterward, they brought me into the interrogation.

احكيلي عن التحقيق

Tell me about the interrogation.

كان في اكتر من انتهاك

There were several violations.

الانتهاك الاول ما كان معاي مجندة طول الفترة التحقيق

The first violation: There was no female soldier with me throughout the entire interrogation.

كان محققين اثنين يحققوا معاي

There were two male soldiers interrogating me

الانتهاك الثاني كان انو فش لا عندي محامي ولا حدا من اهلي

The second violation: I didn’t have a lawyer or any family member

مع انو قاصر لازم تحققوا معاي

present with me even though I’m a minor

الانتهاك الثالث كان انو بحكو كلام كتير بذيئ بالتحقيق

The third violation: They were speaking to me inappropriately during the interrogation.

صار يحكيلي انو اتني حلوة, شعرك حلو, انتي متل اختي

He started saying, “You are pretty. You have nice hair. You look like my sister.”

والانتهاك الرابع هو انو هددني بافراد عيلتي

And the fourth violation: He threatened me with my family.

شو قلتي انتي؟

So what did you tell them?

انا بوقتها كنت اضل احكيلهم بلتزم بحق الصمت

At that time, I kept telling them that I was committed to my right to remain silent

وخلال السجن, كيف كانو يتعاملوكي؟

And during prison, how did they treat you?

كان يعني ضغط من ادارة السجن, ع كل البنات مو بس انا كعهد

We faced pressure from the prison administration, all the girls, not just me

من ناحية يسكرو الصف وقت كنا نتعلم

They would cancel our classes

*من ناحية = on the one hand

من ناحية انو بوقت دورة القانون الدولي الانساني اللي كنا ناخدها

During our international law or human rights courses,

كانو يعني كتير يضربوا الطوارئ عشان يرجعونا على غرف

they would sound the alarm to send us back to our cells

وقدمتي التوجيهي بالسجن؟

Did you take your [high school] exams in prison?

اه قدمت التوجيهي ونجهت ويعني عملت حفلة بالسجن

Yes, I took my finals, passed them and threw a party in prison.

عملنا كل البنات حفلة صغيرة. ان شاء الله رح اكمل مسيرتي هاي انو ادرس قانون

Me and the girls threw a small party in the prison. God Willing, I’m going to continue my career studying law

حتى اصير محامية ارفع قاضية بالمحاكم الدولية

in order to become a lawyer who files cases in international courts.

بطالب كل الناس حتى لو شكاوى فردية يرفع على دولة الاحتلال بمحاكم دولية

I ask everyone, even if they are an individual, to file a complaint against the occupation at the international courts

هدا اشي كتير بأثير

This seriously makes a difference.

هو طبعا في اطفال كتار غيرك بالسجن اسرائلية

There are obviously a lot of kids, aside from you, in Israeli prisons

 احكيلي عن الاسيرات  اللي تعرفتي عليهم جوا

Tell me about the female prisoners you met.

القاصيرات عنجد كانو اقوى اشي بالقسم كلو بالسجن

The minor prisoners were the strongest in all of the prison

فاهمين عنجد القضية. فاهمين شو لازم يعملو بالسجن

They understand our cause. They understand what they have to do in prison.

انا كنت مثال بسيط للاسرى

I was just a simple prisoner.

انهم اسرى مع احكام عالية. هدول بحاجة انو ننتبهلهم شوي

There are prisoners who have longer prison sentences. Those are the people who are in need of our attention.

هل عندك امل بتشوفي سلام بين الفلسطينين والاسرائلين بحياتك؟

Do you have hope that one day you’ll see peace between Palestinians and Israelis?

كنا عايشين من قبل فلسطين, اليهود, المسيحين والمسليمين

We used to live together in peace – Jews, Christians and Muslims.

بس يعني هاي صهيونية

But this is Zionism.

هاي اللي الاشي اللي بخلينا ما نكوش بالسلام بالمرة

It’s what is preventing peace from ever happening.

ف انو مشكلتنا دائما مش مع اليهود

Our problem was never with the Jews

 مشكلتنا مع صهيونية زي دائما بنحكيه

Our problem is with Zionism. This is what we’ve always said.

ايش بتحبي تقولي ل اي بنت اسرائلية بعمرك رح تخدم بالجيش بسنة الجاي؟

What would you like to say to any Israeli girl of your age who’s going to serve in the military next year?

بحب احكيلها انو انتي كيف اصلا ترضي ع حالك انو تروح تمسكي سلاح تقتلي بني آدم؟

I would like to tell her, how could you allow yourself to grab a gun and kill a human being?

عمري ما تخيلت حالي انو اقتل اي حدا

I could never imagine myself killing anybody

ممكن حتى لو بتجيبلي القتل خالي ماقدرش اقتله انو

Even if you brought me the person who killed my uncle,

كيف رح اقدر خلي حدا تاني عايش هاي معاناة؟

how could I allow this suffering to happen to someone else?

عنجد هدا الاشي صعب كتير مش اي حدا يتحمله

It’s really hard. Nobody can handle it.

بتمنى عنجد يرجعوا على انسانيتهم يعني لو مرة يصارحوا حالهم

I really wish they’d go back to their humanity. Even for once, they should be honest with themselves.

عشان انو يقدرو يفهمو الصح من الغلط

So that they can understand right from wrong.

icon سموكي

They have called you “the icon

الفلسطين, صرتي رمزفلسطين

of Palestine.” You’ve become a symbol of Palestine.

بتحسي انو هادا شرف ولا عبء عليكي؟

Do you feel this is something to be honored by, or is it a burden on you?

اكيد شرف لانو ولا مرة كانت القضية الفلسطينة عبء علينا

Of course, it’s an honor because the Palestinian cause has never been a burden

انو اقدر اوصّل صوت ل عالم

I was able to convey a voice to the world.

رسالتي كعهد انو عزل, مقاطعة وملاحقة اسرائيل كمجريم الحرب

My message as Ahed is: Isolate, boycott and pursue Israel as a war criminal

و طبعا ربط بين النضال الاجتماعي, النضال الوطني و النضال الاجتماعي التحرري

and unify the national struggle and social liberation movement

عشان يكون مو بس منحرر من الاحتلال

so that we don’t just free ourselves from the occupation

لأ لازم نناضل عشان يكون عندنا مجتمع

No, we have to fight for a society that

 في مساواة, في عدالة بين الرجل والمراة

has equality and justice between men and women

بين الكبير وبين الصغير ما عنجد انو لازم نربط بين هالشغلتين

between old and young. We really have to link these two things together.

انو ما كان تحرر من تحت الاحتلال في رح يكون دمار داخل فلسطين يعني

If it’s just liberation from occupation, there will be a mess inside Palestine.

لأ ,لازم يكون واعيين انو النضال الوطني لازم يكون مربوط في النضال الاجتماعي

No, we have to be aware that the national activism should be aligned with social activism

*النضال = struggle

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That’s it! It’s definitely not enough to listen to the interview once. Listen to the interview as many times as you need such that you can grasp the words that Ahed is saying in the video.

I was able to catch about 80% of the interview and got a friend to help fill in the gaps. So listening practice can be tough but it’ll be worth it once your ears get accustomed to the sound.

Below are some additional observations that are useful.

Notes:

Pronunciation of letter qaf ق in Palestinian Arabic

It is known that most people don’t pronounce the letter qaf as it is in Spoken Arabic. The letter is usually pronounced correctly if the word has a religious connotation to it. For example, words found in the Quran should be pronounced correctly and the letter qaf should be pronounced correctly too.

I have mentioned in previous posts such as this that Jordanians often pronounce the letter qaf as a hamzah ء (like most Syrians, Lebanese and Palestinian too) or as a strong “g” sound (usually men).

However, depending on regions, some Palestinians do pronounce the letter qaf as kaf ك. In other words, like the English “k”.

If you listen carefully, there are some words where Ahed had pronounced the qaf as a kaf. Such words include:

توقعي

توقعت

Adding ش as negation

Adding the letter ش to the back of verbs is a way to negate their meanings.

For example, instead of saying

ما بقدر احكي

ma ba2dar aHki

I can’t say

you can also say:

بقدرش احكي

ba2darsh aHki

or

ما بقدرش احكي

ma ba2darsh aHki

I have written about the word (فش) that also acts to negate meanings in another post. Read more under the bonus section in the post here.

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PS: Want to get real serious at learning Levantine Arabic and in need of a darn good book? Check out my review of a book that has helped me tremendously in my learning journey here

PSS: Below is a lovely song dedicated to her by Zain Jordan. Check it out! ❤

That’s all folks! Hope you pick up new words in Palestinian Arabic from this post.

If you can spread the word about this site to others learning Levantine Arabic, that would be great!

Cheers

Lyn