Iranian official mocked after denouncing Israel in incorrect Hebrew

A high-ranking Iranian official was mocked on social media on Wednesday after posting a purportedly threatening tweet in incorrect and poorly translated Hebrew.

Ali Shamkhani, the Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council,  threatened Israel on Twitter,  saying that Israel will be humiliatingly expelled from the West Bank just like the US in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. 

However, the word Shamkhani used for expulsion was was “piturim,” which literally means layoff from a job.   

His sentence in Hebrew literally read, “The end of every occupation is humiliating layoff from a job,” a mistake that commenters found awkward and amusing.

“I heard that in your country you don’t fire people, you hang them,” one tweeter replied, adding a few laughing emojis.

“Question: Is the layoff done according to clause 13? Can we receive compensation in any case?”, another wrote.

Another response was, “You’re a senior Iranian official. You want to tell Israelis they’ll end up fleeing like America just did. But you’re not competent enough to have your Hebrew checked, so you end up warning that unspecified people will be fired from their jobs. Khamenei’s regime in a nutshell.”

“Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, seems to be using Google Translate to tweet in Hebrew. Hey Ali, don’t you guys have anyone proficient in Hebrew?”, another wondered.

“Our occupation is unionized, no need to fear humiliating layoffs,” another joked.

Even a senior Israeli diplomat had something to say.

Joshua L. Zarka, the Deputy Director-General for Strategic Affairs at Israel’s Foreign Ministry, responded in Farsi, saying, “1. It’s preferable to learn correct Hebrew. 2. The end of any dictatorship that oppresses its own people is to disappear from the world.”

The word in Arabic that Shamkhani used, “tarada,” had multiple meanings. One of them is indeed “expulsion,” which fits the tweet.

The tweet was also translated into English. It said that the occupying forces will experience a “humiliating dismissal,” suggesting that Shamkhani’s office probably tried to cut corners by using Google Translate.