Lost in Translation

Yair Rosenberg makes an important point in The Atlantic, explaining that much of the rhetoric regarding Israel's so-called genocide in Gaza is based on mistranslations. The seemingly inculpatory statements of various Israeli military of government officials, some of which were offered by South Africa in the ICJ proceeding, were actually far less incriminating than the press has reported. For example:

Last week, a similar exchange unfolded on BBC radio, when an anchor pressed British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps about Israel’s conduct in Gaza. “Thee defense minister said, ‘We will eliminate everything,’ in relation to Gaza,” the host observed. Wasn’t this a clear call to violate international humanitarian law?

Translated from the original Hebrew, here is the relevant portion of what he said: “Gaza will not return to what it was before. There will be no Hamas. We will eliminate it all.” This isn’t a matter of interpretation or translation. Gallant’s vow to “eliminate it all” was directed explicitly at Hamas, not Gaza.

And yet, the misleadingly truncated version of Gallant’s quote has not just been circulated on NPR and the BBC. The New York Times has made the same elision twice, and it appeared in the Guardian, in a piece by Kenneth Roth, the former head of Human Rights Watch. It was also quoted in the Washington Post, where a writer ironically claimed that Gallant had said “the quiet
part out loud,” while quietly omitting whom Gallant was actually talking about.

There is much more in that vein, refuting nearly all of the accusation of genocidal intent. You can (and should) read the entire essay here.