Hey, Peter Beaumont and The Guardian, this opening sentence is completely, slanderously false:
A wild beast or an alien predator? – Photo: Brian of London at the Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem
“Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has announced his intention to ‘surround all of Israel with a fence’ to protect the country from infiltration by both Palestinians and the citizens of surrounding Arab states, whom he described as ‘wild beasts.'”
Netanyahu actually said “chayot teref,” who are not simply “wild beasts” — herbivores are wild too, and are not “chayot teref” — but rather predators, or among zoologists, carnivores. Netanyahu said Israel would surround itself with a fence to keep out “predators.” He clearly did not mean all Palestinians or Arabs generally, with whom he hopes to boost cooperation and trade ties. He clearly meant the predatory political and religious strains in Arab lands that primarily torment and terrorize fellow Arabs.
While I’m not one to give the Guardian a free pass, I’m pretty sure you can guess where the Guardian got their maliciously distorting translation.
Of course you can, 50 points to Gryffindor if you guessed our old friends at the Ha’aretz English desk. I’ve lost track of how often we’ve written about their translation games.
The sickness is within. We can’t really moan about the Guardian while we have Ha’aretz inside our “fence” and spreading this kind of corruption in the world.
Brian of London is not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy. Since making aliyah in 2009, Brian has blogged at Israellycool. Brian is an indigenous rights activist fighting for indigenous people who’ve returned to their ancestral homelands and built great things.
Brian of London is not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy. Since making aliyah in 2009, Brian has blogged at Israellycool. Brian is an indigenous rights activist fighting for indigenous people who’ve returned to their ancestral homelands and built great things.
