Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Lost in Non-Translation

I don't speak Arabic, so I can't tell you who and what taxpayer-funded Palestine House is promoting on its website. All I know is that it seems to have something to do with the "naqba" (since the year 1948 is mentioned), you can buy $30 or $50 tickets for it, and it will be taking place at a Mississauga banquet hall. Odd how it's only in Arabic, though. You don't think it was done purposefully so as to keep us non-Arabic speaking taxpayers in the dark, do you?

2 comments:

yoega said...

google translate gave me:
"Brothers and sisters
Honor the Palestinian house and the High Commission for Palestine (the Palestinian Embassy)
Cordially invites you to breakfast ceremony and a lecture on the current Palestinian situation
With the guest of the ceremony fighter leader, Dr. Ahmed Tibi,
President of the Arab Movement for Change in occupied Palestine in 1948" //picture here
"And on Saturday the 4th of September in Iftar
At seven and a half
In the hall"

I always wondered what title Tibi took for himself outside Israel. I wonder why they don't mention he is an elected member of the Knesset and traveling with an Israeli diplomatic passport?

scaramouche said...

Thanks so much for the translation, yoega. I can see why they left it in Arabic--because they might have to 'splain why a taxpayer-funded organization is talking about the "embassy" of a non-state and the concept of "occupied Palestine in 1948": Funny, I thought the "occupation" began in 1967, post Six Day War.