Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas during his recent speech at the U.N. General Assembly spoke of the “pure martyrs” and “heroic prisoners ... who [Israel says] it is forbidden to pay.”
The United Nation’s simultaneous translator ignored Abbas’s blatant glorification of terror and defense of paying salaries to terrorists by changing his words with a mistranslation.
Compare the texts:
| What Abbas said in Arabic | UN’s wrong translations |
| “I pay tribute to our pure Martyrs and our heroic prisoners. I say to all Palestinians: First, Israel considers [the martyrs and prisoners] criminals. Why? Why does it, when it has many thousands of people who have attacked everybody, and these are heroes? Why is the one who murdered Rabin considered a hero and we, our people, are criminals whom it is forbidden to pay? [Official P.A. daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept. 29, 2018]” | “I pay tribute to all freedom loving countries and peoples and our martyrs, and I would like to tell all Palestinians, Israel considers them as criminals. Why? In Israel, there are thousands who used to assault everybody and they are considered heroes. Why is that who killed Rabin is a hero while our people are criminals [translation missing here]?” [Video of Abbas’ speech with simultaneous English translation on UN website, U.N., Sept. 27, 2018] |
The parts that were changed are very significant. When Abbas said “I pay tribute to our pure martyrs and our heroic prisoners,” he was paying tribute to imprisoned and killed terrorists, including hundreds of murderers of civilians. This was odious terror glorification from the podium of the United Nations. Mistranslating this as if Abbas was paying tribute to “all freedom loving countries and peoples and our martyrs,” made his words sound benign.
When Abbas a few sentences later complained that it is “forbidden to pay” these terrorists—a reference to the P.A.’s policy of paying salaries to terrorists and the international community’s condemnation of this practice—the U.N. translator omitted the reference to the salaries altogether!
Could it be that these mistranslations were done intentionally?
Full PMW report here.
