Wednesday, May 09, 2007

CNN downplays hateful use of Palestinian Mickey Mouse

I recorded this clip on CNN this morning. It may be the worst thing I've ever seen from them. I recorded, uploaded, and am using the clip lawfully, in accordance with federal Fair Use guidelines.



CNN pulled out all the stops in their effort to discredit the infamous Palestinian TV show using Mickey Mouse to teach hatred to children. They even turned the tables on Israel by allowing a Palestinian guest to bash the country.

  • Clip is being publicized by "privately funded, pro-Israeli groups".

  • Palestinian Minister of Information was alarmed; he called the TV station and the video has been stopped.

  • Translation of "We will annihilate the Jews" could be wrong. It might actually say "The Jews are killing us."

  • Info Minister says Israel has imposed "a situation of imprisonment, for years" and says the "apartheid situation" makes people crazy.
UPDATE 5/14/2007

Blogs that link to the video:

Atlas Shrugs
Winds of Jihad

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I got $10 that says the person behind the Palestinian "Mickey" mask is Kay in Maine.

Any takers?

Anonymous said...

Actually, CNN was right in criticizing the MEMRI translation.

It wasn't enough for MEMRI that the content of the video as is (with no translation) was so damning of the Palestinian producers of the show. MEMRI had to go and completely alter the words of the little girl caller.

The danger in MEMRI's mistranslation in this case is that it potentially has the effect on the western recipients of its content of losing hope in the Palestinians. By accepting MEMRI's translation, the viewer believes that the indoctrination is actually succeeding, and that Palestinian children (as young as this innocent girl, Sanabel) say things like "we want to annihilate Jews", "I want to shoot" and "I want to be a martyr," when in fact, the little girl on the show said nothing of the sort, and the truth is actually quite shocking, and quite revealing that there is no reason to lose hope and give up on the Palestinians.

The problem with the MEMRI translation was not only one word, which is what one of the owners/founders of MEMRI claimed on the Glenn Beck radio show. It was several phrases, and I can break it down word by word, and even give you the words of the girl in Arabic so that you can verify them on your own independently.

Here is MEMRI's content, which so far has been featured on every major blog in the US and every major TV station. In almost all these cases, the media has blindly accepted MEMRI's mistranslation and focused on the completely invented phrase "we will annihilate the Jews."

http://www.memri.org/bin/opener_latest.cgi?ID=SD157707

MEMRI in its transcript of the video attributed the phrase "I will shoot" to the girl caller of the show, Sanabel. It was actually the Farfour character who said that. He said

حَـطُـخ
hatokh
I will shoot

The little girl did actually say something then but MEMRI completely omitted her words. The girl said she wanted to draw a picture [of Al Aqsa]. She said

بدّي ارسم صورة
beddi arsem soora
I want to draw a picture

When asked once more the girl then spoke about resisting, MEMRI translated that as fighting. The girl said

بدنا انقاوم
bedna enqawem
We want to resist

MEMRI's claim is
رح انقاتل
rah enqatel
We will fight

Gravatar When the girl is asked "what else?" she said she would get shot by "the Jews", MEMRI somehow translated that as "we will annihilate the Jews". The girl said:

بيطخّونا اليهود
betokhoona el yahod
the Jews shoot us

betokhoona can be broken down as follows for further explanation:

betokh-oo-na:
betokh: the verb "shoots"
oo: the 3rd person plural subject attached pronoun, so it becomes "they shoot"
na: the 1st person plural object attached pronoun, so it becomes "they shoot us"

all in all, the phrase then becomes "they shoot us the Jews", or "the Jews shoot us".

To say what MEMRI claims was said, ie. "we will annihilate the Jews", you have to say:

رح انبيد اليهود
rah nbeed el yahood
We will annihilate the Jews

The word "nbeed" here is how you say "we annihilate."

Then, the girl said "I will become a martyr", in Arabic

باستشهد
bastash-hed
I will become a martyr

MEMRI translated it as the grammatically wrong (in formal and common Arabic) sentence "I will commit martyrdom", in Arabic (this is not a proper sentence)

رح ارتكب الشهادة
rah artakeb el shahadeh
I will commit martyrdom

Having said that, the show is an outrageous mistake and is morally repugnant. But, I believe equally morally repugnant is MEMRI's practice of feeding its western recipients of content lies like the ones it invented in its translation of this video.

The simple fact is, no one talked about annihilating the Jews in the video, let alone a poor little girl who said she wanted to draw a picture!

The Shaved Ape said...

I have several concerns about the Mickey Mouse show.

1. I don't speak Arabic, and so cannot confirm or deny the accuracy of MEMRI's translation or that of CNN.

2. I don't deny that MEMRI is funded by Israeli groups.

3. Your comment here is thorough and compelling, but since you remain anonymous, I tend not to trust your claims. I weight the opinions of anonymous people about 1/5 that of those who identify themselves.

I won't give up on the Palestinians, but there is something happening there that is undeniable, regardless of the translation of one TV show: Palestinian children are being indoctrinated, indeed brainwashed, to hate Jews and to worship their own death in the name of Allah. Note that I'm not Jewish (or Christian or Muslim or anything else).

The mouse character is one of many, many examples of this. The PR folks hired by the Palestinians cannot change facts. These things are known, and they are despicable.