Ha’aretz‘s notorious English translators have blown it once again. Editors were compelled to print a correction today regarding a page-one headline and article, the latest instance of “Ha’aretz, Lost in Translation.” The page-two correction reads:

There was a translation error on yesterday’s front page: in the article, “The Jewish Agency Settlement Department’s bloated budget,” the department referred to belongs to the World Zionist Organization and not the Jewish Agency. We apologize for the mistake.

Here is yesterday’s front-page with the erroneous headline and article:

The erroneous reference to the Jewish Agency, as opposed to the World Zionist Organization, also appeared on Ha’aretz‘s Facebook page and Twitter feed:

The text of the print edition article also erred, confusing the Jewish Agency for the World Zionist Organization:

The Jewish Agency Settlement Department’s annual spending is several times higher than its original budget, Haaretz has learned. In recent years the government has transferred additional funds to the Settlement Department ranging from several dozen million shekels to hundreds of millions.

The department is funded and directed by the government, despite being formally part of the Jewish Agency. . . .

When Ha’aretz launched its new digital platforms last year, publisher Amos Schocken promised readers “accurate and comprehensive news coverage, analyses and commentary on Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.”

Ha’aretz translators, who can’t tell the Jewish Agency from the World Zionist Organization, do not deliver accurate coverage of the Jewish world, Israel or the Middle East. Rather than once again treating the symptom with a correction, isn’t it high time that Ha’aretz get to the root of the problem by holding its translators accountable? If reporters are named (and shamed) in corrections when they err, why aren’t translators?

BBC Watch, a CAMERA affiliate, has prompted a correction of a BBC caption (below) which had erroneously identified a tourist lookout in the Golan Heights as a military base.

In response to BBC Watch’s communication with editors, BBC fixed the caption (below):

A few weeks ago, the International Herald Tribune corrected the identical error after CAMERA staff contacted editors.

June 17 Update: A reader named Avril comments below:

looks like a military post to me…since when do tourist aim guns from there?
The BBC is a disgrace if it bows to Zionist pressures and lies such as this. Same picture, same soldiers, not a tourist in sight…do you think we are all stupid?

The “soldier” aiming the gun is a metal statue, as is clearly demonstrated in the following image.

Israelis youth play with a metal cutout of a soldier on an old army outpost on Mount Bental in the Golan Heights, Israel, July 27, 2012. Israelis and tourists are visiting the sight to look into Syria from Mount Bental. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has warned that he could use chemical weapons if Syria is attacked by an external force. UPI/Debbie Hill

Avril, I will be visiting the tourist lookout next week. In honor of you, I will pose with the “soldier,” whom, I guarantee you, will still be aiming his gun exactly as he is in the photo above. Yes, Zionist soldiers are that good.

June 30 Update, For Avril

Avril: I have returned from my visit to the Golan Heights and have confirmed that the Zionist “soldier” is still holding steady, with his gun at the ready in the very same position. That’s me standing with him. (Photo by Zionist co-conspirator Gilead Ini)

The International Herald Tribune published the following print correction today on page 7. (It does not appear online.)

Because of an editing error, an item in the arts guide published June 8 should have said that the photographer Joseph Schweig immigrated to Palestine when it was under British rule, and not when it was governed by the Palestine Authority.

The erroneous June 8 item had stated:

Displaced Visions: Emigré Photographers of the 20th Century The Israel Museum. Through Sept. 29.

Expatriated, propelled into unfamiliar environments by choice or necessity, the 100 selected photographers illustrate in their works how their status and native culture affected their vision. On view are photos by Bill Brandt, Andre Kertesz, Tina Modotti, The New York School photographers, Man Ray, Robert Frank, Moholy-Nagy and Weegee, among others. Below, Shmuel Joseph Schweig’s ”Grandmother and Grandchild on their Way to the Homeland, c. 1950.” The Austrian-born photographer immigrated to the Palestine Authority in the 1920s.

Meanwhile, the New York Times, which publishes the International Herald Tribune, has yet to correct a related error. In a June 10 article about European Jews settling in Argentina in the 1890s, Simon Romero wrote:

Reports of their plight reached Buenos Aires and, eventually, Europe. Baron Maurice de Hirsch, a German-Jewish banker and philanthropist, bought land for the pioneers, establishing Moisés Ville as a precursor to a more ambitious colonization project with the aim of resettling Jews in places like Argentina, Canada, the Palestinian territories and the United States.

The term “Palestinian territories” came into use only in recent decades. In the late 1800s, and early 1900s, when efforts were under way to resettle Europe’s Jews in Argentina, Canada and the United States, the Middle East land in question was Turkish-ruled Palestine. The Tribune, which published Romero’s story June 11 on page 2, contains the accurate wording: “. . . establishing Moisés Ville as a precursor to a more ambitious colonization project with the aim of resettling Jews in places like Argentina, Canada, Palestine and the United States.”

When it comes to precision on Palestine terminology, the Tribune outperforms its parent company, the New York Times.

The Los Angeles Times just published an article, “Israel advancing large settlement construction plan”:

As U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry is poised to return to the region, Israel is advancing a plan for a large-scale expansion of a West Bank settlement, according to Israeli media reports.

Plans for more than 600 housing units in the settlement of Itamar were recently submitted to authorities, the reports say. If completed, the new construction would significantly expand the settlement, which currently has about 1,200 residents.

If 600 housing units for Jews is worthy of coverage, why not even a mention of a plan to build nearly twice as many homes for Palestinian Arabs? Neither the LA Times nor any other major news outlet has covered an Israeli plan to develop hundreds of housing units for Arabs, on Israeli-controlled land in Area C. And it would not have taken a lot of investigating to find out about it. The Jerusalem Post reported last month, “J’lem plans 1,140 Palestinian homes near Jericho”:

The Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria has deposited a plan for a large project of 1,140 Palestinian homes on Israeli state land in Area C of the West Bank near the city of Jericho.

The project, on 1,800 dunams of land, would provide a legal housing solution for Palestinians in that area living in illegal homes and unauthorized villages that are not properly connected to utilities, according to the civil administration.

It added that the plan was done “with the understanding” of the heads of the Palestinian villages and that the Palestinian Authority had also been involved in the plans.

Only the Israeli and Jewish press has covered this story.

In fact, at the very same time this story ran in the Jerusalem Post, The Economist published an error-ridden, biased article not only ignoring this plan for Israeli construction of legal housing for Palestinian Arabs on Israeli-controlled land but completely mischaracterizing the housing situation in Area C, casting a Palestinian attempt to take over land by erecting illegal structures as an Israeli land grab. Further, the British magazine refused even to correct in print the story’s errors and editors scoffed at outraged readers, flouting the “Editors’ Code of Practice”.

Ari Briggs, the director of Regavim, a non-governmental organization (NGO) that tracks illegal Arab building, told JNS.org, “If a Jewish family puts up a patio on a house—anywhere in Israel—without a permit, municipal authorities can come into your house and get you to tear it down.”

And if the patio is in a Jewish town in Israeli-controlled Area C, the Los Angeles Times, The Economist, and most other Western news outlets will report it; the United Nations, the European Union and dozens of NGOs will rush to condemn it. But when Israel plans to build hundreds of homes for Palestinian Arabs… Not a word. Silence. Where’s the coverage?

Even rape victims aren’t safe from Ha’aretz‘s English translators. In the latest “Ha’aretz, Lost in Translation,” a June 6 print edition article about a judge who said “some girls enjoy rape” reported:

(The online article did not contain this wording.) Except the rape victim, a teenage girl, was not Palestinian. She was an Israeli Jew. The original Hebrew article did not make the false claim that the victim was Palestinian. The Hebrew states (CAMERA’s translation):

Yeshaya, a judge emeritus of a district court in Tel Aviv, said this week during a hearing that “some girls enjoy rape.” He was the head of an appeals committee on national security which was ruling on the appeal of a female youth, now 19, who was raped six years ago by four Palestinians near the Hizma checkpoint.

The victim’s identity has no bearing on the judge’s abhorrent statement. And this translation error is apparently not a false smear of Israel. Nevertheless, once again, Ha’aretz translators have illustrated their lack of professionalism, injecting completely false information disconnected both from reality as well as the original Hebrew article.

In a marketing letter sent to Ha’aretz readers last week, publisher Amos Schocken states:

We are committed to providing our readers in Israel and abroad with the most relevant and professional news, opinion and analyses. We have enlisted top-notch reporters, editors and writers, and have significantly expanded our unique, English-language coverage of the turbulent Middle East and the evolving Jewish Diaspora.

For good reason, Schocken does not even try to pretend that Ha’aretz translators are top notch. Time and again, Ha’aretz has been forced to correct the false English translations, which invariably whitewash Arab violence or other misdoings, or inject misinformation about Israel.

Stay tuned for an update about a correction.

For the Hebrew version of this post, please visit Presspectiva.

June 16 Update: Ha’aretz Corrects: Rape Victim was Israeli, Not Palestinian

Adam Kredo of the Washington Free Beacon reports:

CNN has come under fire for what critics say is a highly misleading Thursday story about a Palestinian soccer player who is boycotting Israel.

Critics said the sympathetic CNN profile of Palestinian soccer player Mahmoud Sarsak neglects to mention is that he is an admitted and active member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a violent Muslim Brotherhood affiliate that carries out terror attacks against Israel.

CNN’s story about Sarsak and his efforts to boycott a high-profile soccer tournament currently taking place in Israel were prominently featured on the front page of CNN’s international edition.

Pro-Israel advocates and Jewish officials expressed outrage over what they said is CNN’s efforts to whitewash Sarsak’s violent background and erroneously portray his boycott as a successful international campaign against Israel.

“The reporter makes a romantic figure out of someone with ties to Islamic Jihad and shows zero skepticism about Sarsak’s rendition of events,” said Andrea Levin, director of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA). “CNN shouldn’t be in the business of whitewashing. Viewers need the whole story.” . . .

Rather than note Sarsak’s terrorist credentials near the beginning of the piece, CNN describes him as “a talented striker who had once been called up to the Palestinian national [soccer] team squad.”

The article goes on to characterize the failed boycott campaign as highly successful and well received.

“The Israelis have accused Sarsak of having links with the extremist organization Islamic Jihad and of being involved in terrorist activities,” CNN reporter James Montague writes.

However, Sarsak has admitted he is a PIJ member and has been featured extensively on the website of Islamic Jihad’s Saraya, or military wing.

CAMERA recently posted an article detailing the crimes committed by Palestinian prisoners held in Israel and the media’s failure to report on them:

All too often, mainstream media outlets have whitewashed the terrorist acts and violent crimes of Palestinian prisoners by failing to mention the crimes at all or by falsely minimizing the degree of violence. In some cases, media outlets euphemistically refer to prisoners incarcerated since before 1994 as “political prisoners,” covering up the atrocities they carried out. CAMERA is the first to publish a detailed list, obtained from Israel’s Ministry of Justice, of 118 pre-Oslo Palestinian prisoners, including their names and violent crimes.

So that’s one story not getting coverage. On the other hand, Ha’aretz, a newspaper that Commentary Magazine describes as having an “adversarial stance toward Israel,” recently portrayed conditions in Israeli prisons as “extremely harsh,” contending that even minors are “held in isolation illegally in dark, damp, bug-filled cells.”

Surprising, then, that Al Monitor reports young men from Gaza are fleeing TO Israel, seeking the opportunities available in the Jewish state. Yes, fleeing to Israel, even knowing that they might be apprehended and detained. The news outlet reports on one youth and his friends:

The teens started the journey by crossing the eastern Gaza border in an early morning in February Abu Huzayen cannot precisely recall. They walked for more than a kilometer into Israel, thinking that they had successfully made it across, before being spotted by Israeli troops, who hastily detained them.

“When the Israeli soldier was handcuffing me, I was still happy that I would be able to start a new phase of my life away from my miserable life here,” Abu Huzayen recalled.

The four friends were kept for two days at the Israeli prison in Beersheba before they were transferred to Ofer prison, to the west of Ramallah. They spent three months there before being released less than a month ago, according to Abu Huzayen.

[…]

“It was a good experience. I enjoyed my time there, having a comfortable life and good labor,” Abu Huzayen noted.

The inmates would be woken up at 7 a.m. and then taken to their workplace, located near the reformatory. Their job was to sort restaurant items into boxes. For each box made, they were paid roughly $5. After work, at 1 p.m., the teens would return to their rooms and watch television.

[…]

Although Abu Huzayen was happy to be released, he is eager to attempt crossing the border once again.

“At the reformatory, I used to eat good food, make good money and receive good treatment. I need nothing more from this world.”

Now there’s a story you haven’t seen in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, NPR, etc. Or Ha’aretz.

Palestinian youth fleeing TO Israel… Where’s the coverage?

New Testament Scholar Malcolm Lowe, a resident of Jerusalem, has been keeping tabs on the anti-Zionist leanings of Palestinian Christians for quite some time.

In a recent piece published in the Gatestone Institute, Lowe turns his attention to the Church of Scotland. In a piece published on June 4, Lowe dismantles (or rather, demolishes) The Inheritance of Abraham?, an ugly, supersessionist diatribe issued by the denomination last month.

After engaging the text on theological and scriptural grounds, Lowe also addresses other problems with the text. He writes:
(more…)

Iran’s Press TV spews anti-American propaganda directed by the country’s fanatical Islamist leaders. To them, America remains “the great satan,” and Israel, which they vow to annihilate, the “little satan.” James Morris’ involvement with Press TV includes these reports which can be viewed here and here.

C-SPAN’s daily three-hour call-in show Washington Journal almost always has the welcome mat out for anti-Israel, antisemitic polemist James Morris (not to be confused with the famous opera singer of the same name). CAMERA has been tracking Morris’ 65 C-SPAN phone-ins since his Dec. 13, 2008 call in which he accuses Chabad Lubavitch, an utterly non-aggressive, Orthodox Jewish movement, of a blood libel and implies that the terrorist murders – the victims were tortured first – of six people in 2008 at the Mumbai Chabad Center was justified; falsely alleges that Israel oppressed Palestinian Arabs; and blames the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on U.S. support of Israel, when bin Laden’s primary objective has been expulsion of the United States and the West from Arab lands; and praises Iran’s Press TV. C-SPAN’s host and guest ignored all this (Washington Journal hosts almost always indulge Morris, allowing him to exceed the “one-call-per-30-days” rule and ignoring his occasional and obvious fake accents).

Morris’ most recent (May 27, 2013) phone-in, giving his name as “Tony,” occurred during a segment whose topic was “Employment for returning veterans.” In it he freely defamed Israel and U.S. Senator John McCain (Ariz.), former Republican Party nominee for the presidency.

Among Morris’ calls propagandizing for Iran’s leaders (which include defamation of America and Israel) are those from Sep. 19, 2012; Aug. 11, 2012; Mar. 9, 2012; and Jan. 10, 2012 that can be viewed here, here, here, and here.

C-SPAN’s Co-CEOs are Susan Swain ([email protected]) and Rob Kennedy ([email protected]). C-SPAN can be contacted at 202-737-3220, 877-662-7726, [email protected], [email protected]., twitter.com@cspanwj, facebook.com/CSPAN.