Israeli media reported short-sightedness as violence increased in the region. Add to that the complexity and nuances of translating literary works.
Under the new, ultra-nationalist Israeli government, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, violence in the occupied Palestinian territories has escalated at an alarming rate.
But ongoing human rights abuses, including the expropriation of Palestinian lands to make way for Jewish settlement, are not portrayed as such in the Israeli media. They either ignore the brutality of the occupation or present a military-friendly version of the story – and neither option is good enough for the Israeli government, which has a dissident voice.
Contributors:
Oren Zviv – Journalist, +972 Mag
Gideon Levy – Columnist, Haaretz
Diana Buttu – Lawyer and analyst
Omar Baddar – Political Analyst
On our radar:
The death of one of Rwanda’s best investigative journalists – John Williams Ntwali – has raised doubts because of how somber the official narrative of his death is. Producer Nic Muirhead reported on the incident.
Lost translation: How texts change as they move
The translation of literature, from one language to another, is a complex business – it is much more delicate than journalism, less direct. When it comes to Arabic and Persian, literature from the Middle East, translations have been known to be flawed, leading to cultural misunderstandings. The kind of misunderstanding that reading someone else’s book is supposed to correct. Producer Tariq Nafi looks at what is lost in translation.
Contributors:
Layla AlAmmar – Author, Silence is a Sense; academic, Lancaster University
Susan Bassnet- Translation theorist and professor emeritus, University of Warwick
Muhammad Ali Mojaradi – Interpreter; founder @persianpoetics
Leri Price – Literary translator
