Why did Amnesty say one thing in English and another in Hebrew ?

unagi CC BY-NC 3/11/2015

Why did Amnesty say one thing in English and another in Hebrew? | The Electronic Intifada
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A week ago, Amnesty International published a report on Israel’s summary executions of Palestinians.
As The Electronic Intifada reported, the human rights group said it had “documented in depth at least four incidents in which Palestinians were deliberately shot dead by Israeli forces when they posed no imminent threat to life, in what appear to have been extrajudicial executions.”
It examined the killings of teenagers Saad al-Atrash, Dania Irsheid, Fadi Alloun and Hadil Hashlamoun.
“In some cases,” Amnesty said, “the person shot was left bleeding to death on the ground and was not given prompt medical assistance, in violation of the prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment.”
Amnesty published an Arabic-language release of its report that is faithful to the English version.
Yet the no-holds-barred report was considerably softened for the organizations’s much shorter Hebrew press release (translation below).
“Israeli palate”
At the Hebrew-language news website Local Call, journalist Noam Rotem wrote that the Hebrew version looked like it had been changed “in order to adapt it to the Israeli palate.”
He observed that the Hebrew release sent to journalists by Amnesty’s Israel office, “is entirely different from the original press release issued by the organization in English.”
The English version is clear right from the headline about who is responsible for violence: “Israeli forces in occupied Palestinian territories must end pattern of unlawful killings.”
The Hebrew headline is more circumspect: “Lethal force should not be used to eradicate a violent incident.” (The Hebrew version does include the headline that appeared in the English version, but only as a sub-heading.)
The differences go deeper. “The Hebrew version makes significant efforts to stress Palestinian violence,” Rotem observed.
It does speak about “unlawful killings” by Israelis but, unlike the English/Arabic version, omits the term “extrajudicial executions.”
The English/Arabic version also includes several quotes from Philip Luther, director of Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa program.

#Amnesty

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