A Small Episode That Gets at a Larger Middle East Problem

What we hear in English is not always what it is said in Arabic:

Yesterday Palestinian Media Watch exposed that the Palestinian news agency Ma'an misled its English-language readers by changing a statement of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades. The actual statement promoted violence by Islamic forces in order to achieve Islamic dominance:

The Islamic nation "is capable of supplying an abundance of new blood... [for] restoring the glory of Islam and the flag of Allah's oneness."
[Ma'an Arabic, May 3, 2011]

Ma'an's English version deleted the call for Islamic domination and replaced it with a call for "peace" that did not exist in the original:

"We tell the Israeli and the American occupiers that we have leaders who have changed history with their Jihad and their steadfastness. We are ready to sacrifice our lives to bring back peace."
[Ma'an English, May 3, 2011]

The Jerusalem Post reported today that after PMW exposed the deceptive text, Ma'an removed it from its website. Ma'an then corrected the translation, put the statement back on the website, and informed the readers of the "translation error" as follows:

"This version CORRECTS a translation error in paragraph seven and adds new information."