A senior Israeli politician provoked controversy today when he warned that Palestinians firing rockets from Gaza would be punished with a "bigger holocaust" from Israeli armed forces. The use of the Hebrew word for holocaust, "shoah", tends to be used exclusively in Israel to describe the Nazi persecution of Jews.
But this isn't accurate. "Shoah" means "disaster". "Ha-shoah" means "the disaster", which is shorthand for The Holocaust (which is "the disaster"), but Shoah alone is just a word, and in this context the proper translation is that Gazan rocket fire would be met with a "bigger disaster" for the Palestinians. Not exactly hearts and flowers, but pretty standard tit-for-tat military rhetoric.
Of course, now that the narrative is out there, it will never die, and we'll be treated to innumerable books and articles saying that Israel threatened to reprise the Holocaust on Palestine.
This is pretty horribly irresponsible of The Telegraph. This could have been reported just as well by quoting the exact word used, like this:
ReplyDeleteA senior Israeli politician provoked controversy today when he warned that Palestinians firing rockets from Gaza would be punished with a "bigger shoah" from Israeli armed forces. The Hebrew word "shoah" means "disaster," and frequently is applied to the Holocaust.