Palestinians pull envoy out of Canada after controversial tweet

[King_David]

The Palestinian envoy to Canada is being recalled after she tweeted a link to a video that included a diatribe against Jews.

Linda Sobeh Ali said Tuesday afternoon the Palestinian Authority has asked her to leave Ottawa to avoid harming relations with Canada, and she will depart before the weekend. And she said she never watched the video she linked to her tweet, which said “check this video out.”

The video showed a Palestinian girl reading an Arabic poem, with English subtitles that called people “to a war to raze oppression and injustice and destroy the Jews.” The Globe and Mail reported Tuesday morning that the Canadian government decided to “limit communication” with her until a replacement arrives.

In an e-mail, Ms. Sobeh said she tweeted a link without seeing the video because she did it on her mobile device. “I am a person who will never ever promote hate of any kind towards anyone,” she added.

“I believe and will continue to believe in building bridges and continue the dialogue between our two people. I leave Canada with a pain in my heart for this unfortunate incident.”


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/palestinians-pull-envoy-out-of-canada-after-controversial-tweet/article2205525/

[vminfla]

1. Beat you to it, by quite a bit

http://election.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=124&topic_id=369944&mesg_id=369944

[King_David]

4. oops sorry ,was front page in todays Globe and Mail website nt

[vminfla]

5. np, systemic hatred is so integral to PA culture that the story is repetitious

easy enough to repeat the same story as the same story repeats with only the names changing.

[oberliner]

18. Would you say the same about any element of Israeli culture?

Like, say, the settlers?

[aquart]

2. Uh huh.

[King_David]

3. Palestinian envoy is asked to leave Ottawa after controversial tweet

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/palestinian-envoy-is-asked-to-leave-ottawa-after-controversial-tweet/article2204367/

The Palestinian envoy to Canada has been told she’s not welcome in Ottawa after she tweeted a link to a video that the federal government deemed an offensive diatribe against Jews.

Now, Linda Sobeh Ali, the chargé d’affaires of the Palestinian delegation in Ottawa, is just one cut above persona non grata. The Canadian government called her in for a high-level dressing down, made a formal protest to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, and has decided to “limit communication” with her until a replacement arrives

The diplomatic cold shoulder was sparked when Ms. Sobeh Ali took to Twitter this month to circulate a link to a video posted on YouTube, telling her followers on the social-media message system to “check this video out.”

The video shows a Palestinian girl, in tears and shouting with passion, reciting a poem in Arabic, “I am Palestinian.” The English subtitles on the video include a passage where millions are called “to a war that raze the injustice and oppression and destroy the Jews.”

[holdencaufield]

6. You must be mistaken

Palestinians only oppose "Zionists"

[oberliner]

9. Electronic Intifada is saying poem was mistranslated in the video - that it did say "Zionists"

The officials who alerted Baird to the poem relied on an English-subtitled version that mistranslated the final verse from a call to “extinguish the soul of a Zionist” to an invocation “to war that raze the injustice and oppression and destroy the Jews ” (“Feds turf Palestinian rep,” Toronto Sun, 18 October 2011). This was the version tweeted by Ali and subsequently used as pretext for her dismissal from her capacity as representative of the Palestinian Authority in Ottawa.

[vminfla]

11. Death to the Jews is so much more poetic

Either way, Ali demonstrated an inability to demonstrate effectiveness as a diplomat.

[holdencaufield]

12. It's like the oft-repeated...

... "We're going to drive the Jews into the sea" line. Which everyone now knows was a mis-translation of "We want to take the Jews to the beach for some shots". Language is a funny thing.

[vminfla]

22. LOL!

Genius.

[azurnoir]

7. can you uupdate us please seeing as how the story in your OP is dated 10/18/11

has she been removed as of yet?

[King_David]

8. Try Google nt

[oberliner]

10. Was the poem mistranslated

See me above post - some are saying she (the girl reading the poem) said "Zionist" not "Jew"

[azurnoir]

13. I read that but according to some here Zionist is 'code' anyway

so what difference does it make?

[King_David]

14. I agree the way it is used by some, NONE nt

[oberliner]

15. What about according to you?

Does that ever happen? Never happen? Sometimes happen?

[azurnoir]

16. sometimes it does happen but not always as some Zionists are indeed not Jewish n/t

[oberliner]

17. What about in the poem being read in this video?

Do you get the sense that she is talking about non-Jewish Zionists with that remark?

[azurnoir]

19. no but I also do not get the sense that she is talking about genocide either

and that is what we're supposed to think right?

eta my impression is that she is talking about Israel

so how many more questions can you or others come up with to keep this thread kicked, Im all for it, for my own reasons of course :)

[oberliner]

20. No mention of genocide here

I just think the poem is pretty hateful and ought not to have been linked to. The diplomat in question seems to agree.

I think some people, when they talk about Israel, they inadvertently end up talking about Jews because they two have obvious links.

Not everyone asks questions to keep threads kicked - perhaps you do - for me, I ask questions when I am curious to get responses.

[Ginas]

21. But Arab racism against Jews is a normal thing

What happened now all of a sudden that they react as if it's "not" normal?