Friday, September 14, 2012

Israel Hayom's Semantic Slip-up

From Israel Hayom, that "right-wing"/"religious" newspaper:

The Jerusalem District Court ruled on Thursday that a disputed four-story building near Kiryat Arba, known as "Beit Hashalom" (house of peace), belongs to Jewish settlers.

"Settlers"?

Are there refugees from Haaretz there?

C'mon guys, use "residents" or plain "Jews" or "the Jewish owners".

Oh, the news is great!

The structure was claimed by an Arab man who at first sold it to the settlers and then reneged on the deal, declaring it invalid. The court, however, ruled that the deal was still valid and that Tal Construction and the Development of Karnei Shomron company would take legal possession of the property. The Arab petitioner was also ordered by the court to pay the company 50,000 shekels ($12,700) for court expenses and indemnities. Due to the dispute, it was agreed that the property would temporarily be placed in the custody of the state until the court issued a ruling on the matter. After the ruling on Thursday, the court agreed to transfer the rights to the property to the settlers within 30 days.

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1 comment:

Alan said...

"settlers", taken ab initio, seems to me to be value-neutral. It is a correct description of the event.

Furthermore, I'm old enough to remember that the very first settlers did use this english word to describe themselves & their compatriots.

The word only got demonized when the Leftists started demonizing it. Demonizing words and demonizing persons is a main strategy of Leftism; reference "Rule for Radicals" by Saul Alinsky.

There are two lessons to be drawn. First, be more careful in the very beginning. If the word "repatriates" had been used, it would have been a better fit for what the, uh... settlers meant to do and were trying to do.

Second is: offense is always better than defense. The Notzri, Orde Wingate already taught that to the hilonim in 1936; which is why there is now a State.

It is not an accident that the dati'im never mention the name of Wingate. In their dreamworld, he was a sports coach.