London – A BBC documentary has substituted the word “Israelis”
for “Jews” in its translation of interviews with Palestinians, its
maker has admitted.
Lyse Doucet has stood by the decision to translate “yahud” as “Israeli”
in subtitles on her hour-long documentary Children of the Gaza War, which airs
on BBC Two tonight.
The correct translation for “yahud” from Arabic to English is “Jew”.
The BBC’s chief international correspondent said that Gazan translators
had advised her that Palestinian children interviewed on the programme who
refer to “the Jews” actually meant Israelis.
In one instance, a Gazan child says the “yahud” are massacring
Palestinians. However the subtitles read: “Israel is massacring us”.
Canada-born Ms Doucet said: “We talked to people in Gaza, we talked to
translators. When [the children] say ‘Jews’, they mean ‘Israelis’.
“We felt it was a better translation of it.”
She added: “We checked this again yesterday.
“We are not trying to cover it up – we took advice on it and that was
the advice we were given by translators.”
