Documenting War Crimes in Gaza & The Arabic for “Dying” | Media Arabic Booster 11/23

As a journalist, I read Arabic newspapers daily. In this new monthly series, the Media Arabic Booster, I’ll share what I find most interesting from a linguistic perspective.

We’ll break down fascinating vocabulary and grammar from real-world headlines and articles to help you master the language of the news.

In this first edition, we’re diving straight into the intense events of November 2023.

We’ll start by analyzing a powerful headline from al-Sharq al-Awsat about Gaza’s hospitals and a tricky verb that means to be dying.

Then, we’ll examine a compelling opinion piece from al-Quds al-Arabi that argues for the meticulous documentation of alleged war crimes, drawing a direct parallel to the Nuremberg trials.

This issue will equip you with the media Arabic vocabulary needed to discuss human rights, international law, and the role of journalism in conflict.

A close look at a headline

Headlines in Arabic media are generally easy to understand – but there are also some tricky words.

al-Sharq al-Awsat: A way to express “to die”

In November 2023, the Arab newspapers were full of coverage of Gaza. On November 14, the daily newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat, published in Saudi Arabia, had a headline with an interesting verb :تحتضر

How would you pronounce تحتضر in the above headline?

1. ACTIVE voice: تَحْتَضِرُ (“tahtadiru”)?
2. PASSIVE voice: تُحْتَضَرُ (“tuhtadaru”)?

It is number 2: the PASSIVE voice!

If this surprises you, read on because we will see why.

The VIII-verb احْتَضَرَ is based on the root ح-ض-ر. The root has the core meaning of to be present. The VIII-verb form follows the pattern اِفْتَعَلَ. Form VIII verbs are often reflexive, meaning that you discover something for yourself. Now, what about the meaning of احْتَضَرَ?

1. ACTIVE voice: احْتَضَرَ – يَحْتَضِرُ can be translated as to be present; to be in the presence (of someone = direct object); to attend; to exist. For example: he was there (احْتَضَرَ المَكانَ).
2. PASSIVE voice: اُحْتُضِرَ – يُحْتَضَرُ, however, means to die (ماتَ)!

To get the correct pronunciation and translation, we need to take care of two more things:

• Gaza (غَزَّة) here is placed as the second part of a إضافة-construction and thus in the position of a genitive case (مجرور). But place names like Egypt (مِصْرُ) or Gaza (غَزّةُ) are diptotes (ممنوع من الصرف) in Arabic! So we have غَزَّةَ (“ghazza“) in this example.
• The III-form verb سابَقَ – يُسابِقُ follows the pattern فاعَلَ. It is based on the root س-ب-ق which has the core meaning of to be or act before or ahead of someone or something. So the III-verb means to try to get ahead of someone/something (= direct object); to try to defeat or beat (someone/something = direct object); also: to compete with someone (= direct object). For example, سابَقَ الزَّمَنَ which means to race against time.

A possible final translation:

مُسْتَشْفَياتُ غَزَّةَ تُحْتَضَرُ… وَإِسْرائِيلُ تُسابِقُ الضُغُوطَ

English: Gaza’s hospitals are dying… and Israel is racing against (= fighting) the pressure

Translation of an article

To really get to the core of Arabic newspapers and magazines, you have to know a bunch of words. Plus, the way they phrase things and put sentences together can sometimes be a real challenge. That’s why I’m all about translating whole sentences, so you can gain more confidence and speed up your Arabic skills.

The words marked in yellow can be found further down in the vocabulary list.

Opinion piece in al-Quds al-Arabi: “The importance of documenting all the Israeli crimes”

In the Arabic newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi (Qatari-owned, published in London) I read the following opinion piece on 7th November 2023. It was written by Mohammed Krishan (محمد كريشان), born 1959, a Tunisian journalist working also for Al-Jazeera and writing for several Arabic newspapers. (You can access the full article in Arabic online – click here.)

Let us direct our attention to selected segments of the text and proceed to translate each sentence painstakingly.

كما لم ينس اليهود يوما واحدا ما جرى لهم في المحرقة في أوروبا زمن النازيين، وهذا حقهم وواجبهم، يجب ألا ننسى نحن ما فعله، ويفعله إلى حد الآن، أحفادهم بالفلسطينيين.

Just like the Jews have never forgotten (for a single day) what happened to them during the Holocaust in Europe at the hands (during that time) of the Nazis, which is their right and duty, we (also) must not forget what their grandchildren have done and are still doing to this day to the Palestinians.

كان سلاحهم الأقوى توثيق كل كبيرة وصغيرة وصولا إلى محكمة نورنبيرغ الشهيرة التي أصدرت أحكامها في 1 أكتوبر/تشرين الأول 1946 وفيها حرص المدعي العام الأمريكي روبرت جاكسون أن يعتمد في إدانة المتهمين على وثائق دامغة بدل أقوال شهود العيان حتى لا تُتهم المحاكمة بالاعتماد على شهادات مزورة أو مغشوشة.

Their most powerful weapon was the documentation of every single detail until they eventually reached the famous Nuremberg Trial which issued its rulings on October 1, 1946. At the time, US Attorney General (prosecutor) Robert Jackson made sure to sentence the accused based on irrefutable documentation instead of eyewitness accounts, so that [here, حتى should not be understood as until] the tribunal is not accused of relying on fake testimonies.

الجرائم التي يجري توثيقها حاليا عديدة وكلها انتهاكات جسيمة لحقوق الإنسان والقانون الإنساني الدولي من بينها القتل المباشر للنساء والأطفال، وهما ثلاثة أرباع الضحايا، فضلا عن قصف المباني السكنية والمستشفيات وسيارات الإسعاف والتهجير القسري،إلى جانب ما يجري في الضفة الغربية من عربدة للمستوطنين المسلحين والاعتقال التعسفي والقيود غير المبررة المفروضة على التنقل وتجريف الشوارع بلا أي موجب إلى جانب سياسات الفصل العنصري بأوجهها المختلفة.

The crimes being documented today are numerous and all of them are serious violations of human rights and International Humanitarian Law. They include the direct killing of women and children, who constitute three-quarters of the victims, in addition to the bombing of residential buildings, hospitals, ambulances and forced displacement. This is not to mention what is happening in the West Bank in terms of the rampage carried out by armed settlers, arbitrary arrests, unjustified restrictions imposed on movement, the bulldozing of roads without any reason and the racial segregation policies being implemented in various forms.

لقد تشبّث اليهود بهذا المبدأ بالقانون الدولي لملاحقة أي نازي أو غيره استطاع أن يفلت من المحاسبة وقد يكون اختفى بهوية مزيفة لعقود في أي بقعة من العالم، على الفلسطينيين أن ينسجوا على منوالهم.

The Jews insisted on that principle in International Law to pursue any Nazi or others who managed to escape accountability and might have disappeared with a fake ID for decades anywhere in the world. And the Palestinians must do the same. (= The Palestinians have to weave in their footsteps.)

… وسيأتي اليوم المناسب للمحاسبة سواء عبر الهيئات الدولية القائمة كمحكمة الجنايات الدولية، أو هيئات يتم إحداثها لهذا الغرض، مما يجعل ما يقوم به حاليا المراسلون الصحافيون عملا توثيقيا بامتياز، وكذلك النشطاء في مواقع التواصل، ولهذا يتم استهدافهم حتى قارب عدد الصحافيين الذين قتلتهم إسرائيل الخمسين، كأعلى رقم في أي نزاع مسلّح في العالم.

… and a day will come when it will be held accountable, whether through the existing international bodies such as the International Criminal Court or through bodies created for that purpose. Therefore, what the journalists are now doing is a documentation work par excellence, just like the activists on social media, which is why they are being targeted to the point where the number of journalists killed by Israel has neared 50, the highest number in any armed conflict in the world.

لم يكن قتل الاحتلال الإسرائيلي لهذا العدد من الصحافيين صدفة بل هو ممنهج ومقصود ولكن قتل الشهود لن يدمّر ما تركوه من أدلّة سيأتي يوم تعتمد فيه لإدانة هذا الاحتلال الوحشي.

The killing of this number of journalists by the Israeli occupation was no coincidence. It is systematic and intentional. However, killing the witnesses will not destroy the evidence they left behind. A day will come when it will be used to convict this brutal occupation.

Vocabulary list

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