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Wake up hon, new hostage testimony just dropped (hexbear.net)

submitted 11 months ago by Quaxamilliom@hexbear.net to c/chapotraphouse@hexbear.net

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https://twitter.com/aryjeay/status/1729181221232742455?s=42&t=DBqOmL5V_w7cid09gQz_FQ

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[-] chickentendrils@hexbear.net 39 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Here's the provenance of the letter at least, according to SABA's English news site ( https://archive.is/hoca4 ):

According to the Palestinian Information Center, Danielle said in a handwritten letter in Hebrew, addressed to Al-Qassam and published by the Phalange’s military media on Monday: “To the generals who accompanied me in recent weeks, it seems that we will part, but I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the unnatural humanity that you showed towards my child Emilia.”

The original PI post referenced has the exact same image of the letter: https://archive.is/qym4o

[-] NephewAlphaBravo@hexbear.net 24 points 11 months ago

unnatural humanity

She absolutely seems to mean well but I do not like this pair of words in this order deeper-sadness

[-] chickentendrils@hexbear.net 30 points 11 months ago

There's a few English translations floating around, seemingly at least all machine-generated. Some versions put double negatives in places, but the gist still comes across.

With enough attention we might get some follow-up on exactly what this person meant but I wouldn't count on it. Probably just a blanket discounting of it by Western media.

[-] NephewAlphaBravo@hexbear.net 36 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

my instinct is that the intended meaning is something like "above and beyond common decency" and I'm not at all judging the person saying it, and yeah I honestly did forget that it was probably translated and lost/changed something in the process

only reason I commented anything at all is just, god damn, "unnatural humanity" is a real bummer of a phrase, you know?

[-] JohnBrownNote@hexbear.net 10 points 11 months ago

maybe abnormal rather than unnatural.

[-] AnarchoBolshevik@lemmygrad.ml 6 points 11 months ago

@mao@lemmy.sdf.org could help.

[-] mao@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 11 months ago

Hey:) So regarding the "unnatural humanity", that's mistranslated. Freely translating what she wrote would be "irregular humanity", but idiomatically it would be translated to "extraordinary humanity" or something.

Other than that, the translation is accurate enough. The translator took the liberty to make it way more poetic, but the overall tone is the same.

The only suspicious thing I encountered is the use of the word "generals":

She wrote ג׳נרל (Jeneral, like how you pronounce it in English) while in Hebrew you'd say it with a hard G. That's close enough to how you say it in Arabic (Jiniral)
Nobody uses that word in a non-derogatory way. They'd usually say קצין (officer)

I wouldn't get too hung up on this letter though. It was a weird and uncanny read. I think there is other, more solid evidence that can enjoy that focus instead

[-] DamarcusArt@lemmygrad.ml 15 points 11 months ago

When they've been taught that these people are inhuman monsters who only exist to slaughter and torture others, them showing genuine kindness and compassion of a kind never seen by these settlers would probably strike them as "unnatural."