User:Howard C. Berkowitz/Map

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On 25 October 2005, the new President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, gave a speech at the Ministry of Interior auditorium, at a program called "The World Without Zionism." He was quoted, in an English-language news release from the Islamic Republic News Agency of Iran, as repeating a comment by Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, that Israel "must be wiped out from the map of the world." In many news reports, the phrase was described as originated by Ahmadinejad.

Translation

There has been, however, significant question about the accuracy of the translation by the Iranian news agency. One analysis refers to the Farsi Imam ghoft een rezhim-e ishghalgar-e qods bayad az safheh-ye ruzgar mahv shavad., with special reference to rezhim-e, which translates as "regime". Norouzi wrote "Ahmadinejad did not refer to Israel the country or Israel the land mass, but the Israeli regime"

In Salon.com, Juan Cole said: "President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did quote Ayatollah Khomeini to the effect that "this Occupation regime over Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time" (in rezhim-e eshghalgar-i Qods bayad as safheh-e ruzgar mahv shavad). This was not a pledge to roll tanks and invade or to launch missiles, however. It is the expression of a hope that the regime will collapse, just as the Soviet Union did. It is not a threat to kill anyone at all. To a New York Times interviewer, Cole said "Ahmadinejad did not say he was going to wipe Israel off the map because no such idiom exists in Persian...He did say he hoped its regime, i.e., a Jewish-Zionist state occupying Jerusalem, would collapse."

The Times, however, consulted additional authorities They verified that the Iranian official translations, including the President of Iran's website, (www.president.ir/eng/), "refer to wiping Israel away. " In the translation, the verb is the first issue. "Sohrab Mahdavi, one of Iran's most prominent translators, and Siamak Namazi, managing director of a Tehran consulting firm, who is bilingual, both say 'wipe off' or 'wipe away' is more accurate than "vanish" because the Persian verb is active and transitive."

Next is the translation of "map." "Khomeini's words were abstract: 'Sahneh roozgar'. Sahneh means scene or stage, and roozgar means time. The phrase was widely interpreted as "map," and for years, no one objected. In October, when Mr. Ahmadinejad quoted Khomeini, he actually misquoted him, saying not "Sahneh roozgar" but "Safheh roozgar," meaning pages of time or history. No one noticed the change, and news agencies used the word "map" again.

Ahmad Zeidabadi, an Iranian journalist and political science under arrest for dissent, and whose specialty is Iran-Israel relations, told the Times: "It seems that in the early days of the revolution the word 'map' was used because it appeared to be the best meaningful translation for what he said. The words 'sahneh roozgar' are metaphorical and do not refer to anything specific. Maybe it was interpreted as 'book of countries,' and the closest thing to that was a map. Since then, we have often heard Israel bayad az naghshe jographya mahv gardad — Israel must be wiped off the geographical map. Hard-liners have used it in their speeches." In other words, the "wipe out" phrase is used in Iranian politics, but was not used in this specific speech.

The final translation issue is Mr. Ahmadinejad's use of "occupying regime of Jerusalem" rather than "Israel." To some analysts, such as Cole, this means he is calling for regime change, not war, and therefore it need not be regarded as a call for military action: "I am entirely aware that Ahmadinejad is hostile to Israel. The question is whether his intentions and capabilities would lead to a military attack, and whether therefore pre-emptive warfare is prescribed. I am saying no, and the boring philology is part of the reason for the no."