Translator Ayah Najadat: Arabic mistranslations are ‘weaponised’ against Palestinians

“Errors like these are harmful, when language is distorted or weaponised to harm marginalised and vulnerable people.”

Arabic team lead for Respond Crisis Translation, Ayah Najadat, talked to Middle East Eye about how she and her team help with emergency translations in Gaza and other crisis areas and correct harmful mistranslations in media reports.

One such example was when Najadat’s team corrected a video report published by the BBC about a released Palestinian prisoner which featured incorrect subtitles, distorting what she was saying. The BBC took down the video and corrected the error following the correction by Najadat’s team.