Relying on an automatic translation, Israeli police mistakenly arrested a Palestinian man last week because they thought he had published a Facebook post saying “Hurt them,” when what he had really written was “Good morning.”
The suspect, a construction worker, was arrested “on suspicion of incitement,” after police were alerted to an October 15 post of the man smiling and holding a cup of coffee and a cigarette while standing alongside a bulldozer at a construction site in Beitar Illit.
No Arabic-speaking officer read the post prior to the arrest, which was carried out by officers who relied solely on Facebook’s automatic translation, Haaretz reported.
There is only one letter’s difference between the colloquial Arabic phrase for “good morning to you all” and “hurt them.”
Police combined the false translation with the image of the bulldozer — a vehicle that has been used in terror attacks in the past — and assumed the man was intending to do the same.
It was only while they interrogated the man that police realized their mistake and released him.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
Maybe I’m just used to the American legal system, but I don’t see why he should be arrested even if the post had said “Hurt Them”.
They will arrest an arab for writing the words” hurt them “but wont arrest israeli charedim for blocking traffic inciting violence and terrorizing the country. What a backwards system
@yankelle – because if a guy would write “shoot them” and post a photo of himself with a gun, it could reasonably be inferred that the guy plans to shoot people, especially if he has a motive (hates Jews, thinks EY belongs to his people). In this case, it said “hurt them” and a bulldozer – a piece of equipment used previously in terror attacks, as noted in the article – was in the photo. The guy was released, no harm done, but an arabic-speaking police(wo)man should have read the post first
@takes2-2tango A “Palestinian” with a bulldozer is more likely to be ready and willing to kill many people. The chareidi protestors a. ARE being arrested b. are less likely to run people over with bulldozers.