An addition to the Palestinese Lexicon - "Surrounded"

In 2012, Philippe Assouline wrote a brilliant piece in Times of Israel called "A BDS Palestinese Lexicon" where he shows how words that have one meaning in English have completely different meanings in Palestinese. Here are his first five entries:

Aboriginal/Native: Any non-Jew, preferably Arab, who has immigrated to Israel/Palestine within the last 150 years or is a remnant of Arab colonial conquests. For example, Yasser Arafat and Edward Said who were both born or raised in Egypt are “Native” Palestinians.

Apartheid: The only system in the Middle East which is democratic and grants Arab citizens full equality under the law, including the right to become a Justice of the Supreme Court, an ambassador, a military officer or a Minister in the Cabinet., i.e. a form of “Racism.” Not to be confused with the widespread discrimination and exclusion of Palestinians on ethnic grounds in Lebanon, which is not “Apartheid.”

Apartheid Wall: A separation fence erected in response to countless terror attacks in order to protect both Jews and Muslims from suicide bombings as a manifestation of “Zionist Aggression.”

Checkpoint: An absolutely gratuitous, cruel and malicious security measure erected in the West Bank in response to years of deadly suicide bombings, which saves countless innocent lives and is therefore to be equated with the worst forms of human torture. Not to be confused with security checkpoints at airports and international borders which, though identical in the inconveniences they cause, are perfectly acceptable.

Civilian: To BDS, an armed Palestinian terrorist in the act of planning or staging a terror attack who is targeted or killed by Israel.

The Judean People's Front recently wrote their own version on Israellycool:

While it is funny, it is also serious. When the very meaning of words is routinely twisted, the truth is lost.

Which brings us to an article in Ma'an about Hizma, where a non-violent protester (another example of Palestinian newspeak) shot two Israelis:

The town of Hizma [is] completely surrounded on the west side by the Israeli separation wall.

By definition, nothing can be "surrounded" on only one side. But in Palestinese, not only can you be surrounded on one side - you can be completely surrounded!

While the articles I linked to are humorous, this hijacking of language itself is deliberate, and insidious.

We've seen the same misuse of "surrounded" in reference to Bethlehem a number of times.

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