Zionist descriptions rendered emptied Arab villages as grotesque remains of subhuman existence.

Evidence

Signs of the base, an empty Arab village, became more frequent. Interrupted echoes. An abandoned anthill. The stench of desertion, the rot of humanity [the word “humanity” is not in the Hebrew original], infested, louse-ridden. The poverty and stupefaction of wretched villagers. Tatters of human existence. A sudden exposure of the limits of their home, their yards, and of all within. They were revealed in their nakedness, impoverished, shriveled, and stinking. Sudden emptiness. Death by apoplexy. Strangeness, hostility, bereavement. An air of mourning-or was it boredom?-hovered there in the heat of the day. Whichever it doesn’t matter. — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 588

Categorization

• QUESTION: The Hebrew original omits ‘humanity’-worth chasing how translation shifts the dehumanizing register.
• SHARE: Send to a friend who studies Israeli military memoir rhetoric-the ‘anthill’ and ‘rot’ imagery is striking.