Just a week ago, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said recognising a Palestinian state now would be “the wrong signal.” Yet out of nowhere at a press conference on Thursday, he—alongside other European and NATO officials—changed his mind.
At least, that’s what the European Broadcasting Service (EBS) translator would have (the likely very few) listeners believe.
Her translation, filled with “ums” and “ahs” and posted on the European Commission’s website, had Wadephul allegedly saying:
We are in favour of a state-building process for a Palestinian state and we have to recognise this state.
We at europeanconservative.com quickly viewed this as a significant departure from the German government’s previous position and, importantly, as yet another sign of Europe’s abandonment of Israel. That is, until we discovered the actual translation:
We are involved in the state-building process, but we believe that formal recognition should come at the end of this process, not at the beginning.
Still not ideal, as far as Israel is concerned. But a far cry from what this ‘translator’ would have listeners understand.
