Palestine, Israel: Mais Pourquoi la Différence Monsieur le President

Department

Art

Document Type

Editorial

Publication Date

3-10-2022

Abstract

For the last few days I’ve been stumped. Try as I could to transliterate the Arabic verb yishmat into English, I was unable to find the proper equivalent. And because of the richness of Arabic connotative terminology, I was incapable of finding precise synonyms.

Suggestions from three Arabic-speaking sources as to how Yishmat, Yishmat fee (him), Yishmat feek (you) netted the following (albeit imprecise) approximate meanings: To malign someone; in retaliation; obsessive sad expectation; wishful harm to you; obsessive sad wish; malign someone; celebrate your loss; equivalent to losing respect for someone and holding them up for shame.

To which I will add my own: Karma and, be careful what you might wish for. You might get it.

Publication Title

CounterPunch

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