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Flashback: "Wiped Off The Map" - The Rumor of the Century

Arash Norouzi | 28.07.2008 18:31 | Analysis | Anti-militarism | Other Press | London | World

Across the world, a dangerous rumor has spread that could have catastrophic implications. According to legend, Iran's President has threatened to destroy Israel, or, to quote the misquote, "Israel must be wiped off the map". Contrary to popular belief, this statement was never made, as the following article will prove.


EDITORIAL NOTE:


Here are some quotes taken from the speeches given by prominent political leaders during their recent visits to Israel:


“The threats to Israel’s security… [include] an Iranian regime that sponsors terrorism, pursues nuclear weapons and threatens Israel's existence” (US Presidential Candidate Barack Obama, 23 July 2008) [1]


“And to those who mistakenly and outrageously call for the end of Israel let the message be: Britain will always stand firmly by Israel's side.” (British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, 21 July 2008) [2]


“Yes, France is Israel’s friend, and France will always stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel when her security and existence are threatened… And those who call scandalously for Israel’s destruction will always find France in their way, blocking the path.” (French President Nicholas Sarkozy, 23 June 2008) [3]


“Ladies and gentlemen, the threats directed against Israel and the Jewish people by the Iranian President are without doubt a particular cause for concern.... If Iran ever acquires nuclear weapons, the consequences will be disastrous.” (German President Angela Merkel, 18 March 2008) [4]


[1] Obama’s Speech in Sderot, Israel

 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/23/us/politics/23text-obama.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=politics&pagewanted=print


[2] Speech by the Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at the Knesset, Israel

 http://www.number10.gov.uk/output/Page16003.asp


[3] Speech by M. Nicolas Sarkozy to the Knesset

 http://www.consulfrance-miami.org/article.php3?id_article=794


[4] Speech by Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel to the Knesset in Jerusalem on 18 March 2008

 http://www.bundesregierung.de/Content/DE/Artikel/2008/03/Anlagen/2008-03-18-rede-knesset-englisch,property=publicationFile.pdf


-----------------------


"Wiped Off The Map" - The Rumor of the Century

by Arash Norouzi, Mossadegh Project, 20 January 2007


Across the world, a dangerous rumor has spread that could have catastrophic implications. According to legend, Iran's President has threatened to destroy Israel, or, to quote the misquote, "Israel must be wiped off the map". Contrary to popular belief, this statement was never made, as the following article will prove.


BACKGROUND:

On Tuesday, October 25th, 2005 at the Ministry of Interior conference hall in Tehran, newly elected Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivered a speech at a program, reportedly attended by thousands, titled "The World Without Zionism". Large posters surrounding him displayed this title prominently in English, obviously for the benefit of the international press. Below the poster's title was a slick graphic depicting an hour glass containing planet Earth at its top. Two small round orbs representing the United States and Israel are shown falling through the hour glass' narrow neck and crashing to the bottom.

Before we get to the infamous remark, it's important to note that the "quote" in question was itself a quote— they are the words of the late Ayatollah Khomeini, the father of the Islamic Revolution. Although he quoted Khomeini to affirm his own position on Zionism, the actual words belong to Khomeini and not Ahmadinejad. Thus, Ahmadinejad has essentially been credited (or blamed) for a quote that is not only unoriginal, but represents a viewpoint already in place well before he ever took office.


THE ACTUAL QUOTE:

So what did Ahmadinejad actually say? To quote his exact words in farsi:

"Imam ghoft een rezhim-e ishghalgar-e qods bayad az safheh-ye ruzgar mahv
shavad."

That passage will mean nothing to most people, but one word might ring a bell: rezhim-e. It is the word "Regime", pronounced just like the English word with an extra "eh" sound at the end. Ahmadinejad did not refer to Israel the country or Israel the land mass, but the Israeli regime. This is a vastly significant distinction, as one cannot wipe a regime off the map. Ahmadinejad does not even refer to Israel by name, he instead uses the specific phrase "rezhim-e ishghalgar-e qods" (regime occupying Jerusalem).

So this raises the question.. what exactly did he want "wiped from the map"? The answer is: nothing. That's because the word "map" was never used. The Persian word for map, "nagsheh", is not contained anywhere in his original farsi quote, or, for that matter, anywhere in his entire speech. Nor was the western phrase "wipe out" ever said. Yet we are led to believe that Iran's President threatened to "wipe Israel off the map", despite never having uttered the words "map", "wipe out" or even "Israel".


THE PROOF:

The full quote translated directly to English:

"The Imam said this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of
time".

Word by word translation:

Imam (Khomeini) ghoft (said) een (this) rezhim-e (regime) ishghalgar-e
(occupying) qods (Jerusalem) bayad (must) az safheh-ye ruzgar (from page of
time) mahv shavad (vanish from).

Here is the full transcript of the speech in farsi, archived on Ahmadinejad's web site

www.president.ir/farsi/ahmadinejad/speeches/1384/aban84/840804sahyonizm.htm


THE SPEECH AND CONTEXT:

While the false "wiped off the map" extract has been repeated infinitely without verification, Ahmadinejad's actual speech itself has been almost entirely ignored. Given the importance placed on the "map" comment, it would be sensible to present his words in their full context to get a fuller understanding of his position. In fact, by looking at the entire speech, there is a clear, logical trajectory leading up to his call for a "world without Zionism". One may disagree with his reasoning, but critical appraisals are infeasible without first knowing what that reasoning is.

In his speech, Ahmadinejad declares that Zionism is the West's apparatus of political oppression against Muslims. He says the "Zionist regime" was imposed on the Islamic world as a strategic bridgehead to ensure domination of the region and its assets. Palestine, he insists, is the frontline of the Islamic world's struggle with American hegemony, and its fate will have repercussions for the entire Middle East.

Ahmadinejad acknowledges that the removal of America's powerful grip on the region via the Zionists may seem unimaginable to some, but reminds the audience that, as Khomeini predicted, other seemingly invincible empires have disappeared and now only exist in history books. He then proceeds to list three such regimes that have collapsed, crumbled or vanished, all within the last 30 years:

(1) The Shah of Iran- the U.S. installed monarch

(2) The Soviet Union

(3) Iran's former arch-enemy, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein

In the first and third examples, Ahmadinejad prefaces their mention with Khomeini's own words foretelling that individual regime's demise. He concludes by referring to Khomeini's unfulfilled wish: "The Imam said this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time. This statement is very wise". This is the passage that has been isolated, twisted and distorted so famously. By measure of comparison, Ahmadinejad would seem to be calling for regime change, not war.


THE ORIGIN:

One may wonder: where did this false interpretation originate? Who is responsible for the translation that has sparked such worldwide controversy? The answer is surprising.

The inflammatory "wiped off the map" quote was first disseminated not by Iran's enemies, but by Iran itself. The Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran's official propaganda arm, used this phrasing in the English version of some of their news releases covering the World Without Zionism conference. International media including the BBC, Al Jazeera, Time magazine and countless others picked up the IRNA quote and made headlines out of it without verifying its accuracy, and rarely referring to the source. Iran's Foreign Minister soon attempted to clarify the statement, but the quote had a life of its own. Though the IRNA wording was inaccurate and misleading, the media assumed it was true, and besides, it made great copy.

Amid heated wrangling over Iran's nuclear program, and months of continuous, unfounded accusations against Iran in an attempt to rally support for preemptive strikes against the country, the imperialists had just been handed the perfect raison d'être to invade. To the war hawks, it was a gift from the skies.

It should be noted that in other references to the conference, the IRNA's translation changed. For instance, "map" was replaced with "earth". In some articles it was "The Qods occupier regime should be eliminated from the surface of earth", or the similar "The Qods occupying regime must be eliminated from the surface of earth". The inconsistency of the IRNA's translation should be evidence enough of the unreliability of the source, particularly when transcribing their news from Farsi into the English language.


THE REACTION:

The mistranslated "wiped off the map" quote attributed to Iran's President has been spread worldwide, repeated thousands of times in international media, and prompted the denouncements of numerous world leaders. Virtually every major and minor media outlet has published or broadcast this false statement to the masses. Big news agencies such as The Associated Press and Reuters refer to the misquote, literally, on an almost daily basis.

Following news of Iran's remark, condemnation was swift. British Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed "revulsion" and implied that it might be necessary to attack Iran. U.N. chief Kofi Annan cancelled his scheduled trip to Iran due to the controversy. Ariel Sharon demanded that Iran be expelled from the United Nations for calling for Israel's destruction. Shimon Peres, more than once, threatened to wipe Iran off the map. More recently, Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu, who has warned that Iran is "preparing another holocaust for the Jewish state" is calling for Ahmadinejad to be tried for war crimes for inciting genocide.

The artificial quote has also been subject to additional alterations. U.S. officials and media often take the liberty of dropping the "map" reference altogether, replacing it with the more acutely threatening phrase "wipe Israel off the face of the earth". Newspaper and magazine articles dutifully report Ahmadinejad has "called for the destruction of Israel", as do senior officials in the United States government.

President George W. Bush said the comments represented a "specific threat" to destroy Israel. In a March 2006 speech in Cleveland, Bush vowed he would resort to war to protect Israel from Iran, because, "..the threat from Iran is, of course, their stated objective to destroy our strong ally Israel." Former Presidential advisor Richard Clarke told Australian TV that Iran "talks openly about destroying Israel", and insists, "The President of Iran has said repeatedly that he wants to wipe Israel off the face of the earth". In an October 2006 interview with Amy Goodman, former UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter referred to Ahmadinejad as "the idiot that comes out and says really stupid, vile things, such as, 'It is the goal of Iran to wipe Israel off the face of the earth' ". The consensus is clear.

Confusing matters further, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad pontificates rather than give a direct answer when questioned about the statement, such as in Lally Weymouth's Washington Post interview in September 2006:


Are you really serious when you say that Israel should be wiped off the face
of the Earth?

We need to look at the scene in the Middle East — 60 years of war, 60 years
of displacement, 60 years of conflict, not even a day of peace. Look at the war
in Lebanon, the war in Gaza — what are the reasons for these conditions? We
need to address and resolve the root problem.

Your suggestion is to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth?

Our suggestion is very clear:... Let the Palestinian people decide their fate in a
free and fair referendum, and the result, whatever it is, should be accepted....
The people with no roots there are now ruling the land.

You've been quoted as saying that Israel should be wiped off the face of the
Earth. Is that your belief?

What I have said has made my position clear. If we look at a map of the Middle
East from 70 years ago...

So, the answer is yes, you do believe that it should be wiped off the face of the
Earth?

Are you asking me yes or no? Is this a test? Do you respect the right to self-
determination for the Palestinian nation? Yes or no? Is Palestine, as a nation,
considered a nation with the right to live under humane conditions or not? Let's
allow those rights to be enforced for these 5 million displaced people.


The exchange is typical of Ahmadinejad's interviews with the American media. Predictably, both Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes and CNN's Anderson Cooper asked if he wants to "wipe Israel off the map". As usual, the question is thrown back in the reporter's face with his standard "Don't the Palestinians have rights?, etc." retort (which is never directly answered either). Yet he never confirms the "map" comment to be true. This did not prevent Anderson Cooper from referring to earlier portions of his interview after a commercial break and lying, "as he said earlier, he wants Israel wiped off the map".

Even if every media outlet in the world were to retract the mistranslated quote tomorrow, the major damage has already been done, providing the groundwork for the next phase of disinformation: complete character demonization. Ahmadinejad, we are told, is the next Hitler, a grave threat to world peace who wants to bring about a new Holocaust. According to some detractors, he not only wants to destroy Israel, but after that, he will nuke America, and then Europe! An October 2006 memo titled Words of Hate: Iran's Escalating Threats released by the powerful Israeli lobby group AIPAC opens with the warning, "Ahmadinejad and other top Iranian leaders are issuing increasingly belligerent statements threatening to destroy the United States, Europe and Israel." These claims not only fabricate an unsubstantiated threat, but assume far more power than he actually possesses. Alarmists would be better off monitoring the statements of the ultra-conservative Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, who holds the most power in Iran.

As Iran's U.N. Press Officer, M.A. Mohammadi, complained to The Washington Post in a June 2006 letter:

It is not amazing at all, the pick-and-choose approach of highlighting the misinterpreted remarks of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in October and ignoring this month's remarks by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that "We have no problem with the world. We are not a threat whatsoever to the world, and the world knows it. We will never start a war. We have no intention of going to war with any state."

The Israeli government has milked every drop of the spurious quote to its supposed advantage. In her September 2006 address to the United Nations General Assembly, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni accused Iran of working to nuke Israel and bully the world. "They speak proudly and openly of their desire to 'wipe Israel off the map.' And now, by their actions, they pursue the weapons to achieve this objective to imperil the region and threaten the world." Addressing the threat in December, a fervent Prime Minister Ehud Olmert inadvertently disclosed that his country already possesses nuclear weapons: "We have never threatened any nation with annihilation. Iran, openly, explicitly and publicly threatens to wipe Israel off the map. Can you say that this is the same level, when they are aspiring to have nuclear weapons, as America, France, Israel, Russia?"


MEDIA IRRESPONSIBILITY:

On December 13, 2006, more than a year after The World Without Zionism conference, two leading Israeli newspapers, The Jerusalem Post and Haaretz, published reports of a renewed threat from Ahmadinejad. The Jerusalem Post's headline was Ahmadinejad: Israel will be 'wiped out', while Haaretz posted the title Ahmadinejad at Holocaust conference: Israel will 'soon be wiped out'.

Where did they get their information? It turns out that both papers, like most American and western media, rely heavily on write ups by news wire services such as the Associated Press and Reuters as a source for their articles. Sure enough, their sources are in fact December 12th articles by Reuter's Paul Hughes [Iran president says Israel's days are numbered], and the AP's Ali Akbar Dareini [Iran President: Israel Will be wiped out].

The first five paragraphs of the Haaretz article, credited to "Haaretz Service and Agencies", are plagiarized almost 100% from the first five paragraphs of the Reuters piece. The only difference is that Haaretz changed "the Jewish state" to "Israel" in the second paragraph, otherwise they are identical.

The Jerusalem Post article by Herb Keinon pilfers from both the Reuters and AP stories. Like Haaretz, it uses the following Ahmadinejad quote without attribution: ["Just as the Soviet Union was wiped out and today does not exist, so will the Zionist regime soon be wiped out," he added]. Another passage apparently relies on an IRNA report:

"The Zionist regime will be wiped out soon the same way the Soviet Union was, and humanity will achieve freedom," Ahmadinejad said at Tuesday's meeting with the conference participants in his offices, according to Iran's official news agency, IRNA.

He said elections should be held among "Jews, Christians and Muslims so the population of Palestine can select their government and destiny for themselves in a democratic manner."

Once again, the first sentence above was wholly plagiarized from the AP article. The second sentence was also the same, except "He called for elections" became "He said elections should be held..".

It gets more interesting.

The quote used in the original AP article and copied in The Jerusalem Post article supposedly derives from the IRNA. If true, this can easily be checked. Care to find out? Go to:

www.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-234/0612134902101231.htm


There you will discover the actual IRNA quote was:

"As the Soviet Union disappeared, the Zionist regime will also vanish and
humanity will be liberated".

Compare this to the alleged IRNA quote reported by the Associated Press:

"The Zionist regime will be wiped out soon the same way the Soviet Union
was, and humanity will achieve freedom".

In the IRNA's actual report, the Zionist regime will vanish just as the Soviet Union disappeared. Vanish. Disappear. In the dishonest AP version, the Zionist regime will be "wiped out". And how will it be wiped out? "The same way the Soviet Union was". Rather than imply a military threat or escalation in rhetoric, this reference to Russia actually validates the intended meaning of Ahmadinejad's previous misinterpreted anti-Zionist statements.

What has just been demonstrated is irrefutable proof of media manipulation and propaganda in action. The AP deliberately alters an IRNA quote to sound more threatening. The Israeli media not only repeats the fake quote but also steals the original authors' words. The unsuspecting public reads this, forms an opinion and supports unnecessary wars of aggression, presented as self defense, based on the misinformation.

This scenario mirrors the kind of false claims that led to the illegal U.S. invasion of Iraq, a war now widely viewed as a catastrophic mistake. And yet the Bush administration and the compliant corporate media continue to marinate in propaganda and speculation about attacking Iraq's much larger and more formidable neighbor, Iran. Most of this rests on the unproven assumption that Iran is building nuclear weapons, and the lie that Iran has vowed to physically destroy Israel. Given its scope and potentially disastrous outcome, all this amounts to what is arguably the rumor of the century.

Iran's President has written two rather philosophical letters to America. In his first letter, he pointed out that "History shows us that oppressive and cruel governments do not survive". With this statement, Ahmadinejad has also projected the outcome of his own backwards regime, which will likewise "vanish from the page of time".



* Arash Norouzi is an artist and co-founder of The Mossadegh Project:

 http://www.mohammadmossadegh.com/

Arash Norouzi
- Homepage: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=NOR20070120&articleId=4527

Comments

Hide the following 3 comments

Lovely flashback thank you.

28.07.2008 20:30

October 2005 conference for "rabidly anti-Israeli" people in Iran.
October 2005 conference for "rabidly anti-Israeli" people in Iran.

Quite the easiest to source I've had all day.

It was back in October 2005, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who would have become a household name and recognised as one of the shrewdest politicians of the early 21st century - - - - if only he had changed his name and name it more "pop" - was hosting a conference in Tehran for rabidly anti-Israeli people.

I don't speak Farsi. I'll admit that straight off. I did have a teacher at university who spoke Farsi and had been granted political asylum after the Islamic Revolution because as the Shah's kids' piano teacher he might have proved useful to whoever it was who inherited Kermit Roosevelt Junior's desk at the CIA Iranian coup section. But I mostly spoke American English to him. I didn't like him.

am I going to quick?

Kermit Roosevelt Junior was the man who deposed liberal democracy in Iran for the CIA to put in the Shah.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kermit_Roosevelt%2C_Jr. He is mostly remembered fondly now for being the second Roosevelt to be named after a muppet and the man who in addition to being the first ex-CIA spy to write a book about his wickedness also started the CIA "Anti-zionism from Persia" idea. Because back then when people were puppets on strings with little special effects nobody in Persia really gave either two figs or the grizzly bit of a mangey calf over whether the Zionists or the Palestinians had Jerusalem / Al Qods.

They thought it was very far away. Far Far away land just next to Egypt who have fought our enemies the Iraqis, they used to call it.

Anyway - I've spellt out my qualifications, I've been to a university! I've had my test papers marked by someone who flattered the Shah of Iran & was a CIA asset & this leads me up to soberly quoting IRNA the Iranian news agency who told us all about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's "wipe Israel off the map" line back in 2005.

Coz it worked like this - Neither "The Guardian" nor "Indymedia" Farsi speakers section were invited to the conference for "rabidly anti-Israeli" people and it was the Iranians through their own news agency who told us what he had said the next day so we could be OUTRAGED.

this was the link  http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-234/0510277182132759.htm

& I've enjoyed this flashback to hunt out the image of him saying what he said too. Within a week lots of people who normally argue or to be more accurate avoid arguing about where Israel should be on the map had joined forces to say it ought not be wiped off the map. Meanwhile Iran confirmed that wiping Iran off the map was in fact official policy. Just like stewing Catholics in blackberry jam is written into the English constitution.

Loads of Iranians took to the street to insist Google maps delete Israel on Friday 28th October 2005  http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-24/0510280247134435.htm

But the Iranians didn't stay local about it. Later that month they carried in both English and Farsi an article by Clare Short blaming the US support of Israel for the world's problems.
 http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-20/0510281213151559.htm

___________________________________________________

By now you will have noticed that none of the IRNA links are still working..........
___________________________________________________

So We now can put all this in proper hooded sinister global evil plot perspective.

At the funeral of the last Pope, (the polish one who ended communism) not only did Prince Charles of Cymru and Wales shake hands with Mugabe - but the Iranian born President of Israel shook hands with the then President of Iran.

JP2 8/4/05.-
""I told him 'Good morning' and he shook my hand," Katsav, who holds a largely ceremonial postas head of state, told Israel's Channel 2 TV on his encounter with Assad. The Israeli and Syrian delegations had been seated next to each other. Iranian-born Katsav said he spoke in his native Farsi to Khatami (of Iran) about their common city of birth. Iran officially seeks Israel's destruction. "The president of Iran extended his hand to me, I shook it and told him in Farsi, 'May peace be upon you'," said Katsav."

I do have a live link for that one  http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/index.html?siteSect=143&sid=5668877&cKey=1112997024000

The next day IRNA said it was all a Zionist plot.

Can you see how they all blame the wrong people? It's not the Zionists. It's the Catholics. (joke)

scrabbilicious


false claim by scrabbilicious?

29.07.2008 07:43

"Loads of Iranians took to the street to insist Google maps delete Israel on Friday 28th October 2005  http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-24/0510280247134435.htm"

Did they?

Not according to this:
 http://web.archive.org/web/20060427094545/http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-24/0510280247134435.htm

R Kai Fist


Thanks for resurrecting the IRNA links!

29.07.2008 17:19

I wonder have you ever been at an annual Qods day rally to remember the Zionists expelling the Palestinians from Jerusalem? ( I haven't)  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Day_of_Quds

I suppose I was wrong in saying that IRNA had reported "thousands of Iranians marching to demand Google Earth remove Israel from their maps", but I had thought such was the lattitude afforded by humour. But for those who lack such, IRNA reported that :-

"They are free to say but their words lack any credit. They are rude, falsely thinking that whole the world should be subordinate to them," Ahmadinejad made the remark in an interview with IRNA on the sidelines of the World Qods Day rallies in Tehran in response to western media and officials reaction to his recent statements. Turning to the Zionists' suppressive policies, Ahmadinejad stressed, "The oppressed Palestinians are martyred by Zionists, their properties are looted, their houses are bombarded and they are assassinated but the Zionists expect that no one should object them." "My word is the same as that of Iranian nation," ............He joined the chorus of demonstrators chanting slogans in condemnation of the ambitious policies of the world hegemonic powers and Zionism."  http://web.archive.org/web/20060427094545/http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-24/0510280247134435.htm

Ok.

GoogleEarth®™ might not have come into the slogans chanted - but i reckon something which we would translate as "maps", "wiping" etc., did.

I daresay the proof of the interlingual understanding pudding is in the digest of its translation, that whoever is happy to shout "The Imam said this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time" ought not be too upset when that is translated as roughly translating to English as "wipe the regime (israel) occupying Al Qods from the pages of time, which as we in the West know are held on Google®™ a wonderful component of which is GoogleEarth®™ and an indispensible part of is the resurrect this page cache archive".

.:. "For it has been written"


scrabbilicious


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