The Path To Peace: Compromise or Extortion?

Arutz Sheva has an article on the latest demand from the Palestinian Arabs: Arab 'Right of Return' Conference: We Demand Kibbutz Land:

Organizers of a "Right of Return" conference held in Nazareth called
upon Arab parties to include the return of Arabs to land left in 1948,
most of which, they say, is now owned by kibbutzim.

Last weekend the conference, entitled "The Right of Return and a Just
Peace" took place in the Arab city of Nazareth, in the Galilee.

The main aim of the conference was to induce Arab parties to introduce
the concept of the Right of Return into their platforms. According to
a conference statement, "The 'Right of Return' must be incorporated
into their political agenda, so that Israel is not able to extort
recognition as a Jewish state from the Palestinian Authority and Arab
countries."[emphasis added]

It's that last sentence that got my attention. So the Palestinians want to avoid being blackmailed by Israel, perhaps as in: you recognize Israel's right to exist and we'll recognize your "Right of Return"? Forget for now the fact that recognition of Israel's right to exist is in theory non-negotiable and expected as a first step by The Road Map.

Doesn't it seem that the Arabs are confusing extortion with...compromise?

Tarek Heggy wrote an article, Our need for "A Culture of Compromise", in Al-Ahram on 29th September 29, 2002:

A few years ago, I discovered that there is no equivalent in the Arabic ‎language, classical or colloquial, for the English word "compromise", which ‎is most commonly translated into Arabic in the form of two words, literally ‎meaning ‘halfway solution’. I went through all the old and new ‎dictionaries and lexicons I could lay my hands on in a futile search for an ‎Arabic word corresponding to this common English word, which exists, ‎with minor variations in spelling, in all European languages, whether of the ‎Latin, Germanic, Hellenic or Slavic families. The same is true of several ‎other words, such as ‘integrity’, which has come to be widely used in the ‎discourse of Europe and North America in the last few decades and for ‎which no single word exists in the Arabic language. As language is not ‎merely a tool of communication but the depositary of a society’s cultural ‎heritage, reflecting its way of thinking and the spirit in which it deals with ‎things and with others, as well as the cultural trends which have shaped it, I ‎realized that we were here before a phenomenon with cultural (and, ‎consequently, political, economic and social) implications.

My, it's tempting. Arabs have no word for 'compromise'--or integrity! Aha!!

Don't get too excited. In an article "Claims About Words Can Distort Culture", Geoffrey Nunberg confronts such a simplistic approach:

But it's hard to imagine how any people could conduct the commerce and politics of a major civilization without having a way of talking about compromise. What's going on in all those souks -- is everybody paying retail?

...In fact, Arabic linguists confirmed for me that Arabic has several expressions that translate the English ``compromise,'' though none is a single word. (The phrase that Abbas' translator rendered as ``without compromise'' actually contained a classical Arabic word that came closer to ``relenting,'' but then the English ``uncompromising'' really means something like ``unrelenting,'' too.) When speakers of colloquial Arabic want to talk about compromise, they use phrases like ``we reached a middle ground.''

In this regard, Arabic is no different from English: We talk about reaching a meeting of the minds, striking a balance, finding a happy medium, or meeting someone halfway. Before Shakespeare's time, in fact, English lacked a single verb for compromise, and was none the worse for it.

The fact is that people have many more concepts than can be expressed in a single word in their languages. Take the German word Schadenfreude, which denotes the pleasure we take in the misfortunes of others. True, it's a nice item to have handy in a pre-packaged form. But Red Sox fans don't have to learn German before they can enjoy watching the Yankees drop eight straight at home.

Bottom line, the problem is more psychology than vocabulary.
It is a combination of hate, terror, hypocisy, double-standards...

And there is no one word to describe what is happening, in any language.

Technorati Tag: Palestinians and Arabic and Language.