[etni] Fw: ALERT! anti-semitism on a dictionary site.
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- Date: Sun, 20 Jul 2008 17:09:05 +0200
----- Original Message -----
From: "Leah Wolf" <ldwolf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Fw: ALERT! anti-semitism on a dictionary site.
Shocking??
From: reesa stone <reesa432000@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2008 05:24:03 -0700 (PDT)
Hello everybody,
I have a question to ask of you all.
A colleague of mine was looking up a word on the online dictionary
site; yourdictionary.com and came across an 'interesting' entry.
This particular online dictionary not only gives the definition of a
word, but also gives various examples on usage in different forms.
My colleague happened across the word 'divest' and the example of
usage given was:
'Pension fund managers and their beneficiaries can take an active
part in ending Israeli occupation by immediately divesting their
portfolios of these bonds.'
and also
'Closer to home, students and community members are also organizing
around divesting UC funds from companies which do business with
Israel.'
My friend, who is pretty left wing, was incensed by this entry, and
started to look up other 'provocative' words. The first was
occupation, and this is what we found as the FIRST entry:
'an occupying or being occupied; specif., the seizure and control of
a country or area by military forces'
examples of usage include:
The only way for Israelis to have security is, quite simply, to end
the 35-year-old Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.
and
The Israeli occupation will never respect the human rights or civil
rights of the people.
and;
The cause of the problem is the illegal occupation, by Zionist
racists, of the land of the Palestinians.
and even:
There is little or no adherence to international standards or even to
the guidelines issued by the Israeli occupation forces.
So then we looked up the word Jew. The very first definition of the
word Jew is given as an verb! Here is what it says copied and pasted:
jew (jo̵̅o̅)
transitive verb
Slang to swindle; cheat; gyp
Etymology: < <http://www.yourdictionary.com/jew>Jew, by assoc. with
occupation of Jews as moneylenders in Middle Ages
Usage Note this is a vulgar and offensive usage, even when the
speaker or writer is not consciously expressing an antisemitic
attitude
jew Idioms
jew someone down
to get or bargain for better terms from someone in a business
transaction, esp. in a petty or niggardly way
Jew Definition
Jew (jo̵̅o̅)
noun
1. a person descended, or regarded as descended, from the
ancient Hebrews of Biblical times
2. a person whose religion is Judaism
Etymology: ME < OFr Giu, Juiu < L Judaeus < Gr Ioudaios < Heb
yeh?´dY´, member of the tribe or kingdom of Judah: see
<http://www.yourdictionary.com/judah>Judah
<http://www.yourdictionary.com/judah>
This led us on a random search for other words such as Zionist,
Israel, etc. Here are some more examples:
People:
Moreover, many members in the current Israeli cabinet openly advocate
ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.
Ethnic Cleansing
The end of Zionist ethnic cleansing, and the right of all refugees to
return to their homelands.
Propoganda:
This needs to be asserted over against Zionist propaganda.
Ardent:
Her experience transforms her from an ardent Zionist into an eloquent
but sorrowful critic of the state she had previously revered. ...
and my personal favorite:
Please don't lye to us.. we can smell a Zionist in this forum.. .
Please remember, this is a regular dictionary site. This is what it
says on its home page:
"YourDictionary has been recognized as the authoritative resource for
online dictionary and thesaurus use and has been the recipient of
many awards including the prestigious CIO Web Business 50 Award from
IDG's CIO magazine, Reference Site of the year from LibrarySpot as
well as recognition from Yahoo Internet magazine, CNN, the Wall
Street Journal and Forbes Magazine."
It does not say anywhere that anyone may contribute wikepedia style.
There are editors and experts, too numerous to list.
My friend sent an email to the site, on the 'contact us', but the
email bounced as the inbox is too full.
He is now forming a letter to send to the ADL, but I don't know how
effective they are. So this is my question:
Anyone have any opinions or ideas on how we get rid of this
dictionary, or at least change some of their entries? To be fair,
most of the entries are totally innocuous, but there seems to be an
extremely high percentage of anti-israel and anti-semitic entries. Of
course, one entry is enough to complain about.
Thank you for your help
Reesa Stone
Beer Sheva, Israel
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