Avi Granot HBL Scum Gate

FINLAND AMNESTY SCUM-GATE CONTINUES: ISRAELI AMBASSADOR GRANOT SAYS IT’S UNACCEPTABLE TO CALL ISRAEL A ”SCUM STATE”…….

Ambassador Granot:
No Mr. Johansson, you blew it, ..big time

Here is the Israeli ambassador to Finland and Estonia, Avi Granot, in an article interview in today’s edition of the Hufvustadsbladet, Finland’s largest and influential Swedish language newsdaily, giving his thoughts on the matter.

NOTE: Thanks to Sanna for the help in the translation.

(Lying) Johansson: The text was poorly worded

Posted: 08/26 11:58 Updated: 26/08 12:41

An ill-considered choice of words. The Israeli Ambassador Avi Granot does not buy the excuse. He is offended by the remarks of the Amnesty International leader Frank Johansson about Israel.
There is an angry man at the embassy on Yrjönkatu. Frank Johansson’s blog post that was posted on Iltalehti’s website yesterday, was not well received.
– It is unacceptable that a person in his position calls Israel “a scum state”. I might have not reacted in such a strong way if it was just from any person on a street who had said that, but in this case it has a public value, says a determined Granot.
– You can disagree with a government, but you can never, never call a state “a scum state.”
According to Granot Amnesty’s reputation has been damaged.
– We have always taken all of their questions very seriously, but now I do not know how to react in the future.
Frank Johansson regrets his choice of words and claims that the blog was written by him as an individual, not as a director for Amnesty International Finland. But Gravot shakes his head.
– There is no such thing as a private citizen when you have a public position. This is not a letter he has written to a friend but a blog which people read precicely because of his position. Nothing is more public than a blog, says Granot.
He is still happy that Johansson regrets it.
When the Hufvudstadsbladet contacted Jackson, he had already sent a public apology to the Jerusalem Post newspaper that had blown up the wording of the blog post into big news.
– The text was poorly worded, misinterpreted, but an incorrect translation, “says Johansson.
He is disappointed that the word “nilkkimaa” was removed from its context.
– It’s colloquial and can not even be translated.
It’s about someone who is not playing by the rules, as tough on the farm. Kind of like that, not behaving as it should, “says Johansson.
– But I am reluctant to go into the discussion. I would never use the word scum.
Johansson chose to remove the post from the Iltalehti blog himself when he realized that the damage was done.

Yep, Frank Johansson is lying, it wasn’t badly worded, it’s exactly what he meant, remember, it’s after he recounted his times in Israel (two visits) that he agreed with his friend that Israel is a “scum state”. He wasn’t mistranslated as the Tundra Tabloids has shown in prior posts;

(a) he refused to challenge the journalist who used the term more than once when questioning about it (I hear it was around 10 times) and (b) spoke of using similar highly charged wording when directing it against GWBush and others to prove he’s used vitriolic statements before while (c) then claiming later on that he hadn’t meant to offend anyone by the term.
It was his every intention to disparage the Jewish state in that manner, because that’s who he is, in Finland, such stupidity doesn’t raise an eyebrow, it took another blogger, Vasarahammer, and the Tundra Tabloids to say hey, this isn’t right, and then do something about it. If we hadn’t acted…ol’Franky boy would be rather pleased with himself instead of having egg on his face and his main office breathing down his neck.
He couldn’t have made a more stupid move, especially when one thinks about his interview with the JPost journalist, Benjamin Wienthal, where he never corrected the JPost journalists translation of “nilkkimaa”, nope, he defended his use of it. KGS

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