Translation, Conflict and Mediation: How Translators 'Re-narrate' the Conflict

The story of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has had multiple narrators and re-narrators over the past seventy-three years. This thesis discusses how translators and interpreters re-narrate this conflict according to their positionality within and outside the narrative. In a comparative analysis of the Arabic and French translations of Footnotes in Gaza, a journalistic graphic book by Joe Sacco (2009), we will see how Mohammad Tawfiq Al-Bujairami, a Palestinian activist translator, and Sidonie Van den Dries, an external translator, re-narrate this conflict. We will also explore how the in-between translators, those who belong to one side of the conflict but work with the other, re-narrate the same events. Since translators in conflict zones deal with conflictual and competitive narratives, we will also find out whether they can act as mediators. The theoretical framework used in this analysis consists of the narrative theory by Mona Baker, cultural theories by Eva Hoffman and Edward Sad, the re-writing theory by Andr Lefevere, and Critical Discourse Analysis by Van Dijk. The findings show that translators re-narrate the Palestinian-Israeli conflict differently. While the Palestinian activist translator - who considers translation as a site of resistance - radically detaches himself from the source text, the French external translator - who adopts a neutral stance towards the conflict - fully re-embodies the source text. The findings also suggest that neutrality in translation does not necessarily lead to a successful mediation between the conflictual narratives. On the contrary, neutrality perpetuates the imbalance of powers. A successful mediation is, therefore, one that empowers the less powerful and gives voice to the less heard.