Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday there will always be a job waiting in Israel for a United Nations interpreter caught wondering aloud at an excessive number of anti-Israel resolutions while her microphone was still on.

The interpreter's remarks came during the Nov. 14 meeting of the United Nations General Assembly's Fourth Assembly, attended by representatives of all 193 United Nations member states. Nine of the 10 resolutions adopted at the meeting condemned Israel. "I mean I think when you have five statements, not five, but like a total of 10 resolutions on Israel and Palestine, there's gotta be something, c'est un peu trop, non? [It's a bit much, no?] I mean I know, yes, yes, but there's other really bad s— happening, but no one says anything about the other stuff," the interpreter said in English in remarks heard live by the delegates.

Amid titters of laughter from the delegates, the committee secretary states, "I understand there was a problem with the interpretation."

Netanyahu played a recording of the remarks at the Cabinet meeting Sunday and said, "I would like to tell this interpreter that she has a job waiting for her in the State of Israel. There are moments that tear the hypocrisy off the unending attacks against us and this brave interpreter did so."

Read more at: http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/netanyahu-offers-u-n-interpreter-a-job-in-israel/2013/11/18/
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more interpretation stories & testimonies to come

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California Interpreter Bill Would Help Save Lives Lost in Translation

Maria Guevara had been trying to get pregnant for three years when she saw a doctor at Los Angeles County General hospital in 2008. She was understandably thrilled, then, to learn she was indeed three months pregnant at the time of her visit. As Guevara later recalled, when the doctor asked her in English if she wanted to keep the baby, "without hesitation I replied 'yes' to his question. Before leaving the hospital, the doctor prescribed me medication that I thought was prenatal care. That lack of communication between the doctor and me has changed my life forever."

Guevara took the prescribed medication, and experienced violent pain and bleeding. She returned to the hospital, where another doctor told her the bleeding was the result of a miscarriage.

"My baby was dead. The medication the initial doctor prescribed to me was not prenatal care but medication to induce an abortion," she told a press conference in April at the University of California Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. "Not speaking any English, I was unable to understand his question to me. He did not speak Spanish and no interpreter was provided."

This occurred at the largest single health care provider for a county where 37 percent of the population is comprised of Spanish-speakers.

"Losing my baby forced me into a deep depression," Guevara said. "I could not bear looking at or holding babies because the thought brought back painful emotions."

Although California has some of the strongest laws in the nation spelling out a patient's right to an interpreter, stories like Guevara's are far from unique. Day after day, non-English speaking patients are seeing doctors and nurses throughout California without the aid of medical interpreters, sometimes with tragic results, a Frying Pan News investigation has found.
source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/20/california-interpreter-bi_n_3785419.html