Palestinian Arabic versus Israeli Hebrew Place-Names: Comparative Cultural Reading of Landscape Nomenclature and Israeli Renaming Strategies

Abstract

This article compares Palestinian (Arabic) and Israeli (Hebrew) names of natural features in Palestine/Israel. Based on postcolonial reading and critical toponymy, I argue that despite the dominance of the Jewish nationalist narrative the nomenclature includes ‘intermediate categories’ that attest to subversive linguistic practices, bottom-up communication aspects, and sociocultural realities. These aspects are analysed through five main categories: unification; uniqueness; male rhetoric replacing female identity; sanitization; and linguistic imitation. The article adds to the literature largely focused on the political aspect of the Jewish settlement names that replaced Palestinian names in that it shows how Zionist naming of natural features included the cultural perspectives of the Palestinian names in order to appropriate them for internal Jewish cultural needs.