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

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 t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Holy Land and Palestine Studies
Main Author: Dahamshe, Amer (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Edinburgh Univ. Press [2021]
In: Journal of Holy Land and Palestine Studies
RelBib Classification:KBL Near East and North Africa
ZC Politics in general
Further subjects:B Palestinians
B Comparative Analysis
B Names of Natural Features
B ‘Intermediate Categories’
B Israeli Renaming Strategies
B Indigenous Arab Place-names
B Postcolonial Reading
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Summary: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.
ISSN:2054-1996
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of Holy Land and Palestine Studies
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.3366/hlps.2021.0258