Occupied Jerusalem, July 15: The Israeli government is planning to remove Arabic and English names of cities and towns on road signs, keeping only their Hebrew versions.
“(Transportation) Minister Yisrael Katz took this decision that will be progressively applied,” a ministry spokeswoman told. Under the new plan, only Hebrew names of cities, towns and villages will remain on road signs. Currently, Israeli road signs are written in Hebrew, Arabic and English, with the city names in each language.
“This Land is Ours”: Israeli-Arabs So Jerusalem is identified as Yerushalaim in Hebrew, Jerusalem in English and Al-Quds in Arabic (along with Yerushalaim written in Arabic script). But now, the holy city will only be identified as Yerushalaim in all three languages. Nazareth (Al-Nasra in Arabic) will be identified as Natzrat and Jaffa (Jaffa in Arabic) will only be written as Yafo.
“The names on the signs should reflect the reality of the local population, which is exactly why Israeli signs must have Hebrew transliteration,” Katz told Yediot Aharonot daily.
He claimed that the move was prompted by the Palestinian insistence to use Arabic names for Israeli towns.
“Some Palestinian maps still refer to the Israeli cities by their pre-1948 names, since they see them as settlements,” said Katz.
“I will not allow that on our signs. This government, and certainly this minister, will not allow anyone to turn Jewish Jerusalem to Palestinian al-Quds.”
Israel gave Hebrew names, often of biblical origin, to many villages, towns and areas that came under its control following the 1948 war.
Erasing Heritage
The Israeli plan drew immediate fire as an attempt to erase the Arabic language and heritage in Israel.
“Minister Katz is mistaken if he thinks that changing a few words can erase the existence of the Arab people or their connection to Israel,” Arab member of Knesset Ahmad Tibi said.
“This is a blatant attempt at harming the Arabic language and everything it represents.
“Al-Quds will remain al-Quds and Shfaram will remain Shefa-‘Amr,” he defiantly said.
Minister of Minority Affairs Avishay Braverman also blasted the plan.
“Road signs are not a political issue. Arabic is an official language in the State of Israel,” he said.
Israeli Arabs, who make up nearly a fifth of the population, are descendants of those who stayed when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes by Zionist gangs in1948, when Israel was founded on the rubble of Palestine.
Relations between Israel’s Jews and Arabs have long been difficult, with Arabs complaining of discrimination.
The Knesset has further made life unbearable for Israeli Arabs married to Palestinians by adopting a law denying the latter the right to get an Israeli residency to live with their spouses.
“Yisrael Katz will come and go but Shefa-‘Amr is here to stay,” said Mohammad Barakeh, the leader of Hadash party.
“I hereby inform him that he cannot change the nature of a place.”
-Agencies