Projects na Sihiyoniyanci bayan 1948 sun mayar da hankali kan Yahudantar da yanayin ƙasa da sunayen wurare na Falasdinu ta hanyar sauya sunayen wurare, muhalli da abubuwan da suka faru. Shirin Hebraicisation ya yi amfani da sauya suna wajen ƙirƙirar sababbin wurare da sabbin asalin yanayin ƙasa masu alaƙa da wuraren da ake dangantawa da Littafi Mai Tsarki. Sunayen "Sabon Ibrananci" sun ƙunshi wata manufar akida da halaye na siyasa da za a iya amfani da su da gangan ta hanyar aikin mulkin Sihiyoniyanci. Aikin hukuma ya fara ne da naɗin Kwamitin Sunayen Gwamnati (Va'adat Hashemot Hamimshaltit).

Post-1948 Zionist projects concentrated on the Hebraicisation/Judaisation of Palestinian geography and toponymy through the practice of renaming sites, places and events. The Hebraicisation project deployed renaming to construct new places and new geographic identities related to supposed biblical places. The ‘new Hebrew’ names embodied an ideological drive and political attributes that could be consciously mobilised by the Zionist hegemonic project. The official project began with the appointment of the Governmental Names Committee (Va’adat Hashemot Hamimshaltit)

ta Firaministan Ben-Gurion a watan Yuli 1949. Ben-Gurion ya ziyarci Naqab/Negev a watan Yuni, kuma ya yi mamaki da cewa babu sunayen Ibrananci ga wuraren yanki a wannan yanki. Shigar da ya yi a Littafin Yakin sa na 11 ga Yuni 1949 ta ce: ‘Eilat ... mun bi ta cikin filayen Arava ... daga ‘Ein Husb ... zuwa ‘Ein Wahba ... Dole mu ba wa wadannan wurare sunayen Ibrananci – sunaye na da, idan akwai, kuma idan babu, sababbi!’ (Ben-Gurion 1982, Vol. 3: 989).

by Prime Minister Ben-Gurion in July 1949. Ben-Gurion had visited the Naqab/Negev in June and had been struck by the fact that no Hebrew names existed for geographical sites in the region. The 11 June 1949 entry for his War Diary reads: ‘Eilat ... we drove through the open spaces of the Arava ... from ‘Ein Husb ... to ‘Ein Wahba ... We must give Hebrew names to these places – ancient names, if there are, and if not, new ones!’ (Ben-Gurion 1982, Vol. 3: 989).

Nakba ta biyo baya, masana binciken kayan tarihi na Isra'ila da mambobin Ƙungiyar Binciken Isra'ila a cikin Kwamitin Sunayen Gwamnati sun mayar da hankalinsu na farko kan ƙirƙirar sabon taswira don yankin 'Negev' da aka mamaye kwanan nan (Abu El-Haj 2001: 91–94). An ba su aikin ƙirƙirar sunayen Ibrananci don sabon yankin Falasɗinawa da aka mamaye, kuma a dukkan takardun da wannan kwamitin ya samar an ruwaito ambaton 'sunayen baƙi'. An kira jama'ar Isra'ila 'su tumɓuke sunayen baƙi da ke wanzuwa' kuma a maimakon haka 'su koyi' sabbin sunayen Ibrananci. Yawancin sunayen da ake da su Larabci ne. An ɗora wa kwamitin aikin shafe ɗaruruwan sunayen wuraren Larabci da ƙirƙirar sunayen Ibrananci a Negev. Kwamitin ya yi taronsa na farko a ranar 18 ga Yuli, kuma daga baya ya riƙa haduwa sau uku a wata na tsawon watanni goma, inda ya sanya sunayen Ibrananci ga siffofin ƙasa 561 daban-daban a Negev – duwatsu, kwaruruka, maɓuɓɓugan ruwa da ramukan ruwa – yana amfani da Littafi Mai Tsarki a matsayin tushe. Duk da shafe yawancin tsoffin sunayen Larabci daga shimfidar Negev, wasu sunayen Larabci sun zama sunayen Ibrananci masu kama da sauti: misali, Seil 'Imran ya zama Nahal Amram, a bayyane yana tuna mahaifin Musa da Haruna; Jabal Haruf na Larabci (Dutsen Haruf) ya zama Har Harif (Dutse Mai Kaifi), Jabal Dibba (Tudun Kumbura) ya zama Har Dla'at (Dutsen Kabewa). Bayan ƙin amfani da sunan Har Geshur, bisa sunan mutanen da matar Sarki Dawud ta uku ta fito daga cikinsu, a matsayin sunan Ibrananci ga Jabal 'Ideid na Larabci (Dutse Mai Shimfiɗe), kwamitin ya yanke shawarar kiranta Har Karkom (Dutsen Karkom), domin furannin karkom suna tsiro a Negev.28 Duk da haka, an riƙe sautin sunan Larabci 'Ideid ga maɓuɓɓugan ruwa da ke kusa, waɗanda yanzu ake kira Beerot Oded (Rijiyoyin Oded), bisa ga abin da ake zaton sunan annabi Oded na Littafi Mai Tsarki. A cikin rahotonta na Maris 1956, Kwamitin Sunayen Gwamnatin Isra'ila ya bayyana cewa:

In the immediate post-Nakba period, Israeli archaeologists and members of the Israeli Exploration Society on the Governmental Names Committee concentrated their initial efforts on the creation of a new map for the newly occupied ‘Negev’ (Abu El-Haj 2001: 91–94). Commissioned to create Hebrew names for the newly occupied Palestinian landscape, throughout the documents produced by this committee were reported references to ‘foreign names’. The Israeli public was called upon ‘to uproot the foreign and existing names’ and in their place ‘to master’ the new Hebrew names. Most existing names were Arabic. Charged with the task of erasing hundreds of Arabic place names and creating Hebrew names in the Negev, the committee held its first meeting on 18 July and subsequently met three times a month for a ten-month period and assigned Hebrew names to 561 different geographical features in the Negev – mountains, valleys, springs and waterholes – using the Bible as a resource. Despite the obliteration of many ancient Arabic names from the Negev landscape, some Arabic names became similar-sounding Hebrew names: for example, Seil ‘Imran became Nahal Amram, apparently recalling the father of Moses and Aaron; the Arabic Jabal Haruf (Mount Haruf) became Har Harif (Sharp Mountain), Jabal Dibba (Hump Hill) became Har Dla’at (Mount Pumpkin). After rejecting the name Har Geshur, after the people to whom King David’s third wife belonged, as a Hebrew appellation for the Arabic Jabal ‘Ideid (Sprawling Mountain), the committee decided to call it Har Karkom (Mount Crocus), because crocuses grow in the Negev.28 However, the sound of the Arabic name ‘Ideid was retained for the nearby springs, which are now called Beerot Oded (the Wells of Oded), supposedly after the biblical prophet of the same name. In its report of March 1956 the Israeli Government Names Committee stated:

A cikin lokacin da aka takaita, an ba wuraren tsoffin kayayyaki, kango da tudun-kango (kalmar Larabci ma'ana tudu ko tarin kango na ƙasa) sunaye guda 145: an tabbatar da sunaye takwas bisa tushen gano su a tarihi, 16

In the summarised period 145 names were adopted for antiquities sites, ruins and tells [Arabic for hills or archaeological mounds]: eight names were determined on the basis of historical identification, 16

bisa ga sunayen wurare a yankin, takwas bisa ga ma'anar kalmomin Larabci, kuma mafi yawan sunaye (113) an tsara su ta hanyar kwaikwayon sautin kalmomin Larabci, kwaikwayo na wani ɓangare ko gaba ɗaya, domin a ba sabon sunan yanayin Ibrananci, bisa ƙa'idojin nahawu da na sanya harafin sauti (vowel) da aka amince da su. (An ambato daga Abu El-Haj 2001: 95)29

according to geographical names in the area, eight according to the meaning of the Arabic words, and the decisive majority of the names (113) were determined by mimicking the sounds of the Arabic words, a partial or complete mimicking, in order to give the new name a Hebrew character, following the [accepted] grammatical and voweling rules. (Quoted in Abu El-Haj 2001: 95)29

A cikin Hidden Histories, masanin Palasdinu Basem Ra’ad (2010), yana ambaton wani bincike na 1988, Toponymie Palestinienne: Plaine de St. Jean d’Acre et corridor de Jerusalem, na Thomas Thompson, Francolino Goncalves da J. M. van Cangh, ya nuna cewa kwamitocin sunayen wurare na Isra’ila sun wuce iyakokin aikinsu na asali ƙwarai da gaske.

In Hidden Histories, Palestinian scholar Basem Ra’ad (2010), citing a 1988 study, Toponymie Palestinienne: Plaine de St. Jean d’Acre et corridor de Jerusalem, by Thomas Thompson, Francolino Goncalves and J. M. van Cangh, shows that the Israeli toponymy committees went far beyond their original mandates:

Ba a sami isassun al'adar Littattafai ba don a dogara da su, saboda haka aikin ya iya ci gaba ne kawai ta hanyar zaɓar alaƙoƙin Littafi Mai Tsarki ko na Yahudawa ba tare da tsari ba. Dole ne a mayar da sunayen Larabci zuwa Ibrananci, ko kuma a fassara sunayen Larabci zuwa Ibrananci domin wurin ya samu wata asali mai daidaito ta akida. Misali, an mayar da wasu wurare daga Larabci zuwa tsarin sautin Ibrananci: Minet el-Muserifa ya zama Horvat Mishrafot Yam, kuma Khirbet el Musherifa aka canza shi zuwa Horvat Masref. A wasu lokuta, a cikin wannan tsari na wucin gadi, kwamitocin sun manta da wasu al'adun Yahudawa na gaskiya, kamar yadda ya faru da cikakkiyar soke sunan Larabci Khirbet Hanuta, ba tare da fahimtar cewa wataƙila ya wakilci Talmudic Khanotah ba.

There was simply not enough [biblical] tradition to go by, so [the project] could only continue by picking out Biblical or Jewish associations at random. It had to Hebrewise Arabic names, or in other cases translate Arabic to Hebrew to give the location an ideologically consistent identity. For example, some locations were rendered from Arabic into the Hebrew phonetic system: Minet el-Muserifa became Horvat Mishrafot Yam and Khirbet el Musherifa was changed to Horvat Masref. Sometimes, in this artificial process, the committees forgot about certain genuine Jewish traditions, as in the case of the total cancelling of the Arabic name Khirbet Hanuta, not recognising that it probably rendered the Talmudic Khanotah.

Wannan tilasta sake sanya suna da ake yi, sau da yawa ya saba wa al'adar Littafi Mai Tsarki, musamman wajen goge sunayen Larabci Yalu da ‘Imwas [bayan 1967]. Yalu ya koma Ayallon, yayin da ‘Imwas, wato Emmaus ta Yamma, wadda ke da alaƙa da labarin Almasihu, na ɗaya daga cikin ƙauyuka uku, tare da Beit Nuba, da aka rusa a 1967. An sayar da tsoffin duwatsun ƙauyukan ga 'yan kwangilar Yahudawa domin a ba sababbin gine-ginen da ke wasu wurare al'adar yankin da kuma tsoho. An kuma mayar da dukan yankin filin shakatawa na Canada Park, wanda ya samu tallafin miliyoyin daloli daga wani mai bayarwa daga Kanada.

This forced exercise of re-naming often even went against Biblical tradition, most notably in erasing the Arabic names Yalu and ‘Imwas [after 1967]. Yalu became Ayallon, while ‘Imwas, Western Emmaus, associated with the Christ story, was one of the three villages, along with Beit Nuba, razed in 1967. The old stones from the villages were sold to Jewish contractors to lend local tradition and age to new buildings elsewhere, and the whole area was turned into the tragic Canada Park, made possible by millions from a Canadian donor.

(Ra'ad 2010: 188–189; Thompson et al. 1988).

(Ra’ad 2010: 188–189; Thompson et al. 1988).