Kita mempunyai di sana [di Palestin] sebuah tanah yang subur dan kaya dengan sejarah, tetapi hampir tanpa penduduk – sebuah negara tanpa rakyat, dan lihatlah! Bertaburan di seluruh dunia, sebuah bangsa tanpa negara. (Lord Shaftesbury, Pengerusi Palestine Exploration Fund, Palestine Exploration Fund, Quarterly Statement for 1875, London, 1875, hlm. 116)

We have there [in Palestine] a land teeming with fertility and rich in history, but almost without an inhabitant – a country without a people, and look! Scattered over the world, a people without a country. (Lord Shaftesbury, Chairman of the Palestine Exploration Fund, Palestine Exploration Fund, Quarterly Statement for 1875, London, 1875, p. 116)

Memainkan peranan utama dalam kebangkitan semula "aman" berbentuk Perang Salib zaman Victoria pada abad ke-19, serta dalam pembukaan "Tanah Suci" dengan jayanya kepada penembusan geo-politik dan budaya-agama Eropah, ialah Dana Penerokaan Palestin British dan "Tinjauan Ordnans Palestin Barat" antara tahun 1871 dan 1877. Kemajuan saintifik dan teknologi British dalam kartografi dan pemetaan kadaster sepenuhnya dimanfaatkan untuk empayar dan pengembangan imperialisme di Timur Tengah.

Central to the Victorian ‘peaceful’ Crusader revivalism of the 19th century and the successful opening of the ‘Holy Land’ to Europe’s geo-political and cultural-religious penetration was the British Palestine Exploration Fund and ‘Ordnance Survey of Western Palestine’ between 1871 and 1877. British scientific and technological advances in cartography and cadastral mapping were fully harnessed for empire and imperial expansionism in the Middle East.

Ordnance Survey (OS) ialah agensi pemetaan kebangsaan Britain dan salah satu pengeluar peta terbesar di dunia. Nama agensi rasmi kerajaan Britain ini menunjukkan tujuan asal ketenteraan dan strategiknya, dan asal-usulnya kembali kepada pemetaan Scotland selepas pemberontakan Jacobite pada tahun 1745, ketika tiada peta ketenteraan dan pengetahuan terperinci tentang Tanah Tinggi Scotland. Britain bukan yang pertama melakukan pemetaan strategik secara instrumental ke atas Palestin. Peta moden pertama Palestin, yang berdasarkan tinjauan instrumental dan menggunakan alat saintifik paling maju pada zaman itu, telah pun dihasilkan oleh Kolonel Pierre Jacotin, seorang pembuat peta Perancis dan Pengarah Kor Ketenteraan Tinjauan Perancis semasa ekspedisi Napoleon di Mesir dan Palestin. Pada tahun 1799, atas arahan Napoleon, beliau menyediakan berpuluh-puluh peta rahsia Mesir, Sinai dan Palestin. Enam daripada peta itu menunjukkan bahagian Palestin, terutamanya bahagian negara yang dilalui tentera Napoleon dari Februari hingga Jun 1799. Jacotin terus bekerja ke atas peta-peta ini selepas kembali ke Perancis, dan akhirnya diterbitkan pada tahun 1826, serta dikenali secara meluas sebagai 'Atlas Jacotin', yang melabelkan Palestin dalam bahasa Perancis dan Arab sebagai 'Palestine or Holy Land'/'land of al-Quds' (فلسطين أو أرض قدس) (lihat juga Khatib 2003; Karmon 1960: 155–173, 244–253).

Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency of Britain and is one of the largest producers of maps in the world. The British official agency’s name indicates its original military and strategic purposes and its origins go back to the mapping of Scotland in the aftermath of the Jacobite uprising of 1745 and the absence of military maps and detailed knowledge of the Scottish Highlands. The British were not the first to conduct instrumental strategic mapping of Palestine. The first modern maps of Palestine, based on an instrumental survey and using the most developed scientific instruments of the time, had already been produced by Colonel Pierre Jacotin, a French map-maker and Director of the French Survey Military Corps during Napoleon’s expedition in Egypt and Palestine, who in 1799, on Napoleon’s orders, prepared dozens of secret maps of Egypt, Sinai and Palestine. Six of those maps show parts of Palestine, especially the parts of the country through which Napoleon’s army marched in February to June 1799. Jacotin continued to work on these maps after he returned to France and they were eventually published in 1826, and became widely known as the ‘Jacotin Atlas’, labelling Palestine in French and Arabic as ‘Palestine or Holy Land’/‘land of al-Quds’ فلسطين أو أرض قدس) ) (also Khatib 2003; Karmon 1960: 155–173, 244–253).

Representasi kartografer Palestin oleh Perancis ini juga akan mempunyai gema yang kuat dalam penubuhan dan penamaan wilayah pentadbiran autonomi al-Quds: متصرفية القدس الشريف (Mutasarrifate Jerusalem yang Mulia) oleh Uthmaniyyah lima puluh tahun kemudian, pada tahun 1872 (lihat hlm. 259-260). 'Peta Jacotin bagi Palestin', yang dikaji semasa kempen Napoleon pada tahun 1799, kemudiannya juga diterbitkan oleh Palestine Exploration Fund (Kallner 1944). Cita-cita penjajahan British di Palestin pada akhir abad ke-19 dan kekurangan peta ketenteraan British yang terperinci bagi kawasan tersebut merupakan dua faktor utama di sebalik pembentukan British Palestine Exploration Fund dan 'British Ordnance Survey of Western Palestine' pada tahun 1870-an.

This cartographer representation of Palestine by the French would also find strong echoes in the establishment and naming of the autonomous administrative province of al-Quds: متصرفية القدس الشريف (Mutasarrifate of Noble Jerusalem) by the Ottomans fifty years later, in 1872 (see pp. 259-260). The ‘Jacotin Map of Palestine’, surveyed during Napoleon’s campaign in 1799, was also later published by the Palestine Exploration Fund (Kallner 1944). British colonial ambitions in late 19th century Palestine and the lack of detailed British military maps of the area were two of the key factors behind the formation of the British Palestine Exploration Fund and ‘British Ordnance Survey of Western Palestine’ in the 1870s.

Seperti yang akan kita lihat dalam bab kesepuluh, projek-projek toponimi Israel dalam tempoh selepas 1948 mempunyai asas pada aktiviti de-Arabisasi James Finn dan penerokaan Alkitab pada tahun 1870-an oleh ahli-ahli Palestine Exploration Fund, yang karyanya, Names and Places in the Old and New Testament and Apocrypha: with their modern identifications (disusun oleh George Armstrong; disemak semula oleh Sir Charles W. Wilson dan Major C. R.

As we shall see in chapter ten, the Israeli toponymic projects in the post-1948 period had their foundations in the de-Arabisation activities of James Finn and the biblical explorations in the 1870s by members of the Palestine Exploration Fund whose work, Names and Places in the Old and New Testament and Apocrypha: with their modern identifications (compiled by George Armstrong; revised by Sir Charles W. Wilson and Major C. R.

Conder 1889), adalah tokoh utama dalam projek toponimi kolonial British di Palestin pada akhir abad ke-19 dan separuh pertama abad ke-20.

Conder 1889), was central to British colonial toponymic projects in Palestine in the late 19th and first half of the 20th century.

Projek-projek pemetaan, tinjauan dan penamaan tempat yang sistematik, yang mencapai kemuncaknya dengan Tinjauan Ordnance British bagi Palestin Barat antara 1871 dan 1877, sebahagian besarnya bersifat strategik. Kesucian Palestin bukanlah sebab yang cukup meyakinkan bagi British untuk menganjurkan dan membiayai tinjauan-tinjauan sedemikian. Motif utama bagi memetakan negara itu secara keseluruhan ialah kepentingan strategik dan geopolitiknya bagi Empayar British, yang ketika itu terlibat dalam pertikaian antarabangsa mengenai Timur Tengah (Goren 2002:

The systematic mapping, surveying and place-naming projects, which reached their peak with the British Ordnance Survey of Western Palestine between 1871 and 1877, were largely strategic. The sacredness of Palestine was not a sufficiently convincing reason for the British to organise and finance such surveys. The main motive for mapping the country as a whole was its strategic and geo-political importance for the British Empire, which was then engaged in international struggles over the Middle East (Goren 2002:

87–110). Namun, kajian dan pemetaan oleh Kor Jurutera Diraja British pada tahun 1870-an kemudiannya membawa kepada tumbuhnya Zionisme proto-Yahudi.

87–110). However, the surveys and mapping of the British Royal Engineering Corp in the 1870s led subsequently to the growth of proto-Jewish Zionism.

Dana British Palestine Exploration Fund diasaskan pada tahun 1865 oleh sekumpulan sarjana Bible, ahli geografi Kitab Suci, pegawai tentera dan perisikan, serta paderi Protestan, yang paling terkenal ialah Dekan Westminster Abbey, Arthur P. Stanley. 'Penerokaan saintifiknya' diselaraskan dengan sangat rapat bersama establishment politik-tentera British dan komuniti perisikan yang berhasrat untuk menembusi Palestin Uthmaniyyah, sebuah negara yang diperintah oleh 'orang sakit Eropah' yang beragama Islam. Dengan pejabat di tengah-tengah London, PEF hari ini ialah sebuah organisasi aktif yang menerbitkan sebuah jurnal akademik, Palestine Exploration Quarterly. Selain itu, PEF mengadakan syarahan awam dan membiayai projek penyelidikan di Timur Dekat. Menurut laman webnya, 'Antara tahun 1867 dan 1870 Kapten Warren menjalankan penerokaan di Palestin yang menjadi asas pengetahuan kita tentang topografi Baitulmaqdis purba dan arkeologi Bukit Kuil/Haram al-Sherif [sic]'; 'Selain penerokaannya di atas, di bawah, dan di sekeliling Bukit Kuil/al-Haram al-Sherif, Warren juga mengukur Dataran Philistia dan menjalankan tinjauan [ketenteraan] yang sangat penting di Jordan tengah'.7 Kapten (kemudian Jeneral Sir) Charles Warren (1840–1927) dari Royal Engineers British, salah seorang pegawai utama PEF, yang dihantar untuk memetakan 'topografi Kitab Suci' Baitulmaqdis dan menyiasat 'tapak kuil', mencatatkan:

The British Palestine Exploration Fund was founded in 1865 by a group of biblical scholars, scriptural geographers, military and intelligence officers and Protestant clergymen, most notably the Dean of Westminster Abbey, Arthur P. Stanley. Its ‘scientific exploration’ was coordinated very closely with the British politico-military establishment and intelligence community anxious to penetrate Ottoman Palestine, a country ruled by the Muslim ‘sick man of Europe’. With offices in central London, the PEF today is an active organisation which publishes an academic journal, the Palestine Exploration Quarterly. In addition, the PEF presents public lectures and funds research projects in the Near East. According to its website, ‘Between 1867 and 1870 Captain Warren carried out the explorations in Palestine which form the basis for our knowledge of the topography of ancient Jerusalem and the archaeology of the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sherif [sic]’; ‘In addition to his explorations on, under, and around the Temple Mount/ al-Haram al-Sherif, Warren surveyed the Plain of Philistia and carried out a very important [military] reconnaissance of central Jordan’.7 Captain (later General Sir) Charles Warren (1840–1927) of the British Royal Engineers, one of the key officers of the PEF, who was sent to map the ‘scriptural topography’ of Jerusalem and investigate ‘the site of the temple’, noted:

‘[Konsul British] King [James Finn] memerintah dengan kuasa tertinggi, bukan ke atas penduduk asal bandar itu, tetapi ke atas orang asing; namun orang asing ini kebanyakannya ialah pemilik yang sah, manakala penduduk asal kebanyakannya ialah perampas’ (Shepherd 1987: 127–128). Kedua-dua Warren dan Konsul British yang terkenal dan telah lama berkhidmat, Finn, yang merupakan seorang Kristian Zionis pemulihan yang terlibat dalam ‘Mission to the Jews’ (Shepherd 1987: 110), dilaporkan ‘menggali secara literal’ di bawah tempat-tempat suci Muslim di Baitulmaqdis untuk merekodkan ‘dimensi asal’ ‘Bukit Kuil’. Projek arkeologi Alkitab dan toponimi Warren dan Royal Engineers kekal sebagai data asas bagi ramai ahli arkeologi, ahli geografi dan perancang strategik Israel hari ini (Shepherd 1987: 195; Benvenisti 2002: 11–27).

‘[British] King Consul [James Finn] rules supreme, not over the natives of the city, but over strangers; but yet these strangers for the most part are the rightful owners, the natives, for the most part, are usurpers’ (Shepherd 1987: 127–128). Both Warren and the (above-mentioned) long-serving and famous British Consul, Finn, who was a restorationist Christian Zionist involved with the ‘Mission to the Jews’ (Shepherd 1987: 110), apparently ‘literally burrowed’ beneath the Muslim shrines in Jerusalem to chart the ‘original dimensions’ of the ‘Temple Mount’. The biblical archaeology and toponymic projects of Warren and the Royal Engineers have remained basic data for many Israeli archaeologists, geographers and strategic planners of today (Shepherd 1987: 195; Benvenisti 2002: 11–27).

Mengikuti jejak PEF, pihak berkuasa Mandat British di Palestin mula mengumpulkan maklumat toponimi daripada penduduk Palestin tempatan. Dorongan British untuk menggambarkan penjajahan Eropah sebagai kesinambungan pemilikan tanah oleh orang Yahudi sejak zaman purba menyebabkan nama-nama tempat di Palestin menjadi medan pertikaian sengit antara peneroka-penjajah Zionis Eropah dengan penduduk asli Palestin. Nama-nama tempat Arab Palestin telah (dan terus) 'dinyahnamakan', dan Zionis menghebrewkannya dengan menggunakan strategi penjajahan yang berasaskan nama-nama dari Perjanjian Lama.

Following in the footsteps of the PEF, the British Mandatory authorities in Palestine set out to gather toponymic information from the local Palestinian population. The British drive to present European colonialism as a continuation of an ancient Jewish ownership of the land meant that place names in Palestine became a site of fierce contest between the European Zionist settler-colonisers and the indigenous Palestinians. Palestinian Arab names were (and continued to be) ‘unnamed’ and Hebraicised by the Zionists using a colonising strategy based on Old Testament names.

Nama-nama tempat tempatan Palestin dianggap 'ditebus' dan 'dibebaskan' apabila diterjemahkan daripada bahasa Arab ke dalam bahasa Ibrani (Slyomovics 1998, 2002). Salasilah suruhanjaya penamaan kolonial British dan projek penamaan semula Zionis dalam bahasa Ibrani, yang bermula pada abad ke-19, berterusan di bawah sistem kolonial British di Palestin (al-Shaikh 2010), dan dipercepatkan dengan ketara selepas Nakba serta pengembangan jabatan-jabatan alkitab dan arkeologi di universiti-universiti Israel.

Local Palestinian place names were deemed ‘redeemed’ and liberated when they were rendered from Arabic into Hebrew (Slyomovics 1998, 2002). The genealogy of British colonial name commissions and the Zionist Hebrew renaming project, which began in the 19th century, lingered under the British colonial system in Palestine (al-Shaikh 2010) and were accelerated dramatically after the Nakba and the expansion of biblical and archaeological departments at Israeli universities.