Uundaji upya wa historia ya Kiyahudi ya zamani na wa utaifa wa kisasa wa Kiyahudi katika historia ya Kizayuni, pamoja na kuundwa kwa fahamu ya kisasa ya utaifa wa Kiebrania, umepokea uangalizi fulani wa kitaaluma (Myers 1995; Ram 1995: 91–124; Piterberg 2001; Raz-Krakotzkin 1993, 1994). Miradi ya kubadilisha majina ya mahali na ya kuchora upya ramani pia ilitumiwa kwa wingi na kwa uharibifu na mamlaka za kikoloni za Ulaya na harakati za walowezi wa kikoloni wa Ulaya. Huko Palestina, miradi ya Kizayuni ya kubadilisha majina kuwa ya Kiebrania ilikuwa muhimu katika kuwafanya Wayahudi wa Ulaya kuwa kabila maalum la kikabila na katika kuifanya Biblia ya Kiebrania kuwa ya kitaifa.

The reinvention of both the Jewish past and modern Jewish nationhood in Zionist historiography and the creation of a modern Hebrew nationalist consciousness have received some scholarly attention (Myers 1995; Ram 1995: 91–124; Piterberg 2001; Raz-Krakotzkin 1993, 1994). Toponymic and remapping projects were also deployed extensively and destructively by the European colonial powers and European settler-colonial movements. In Palestine, the Zionist Hebrew renaming projects were critical to the ethnocisation of the European Jews and nationalisation of the Hebrew Bible.

Miradi hii iliongozwa na kufuatwa kwa karibu misafara ya "uchunguzi" wa kiakiolojia na kijiografia ya Waingereza, Wafaransa na Wamarekani ya nusu ya pili ya karne ya 19 na nusu ya kwanza ya karne ya 20. Sambamba na ubunifu upya wa itikadi za kizalendo za kikabila-kimapenzi za Ulaya, akiolojia na jiografia ya kiitikadi ya Kizayuni ilidai "kumiliki" urithi wa kipekee wa "kitaifa" huko Palestina; "nchi ya Israeli" ilibuniwa na kutendewa kama suala la umiliki wa pekee. Mchakato huu wa kufanya ukabila kuwa taifa na kubuni upya historia ulishika kasi baada ya kuanzishwa kwa dola ya Israeli mwaka 1948, kama sehemu ya jitihada pana za kufanya Wayahudi na Biblia ya Kiebrania kuwa mali ya kabila moja la kitaifa (Rabkin 2010: 130).

These projects were inspired by and followed closely British, French and American archaeological and geographical ‘exploration’ expeditions of the second half of the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries. In line with the reinventions of European ethno-romantic nationalisms, Zionist ideological archaeology and geography claimed to ‘own’ an exclusive ‘national’ inheritance in Palestine; the ‘land of Israel’ was invented and treated as a matter of exclusive ownership. This process of ethno-nationalisation and reinvention of the past intensified after the establishment of the Israeli state in 1948 as part of the general attempt to ethno-nationalise both Jews and the Hebrew Bible (Rabkin 2010: 130).

Tangu kuibuka kwa harakati ya walowezi wa Kizayuni mwishoni mwa karne ya 19, na hasa tangu kuanzishwa kwa Israeli mwaka 1948, mapambano kuhusu kumbukumbu ya majina ya mahali na kubadilishwa kwa majina ya maeneo yamekua sehemu muhimu ya mgogoro wa kisiasa nchini Palestina. Wapalestina wenyeji wamesisitiza kuwa na seti yao kamili ya majina ya mahali kwa Kiarabu, ambayo kupitia hayo wanaona kumbukumbu yao ya kijamii na mizizi yao ya kina katika ardhi ya Palestina. Kwa upande mwingine, tangu utakaso wa kikabila wa Nakba ya 1948 na kuundwa kwa dola la Israeli, majina mengi ya mahali ya Kiarabu ya Palestina yamebadilishwa kuwa ya Kiyahudi na Kiebrania. Hakika, tangu mwaka 1948 serikali ya Israeli

Since the rise of the Zionist settler movement in the late 19th century, and especially since the establishment of Israel in 1948, the struggle over toponymic memory and the renaming of sites has developed as an integral part of the political conflict in Palestine. The indigenous Palestinians have insisted on their own comprehensive set of Arabic place names through which they see their own social memory and deep-rootedness in the land of Palestine. On the other hand, since the ethnic cleansing of the 1948 Nakba and the creation of the Israeli state, a large number of Palestinian Arabic place names have been Judaised, Hebraicised. Indeed, since 1948 the Israeli PALESTINE: A FOUR THOUSAND YEAR HISTORY 320

Jeshi na taifa la Israeli wamejitahidi kwa utaratibu kubadilisha majina ya mahali ya Kiarabu ya Kipalestina, wakidai kipaumbele katika mpangilio wa matukio na kutumia elimu ya mambo ya kale ya kisasa, utengenezaji wa ramani na majina ya mahali kama ushahidi wa mizizi ya Kiyahudi katika 'nchi ya Israeli'. Nchini Israeli, umuhimu wa majina ya mahali uko katika uwezo wake wa kuhalalisha 'madai ya kihistoria' yanayotolewa na harakati ya Kizayuni ya ukoloni wa walowezi.

army and Israeli state have sought systematically to replace Palestinian Arabic place names, claiming priority in chronology and using modern archaeology, map-making and place names as their proofs of Jewish roots in ‘the land of Israel’. In Israel, the significance of place names lies in their potential to legitimise ‘historical claims’ asserted by the Zionist settler-colonial movement.

Katika kitabu chake *Bible and Sword: How the British came to Palestine* (1982), Barbara Tuchman anaonyesha jinsi sumaku mbili, Biblia na upanga, zilivyowavuta mahujaji wengi wa Kiingereza, wapiganaji wa vita vya msalaba, wamisionari, wanaakiolojia wa Biblia na washindi wa Palestina, hatimaye zikaongoza kwenye ushindi wa Waingereza wa Palestina mwaka 1918. Kiini cha kitabu hiki ni madai kwamba simulizi ya Biblia kuhusu kuteka nchi ndiyo maandiko muhimu yaliyohalalisha ukoloni wa walowezi wa Ulaya nchini Palestina. Nje ya Mashariki ya Kati, Biblia pia imehalalisha himaya za Ulaya na ukoloni wa walowezi wa Ulaya, ushindi wa dunia, na hata ubeberu wa sasa wa Marekani. Kama chanzo cha nguvu, mamlaka ya simulizi ya Biblia imekuwa kitovu cha dini iliyopangwa na kumbukumbu ya pamoja. Kama kumbukumbu iliyopangwa, mamlaka ya Biblia ikawa muhimu kwa itikadi za kisiasa za kitheolojia za wapiganaji wa vita vya msalaba wa Kilatini wa Zama za Kati, kwa washindi wa Kihispania, katika mapambano ya nguvu za kikoloni huko Amerika ya Kusini kuanzia mwaka 1492 hadi karne ya 20, na katika aina mbalimbali za miradi ya walowezi wakoloni. Kwa kweli, katika nyakati za kisasa, enzi mbalimbali za ukoloni wa walowezi wa Magharibi zimetumia kwa ufanisi mkubwa siasa za nguvu za maandiko ya Biblia na simulizi yake "maarufu" ya kuteka nchi, na matokeo yake yamekuwa ya uharibifu mkubwa kwa watu wa asili. Simulizi ya Kutoka (Exodus) imetumiwa sana kama msingi wa kuhalalisha ukoloni wa walowezi wa Ulaya na "mission civilisatrice" ya Ulaya, huku maandiko mengine ya Biblia yakitwaliwa na kutumiwa kutoa mamlaka ya kimaadili kwa "uchunguzi" wa Ulaya na ushindi wa kikoloni wa walowezi barani Afrika, Asia, Australia na Amerika (Prior 1997, 1999).

In her book Bible and Sword: How the British came to Palestine (1982), Barbara Tuchman shows how the two magnets, the Bible and the sword, have drawn countless British pilgrims, crusaders, missionaries, biblical archaeologists and conquerors of Palestine and ultimately led to the British conquest of Palestine in 1918. Central to this book is the assertion that the land conquest narrative of the Bible has been the key text that redeems the European settler-colonisation of Palestine. Outside the Middle East the Bible has redeemed European empires and European settler-colonialism, the conquest of the earth and even current American imperialism. As a fact of power, the authority of the biblical narrative has also been central to organised religion and collective memory. As organised memory, the authority of the Bible became critical to the political theologies of the Medieval Latin crusaders, Spanish conquistadors, in the struggle for colonial power in Latin America from 1492 until the 20th century, and a whole variety of settler-colonist projects. In fact, in modern times a range of Western settler-colonial enterprises have deployed the power politics of the biblical text and its ‘famous’ land conquest narrative very effectively and with devastating consequences for indigenous peoples. The narrative of Exodus has been widely deployed as a framing narrative for European settler-colonialism and the European mission civilisatrice, while other biblical texts have been appropriated and used to provide moral authority for European ‘exploration’ in, and settler-colonial conquests of, Africa, Asia, Australia and the Americas (Prior 1997, 1999).