1948 yildan keyingi sionistik loyihalar Falastin geografiyasi va toponimiyasini yahudiylashtirish va ivrit tiliga moslashtirishga, joylar, obyektlar va voqealarning nomlarini o‘zgartirish orqali qaratilgan edi. Ivritlashtirish loyihasi nomlarni o‘zgartirish vositasida yangi joylarni va sobiq “injildagi” joylarga bog‘liq yangi geografik identitetlarni yaratishga xizmat qildi. “Yangi ivrit” nomlari mafkuraviy intilishni va siyosiy xususiyatlarni o‘zida mujassamlashtirgan bo‘lib, ularni sionistik gegemonik loyiha ongli ravishda safarbar qilishi mumkin edi. Rasmiy loyiha Hukumat nomlar qo‘mitasi (Va’adat Hashemot Hamimshaltit) tayinlanishi bilan boshlangan.

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)

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).

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).

Nakbadan keyingi davrda Isroilning arxeologlari va Isroil Tadqiqot jamiyati a'zolari Hukumat nomlari qo'mitasida dastlabki sa'y-harakatlarini yangi bosib olingan "Negev" uchun yangi xarita yaratishga qaratdilar (Abu El-Haj 2001: 91–94). Yangi bosib olingan Falastin hududiga ibroniycha nomlar yaratish topshirilgan bu qo'mita hujjatlarida "chet el nomlari" haqida xabarlar takrorlanib turdi. Isroil jamoatchiligi "chet el va mavjud nomlarni ildizi bilan yo'q qilishga" hamda ularning o'rniga yangi ibroniycha nomlarni "o'zlashtirishga" chaqirildi. Mavjud nomlarning aksariyati arabcha edi. Negevdagi yuzlab arabcha joy nomlarini o'chirib tashlash va ibroniycha nomlar yaratish vazifasini olgan qo'mita 18 iyulda birinchi yig'ilishini o'tkazdi va keyinchalik o'n oy davomida oyiga uch marta yig'ilib, Negevdagi 561 ta turli geografik obyektga — tog'larga, vodiylarga, buloqlarga va suv havzalariga — Injildan foydalangan holda ibroniycha nomlar berdi. Negev manzarasidan ko'plab qadimiy arabcha nomlar yo'q qilingan bo'lsa-da, ba'zi arabcha nomlar o'xshash tovushli ibroniycha nomlarga aylantirildi: masalan, Seil 'Imron Nahal Amramga aylandi, bu Muso va Horunning otasini eslatgandek bo'ldi; arabcha Jabal Haruf (Haruf tog'i) Har Xarifga (O'tkir tog') aylandi, Jabal Dibba (Qovoqli tepalik) esa Har Dla'atga (Qovoq tog'i) aylandi. Dovud alayhissalomning uchinchi xotini tegishli bo'lgan xalq nomi bilan atalgan Har Gesur nomini arabcha Jabal 'Ideid (Yoyilib yotgan tog') uchun ibroniycha atama sifatida rad etgandan so'ng, qo'mita uni Har Karkom (Zafar tog'i) deb atashga qaror qildi, chunki Negevda zafarlar o'sadi. Biroq, arabcha 'Ideid nomining tovushi yaqin atrofdagi buloqlar uchun saqlab qolindi; bu buloqlar endi Beerot Oded (Oded quduqlari) deb ataladi, go'yoki Injildagi shu nomli payg'ambar sharafiga. 1956 yil martdagi hisobotida Isroilning Hukumat nomlari qo'mitasi shunday deb yozdi:

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:

Qisqartirilgan davrda antik davr obidalari, xarobalar va tellar (arab tilida tepaliklar yoki arxeologik tepalar degani) uchun 145 ta nom qabul qilindi: sakkiztasi tarixiy identifikatsiya asosida aniqlandi, 16 ta

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

geografik nomlarga ko'ra sakkizta, arab so'zlarining ma'nosiga ko'ra, va nomlarning aksariyati (113 ta) arab so'zlarining tovushlariga taqlid qilish orqali belgilangan, bu qisman yoki to'liq taqlid bo'lib, yangi nomga ibroniy xarakterini berish maqsadida, [qabul qilingan] grammatik va unli tovush qoidalariga rioya qilgan holda. (Abu El-Haj 2001: 95 dan keltirilgan)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

"Hidden Histories" kitobida falastinlik olim Basem Ra'ad (2010) 1988 yilgi tadqiqotga tayanib, "Toponymie Palestinienne: Plaine de St. Jean d'Acre et corridor de Jerusalem" asari muallifi Tomas Tompson, Fransolino Gonsalves va J. M. van Kang ishini keltirgan holda ko'rsatadiki, Isroil toponimika qo'mitalari o'zlarining dastlabki vakolatlari doirasidan ancha chetga chiqib ketgan.

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:

Bibliya an'anasi yetarli darajada mavjud bo'lmagani sababli, [loyiha] faqat Injil yoki yahudiy bilan bog'liq ma'lumotlarni tasodifiy tanlash orqali davom ettirilishi mumkin edi. Arabcha nomlarni ibroniycha qilib o'zgartirishga, boshqa hollarda esa arabchani ibroniyga tarjima qilib, joyga mafkuraviy jihatdan izchil bir kimlik berishga to'g'ri kelardi. Masalan, ba'zi joy nomlari arabchadan ibroniy fonetik tizimiga o'girildi: Minet el-Muserifa Horvat Mishrafot Yam nomini oldi, Khirbet el Musherifa esa Horvat Masref deb o'zgartirildi. Bu sun'iy jarayonda qo'mitalar ba'zan haqiqiy yahudiy an'analarini unutib qo'yishgan; masalan, Khirbet Hanuta degan arabcha nomning butunlay bekor qilinishi holati shunga misol bo'ladi, holbuki bu nom ehtimol Talmuddagi Khanotah nomini aks ettirgan edi.

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.

Bu majburiy qayta nomlash ko‘pincha Bibliya an’anasiga ham zid edi, ayniqsa Yalu va ‘Imvas arab nomlarini o‘chirib tashlashda. 1967 yildan keyin Yalu Ayallonga aylantirildi, ‘Imvas esa — G‘arbiy Emmaus, Iso haqidagi hikoyaga bog‘liq bo‘lgan uchta qishloqdan biri (qolgan ikkitasi Bayt Nuba bilan birga) — 1967 yilda vayron qilindi. Qishloqlardagi eski toshlar mahalliy an’ana va qadimiylik taassurotini berish uchun boshqa joylardagi yangi binolarga ishlatilishi maqsadida yahudiy pudratchilariga sotildi, butun hudud esa Kanadalik xayriyachining millionlari hisobiga barpo etilgan fojiali “Kanada bog‘i”ga aylantirildi.

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).