Renaming of Palestinians’ Cities
The Zionist movement began assigning Hebrew names inspired by the Torah to the settlements it established since the start of its activities on the land. In 1878, the first settlement, Petah Tikva (Gate of Hope), was founded in the Jezreel Valley north of Galilee, and Rosh Pina (Cornerstone) was established.
The Jewish Agency formed a committee to select names for the settlements, changing the names of 216 locations until 1984. Later, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion incorporated this committee directly into his office, consisting of 24 members, experts in geography, history, Torah, archaeology, and representatives from ministries and the military.
One of the committee's initial tasks was to assign Hebrew names to the depopulated Palestinian villages. To date, it has designated more than 8,000 names for Palestinian sites, including 5,000 geographical locations, a few hundred historical names, and 1,000 settlement names. Most of these names were coined or translated, as the Torah originally encompasses only 550 names for various places in Palestinian territories, and these are originally Canaanite names. Therefore, Zionist movements and later Israeli authorities sought to alter or replace the original names of Palestinian locations.
According to historians, only about 50 Hebrew names existed in Palestine before 1948. Examples of Arabic name distortions for Palestinian cities include:
Acre – Akko
Safed – Tsfat
Jaffa – Yafo
Kfar Mand – Kfar Manda
Tel al-Rabi – Tel Aviv
Al-Abassiyeh – Jerusalem
Um al-Rashrash – Eilat
Beersheba – Be'er Sheva
Khudeira – Hadera
Askelan – Ashkelon
Nazareth – Natzrat
Jordan Valley – Emek Bet She'an
Ras al-Naqab - Ma'ale Akhbariyya
Iksal – Kisalon
Um Dumanah – Dimona
Tufaniyya – Hivla Tzifin.