Contested naming practices in the Palestinian–Israeli conflict: a translation perspective

This article examines contested naming practices in the Palestinian–Israeli conflict from a translation perspective. Examples are drawn from two political plans, namely, the “Tenet Plan” and the “Disengagement Plan” and their different translations. The two plans were translated by different agents–including governmental and non-governmental institutions as well as media outlets–into Arabic and English and into Arabic and Hebrew, respectively. The analysis, informed by concepts and methods of Product-Oriented Descriptive Translation Studies and Critical Discourse Analysis, focuses on the translation of names given to places, events and actions, and protagonists of the Palestinian–Israeli conflict. These translations constitute a revealing site for analyzing contested naming practices that reflect the asymmetric power struggle between the two sides of the conflict, as well as their opposing political positions and competing narratives. Overall, this article highlights the importance of studying contested naming practices in their ideological, socio-political, historical, and institutional contexts.