This study investigates road signs put in place by Israel in Area C in the occupied West Bank. It discusses how language on road signs in the West Bank serve as tool that enforces Israeli dominance over the area and blurs the Palestinian existence. This dominance is reflected in the excessive placement of signs referring to Israeli settlements compared to signs referring to Palestinian communities, transliteration of Arabic names of sites into Hebrew, and deletion of Arabic, a language associated with the Palestinian identity, from road signs. In addition, this paper demonstrates how the exclusion of Arabic from road signs, especially brown signs referring to tourist attractions, serves as a barrier that aims at limiting Palestinians’ access to some parts of the West Bank and shows Israeli discriminatory practices against Palestinians. Moreover, this paper explains how warning signs at Israeli checkpoint construct the concept of the “Palestinian islands” by dividing the West Bank into disconnected enclaves surrounded by an ocean of Area C making the idea of establishing an independent Palestinian state seem impossible. Finally, this study records instances of Palestinians’ resistance to Israel through vandalism of signs that were placed by the Israeli authorities in Area C.
This study looks at the linguistic landscape in Huwwara, a Palestinian town in the north of the West Bank located in Area C, which is, in line with the Oslo II accord, under Israeli control. Two areas on the main street of Huwwara were investigated: Huwwara center and Huwwara outskirts. Bottom-up signs in both areas were classified according to the languages they were written in. The signs were further classified according to language choice on the signs of businesses in each area. The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of different languages in the linguistic landscape of a Palestinian town where Arabic, English and Hebrew are in contact. A total of 297 signs were analysed. It was found that Arabic is the most prevalent language in the linguistic landscape in the two investigated areas. In addition, it was found that there is a strong presence of Hebrew on the outskirts of Huwwara, mainly on signs of automotive and household businesses. English, on the other hand, was found to have a moderate presence in Huwwara with no difference between the two areas investigated. These results suggest that the use of Arabic has both an informational and a symbolic function, whilst the use of Hebrew has an informational function, and the use of English has a symbolic function.
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