Journal of Levantine Studies Vol. 7 No. 2, Winter 2017, pp. 103-130 J Names under Supervision: Israeli Linguistic Regulation of Arab Streets— Turʿ an as a Case Study Amer Dahamshe The Hebrew University of Jerusalem am.dahamshe@gmail.com In an age of nationalism, language and geography are seen as key resources in constructing the identity of a nation and territory, the conceptual appropriation of the latter by the former, and the cultural production of the Other as excluded from both. 1 This is often achieved using cartographic representation: mapping, census, and development are some of the nation-building tools applied by the modern state. In colonial and postcolonial contexts, following military occupation and regime change, they play the additional role of tightening the sovereign’s control over space. This is often achieved through place-name changes, a political and often cultural act designed to reshape space. Thus, diachronic analysis of name changes can provide information about the political history of a certain area and the power relations between the national and ethnic communities that control or share it. 2 The naming act spreads networks of meaning that articulate people’s desires and sense of place. In the modern era official names of streets, roads, and squares are designed to facilitate orientation, but they also have the ideological purpose of embodying the authorities’ control. They often take part in the cultural production of the place and serve a commemorative function as monuments to people and events central to the national narrative. 3 Where two ethnonational groups are involved in a territorial conflict, separate nomenclatures and maps are often used. In such situations cartographic representations also serve as educational and propaganda tools designed to form a consciousness and counterconsciousness by inculcating different, if not mutually exclusive, national narratives. 4