Citizen: Renaming streets creates unnecessary confusion

The Ministry of Transportation published an updated list of cities, sites, and street names as they will soon appear on road signs throughout the country in accordance with the ministry's new initiative to Hebraize signage. The list includes more than 2,500 names of towns, junctions, intersections, and tourist sites.

The list establishes a set of uniform spelling guidelines, according to which the names of sites will appear in Hebrew letters and will be transliterated into English and Arabic letter beneath. The Transportation Ministry noted that the purpose of the list is to create uniformity among traffic signs on Israel's roads.

The main hitch, according to the letter sent to Bielski, is that the names do not appear in this format on maps, trip guides, tourism books, or history books. Under the new initiative, for instance, the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem will be become Har Hazetim. Many sites in Israel are known throughout the world by their Latin names, hence the potential source of confusion for the millions of tourists visiting Israel each year.

The initiative to create uniform spelling on Israel's street signs is part of a years-long process. In 2006, a special transportation committee put together by the Israel National Roads Company recommended uniform spelling guidelines for Israel's signage.

During a Knesset plenum session yesterday, the Kadima faction read a number of letters received by Knesset members from concerned citizens on the subject.

Confusion on the roads (Photo: Roee Zukerman)

MK Zeev Bielski read one letter from a resident of Givat Shmuel that pointed out a serious problem that could result from the new signage.

"What a brilliant idea our transportation minister has had – to switch the road signs into the Hebrew language," wrote the citizen. "What will Mr. Transportation Minister do with all the tourism books? Will he change those, too? And how, in his opinion, will a tourist reading in a book about the Mount of Olives know how to connect between the historic site and Har Hazetim, as it will appear on road signs? Or, perhaps as in the rest of the government's delusional ideas, a sign tax will be levied on the population in order to cover expenses?"

Jesus walked on what water?

Though the concerned citizen's letter only brings up only one example, a brief scan of the list of names to be transliterated into Hebrew reveals some other challenging, sometimes even amusing, examples. A significant portion tourist favorites are likely to disappear from their maps: Jerusalem's Mount Scopus will become Har Hatsofim; the Sea of Galilee will become Yam Kinneret; Capernaum, mentioned in the New Testament, will become Kfar Nahum.