-13072009

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (Agencies)

English and Arabic names for cities and towns on road signs will be scrapped in favor of only the Hebrew terms, the Israeli transport ministry said Monday, while Britain imposed a partial arms embargo on Israel over the Gaza war.

In its latest efforts to enforce the Jewish character of the state, the right winged Israeli government is set to erase all traces of the Arabic and English languages from public signs.

"Minister Yisrael Katz took this decision that will be progressively applied," a ministry spokeswoman told AFP.

Currently Israeli road signs are written in Hebrew, Arabic and English, with the city names in each language. So Jerusalem is identified as Yerushalaim in Hebrew, Jerusalem in English and al-Quds in Arabic (along with Yerushalaim written in Arabic script).


" On Palestinian maps, Israeli towns are often still identified with the Arabic names used before the 1948 war "
Yisrael Katz, Transport Minister
Under the new policy the Holy City will only be identified as Yerushalaim in all three languages. Nazareth (al-Nasra in Arabic) will be identified as Natzrat and Jaffa (Jaffa in Arabic) will only be written as Yafo.

Katz told the mass-selling daily Yediot Aharonot that the move was a response to the Palestinian refusal to use Hebrew names for some Israeli towns.

"On Palestinian maps, Israeli towns are often still identified with the Arabic names used before the 1948 war" when Israel was created, he said.


http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/07/13/78601.html


WE ARE BEING ERASED..AS IF ARABS NEVER AND WILL NEVER EXIST IN PALESTINE.