Toponyms and political control in divided cities: The case of Jerusalem's neighborhood names

Abstract

This paper examines how dominant communities (ethnic or national groups) in divided cities use toponyms (place names) as part of their efforts to establish and maintain various types of political control over urban spaces. To this end, it analyzes an original dataset that includes all the names that the State of Israel, which has been dominated by the Jewish community since its establishment, gave to neighborhoods in West Jerusalem during the periods of the city's post-partition control (1948–1967) and post-unification control (1967–2022), as well as to neighborhoods in East Jerusalem in the latter period. By exploring the formal and informal names given to Jerusalem's neighborhoods in the different periods of Israeli rule, we emphasize the significance of toponymic practices in establishing and maintaining different types of political control in divided cities as well as their practical limitations.