Palestinian Literature in Hebrew Translation: Between Cultural Appropriation and Resistance Eyad Barghuthy's An Acre-Esque Tale as Case Study

Abstract

This article focuses on the complex cultural and political dynamics of translation of Palestinian literature into Hebrew, from a Palestinian perspective. I focus specifically on translation of the literature of Palestinian Israeli citizens, and on a recent, unique model of translation praxis developed by the Maktub project, based in the Van Leer Institute of Jerusalem. The model, entailing dialogic and bi-national translation, aims to turn translation into an act of resistance, through which Palestinian presence ‘infiltrates’ Hebrew cultural consciousness. The article analyses the Hebrew translation of the novel Burdaqaneh (translated as ‘An Acre-esque Tale’) by the Palestinian author Eyad Barghuthy. Specifically, the article attempts to shed light on the process of translation, its aims and methods, and their overall cultural and political import.