Article published in:
Target
Vol. 16:1 (2004) ► pp. 53–68

Intercultural relations between Arabs and Israeli Jews as reflected in Arabic translations of modern Hebrew literature

| Tel Aviv University, Israel

Contacts between Arabic and Israeli Hebrew cultures have taken place in the shadow of a prolonged and violent political conflict between Arabs and Jews in the Middle East. The intercultural dialogue between them has, therefore, been antagonistic, polemical, and fraught with stereotypes and prejudices. This antagonistic dialogue is also reflected in Hebrew–Arabic translation activity, since the elements involved in this activity and the considerations which guided them both before and in the course of the translation were, first and foremost, political. The translations themselves were not accepted as literary creations, but rather as documents reflecting the culture of the other. Neither the presence of an ethnic Arab minority in Israel nor the peace agreements between Israel and certain Arab states brought about any significant change in the nature of translation activity. Clearly, therefore, in a state of violent national conflict translation activity will produce translations whose purpose is ideological rather than literary.

Keywords: Arab–Israeli conflict, antagonistic dialogue, ideological considerations, isolated translations, refracted texts
Article outline
  • 0.Introduction
  • 1.Historical background
  • 2.Arab attitudes towards Israeli culture
    • 2.1In the Arab World
    • 2.2Among the Palestinian Arabs in Israel
  • 3.Translation activity from modern Hebrew literature to Arabic
    • 3.1From the end of the 19th century until 1948
    • 3.2From 1948 to 1967, in Israel
    • 3.3From the late 1960s until the present, in Israel
    • 3.4From the late 1960s until the present, in the Arab world
  • 4.Translation as an antagonistic dialogue
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 21 February 2005
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.16.1.04kay
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