Translation as a Double-Edged Sword: Copyright, Dialogue, and Normalization under Colonial Conditions

In early 2018, the publication of Huriya: Sipurim u-reshimot shel yotzrot be-’ikvot ha-Aviv ha-’Aravi (Freedom: Stories and reflections of women authors following the Arab Spring) was announced by Resling, an Israeli publisher. The book seemed especially promising in light of the general tendency to ignore women in the overall project of translating literature from Arabic to Hebrew. Yet many of the authors of the selections published in Huriya had not consented to their work being translated into Hebrew. The Huriya incident is evidence of the continuing presence of an Orientalist approach in Arabic-to-Hebrew translation, despite the good intentions on the part of Huriya’s translator and the publisher. This incident reflects a colonialist view in terms of both nation and gender. A fundamental change of attitude, however, as can be seen in the case of the Maktoob publishing house, has led to more cooperation between the two cultures.