The nation-state law is stirring fierce debate among both Jews and Arabs
in Israel, about whether such legislation was needed, and about its
various clauses. But a majority of MKs cast an unhesitating vote in
favor.
As someone who
studies the status of the Arabic language, I feel compelled to address
the section of the law that removes Arabic’s standing as an official
language. Beyond the practical implications of this, there is another
aspect: It signals that Israel seeks to be a foreign implant among its
neighbors and to eliminate the connection between Arabic and the Jews.
Here are nine points to consider, now that Arabic has been erased as an official language:
1. Lowering the
status of Arabic, and of Arabs: This is what the law is trying to put
over on us. It states that Arabic will no longer be an official language
but in the same line says that its status “will not be harmed.” The
semantics won’t fool anyone: If Arabic was an official yesterday but
isn’t one today, then its status – and that of Arabic-speakers – has
been harmed. Essentially, Israel is saying to its Arab citizens: From
now on, we do not officially recognize your language and your culture.
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2.
Protest and language: The link between language and identity is a
Gordian knot that is at the forefront of the latest research on the
subject. For instance, the first “war” of the Jewish Yishuv in Palestine
is called “the war of the languages” and had to do with opposition to
the decision of the Ezra company to teach at the Technion and the Reali
School in German. The big anti-apartheid protests in South Africa also
marked a major milestone in wake of a decision related to language: In
June 1976, the Soweto riots erupted after the authorities announced that
Afrikaans and English would be the languages of instruction in the
schools. It’s hard to understand why the Israeli government felt it was
so urgent just now to press on this sensitive spot.
3.
Arabic and the 29th of November: Israel is always pointing out that the
basis for the state’s establishment was the Zionist movement’s
acceptance of the 1947 UN Partition Plan. Regardless of the nature of
the plan, it must be recalled that the basis for Israel’s establishment,
its consent to the Partition Plan, rests on a promise at the heart of
that plan: a pledge by the Jewish state not to harm the rights of
minorities, with an explicit mention of “preserving linguistic rights.”
Erasing the status of a language that was an official language of the
country for many decades would be a blatant violation of the commitment
upon which Israel’s establishment was based.
4. Jewish-Arab
relations and the government’s recommendations: Demoting Arabic’s status
is not just opposed by human rights organizations; it also goes against
the recommendations of a governmental commission of inquiry. It’s
astounding to go back to the report of the Or Commission, which
investigated the events of October 2000 in regard to Jewish-Arab
relations in Israel. The commission, headed by Judge Theodor Or, found
that “the government must act to erase the stain of discrimination
against its Arab citizens.” It’s not surprising that the
government-appointed commission also discussed linguistic rights, noting
that the recognition of Arabic as an official language was one of the
few collective rights that Arab citizens enjoyed and that should be
preserved. Precisely the opposite of the aim of the nation-state law.
5. Arabic and the
Arab world: Israel is located in a region where Arabic is the lingua
franca. Israel does not have warm peaceful relations with any Middle
Eastern countries despite having its hand “outstretched in peace.” Will
eliminating Arabic’s status help Israel convey a message of peace to its
neighbors? Had Arabic never been an official language here it would be
one thing, but by the act of officially erasing the language of the
Middle East, Israel is sending an unfortunate message to all its
neighbors: The official status of Arabic may have been a slight show of
respect for the local language, but now that is being taken away too.
6. Arabic and Jews,
Arabic and Hebrew: Arabic is not only the language of Muslims,
Christians and Druze in the Middle East. Arabic was the most common
language of a majority of Jews until the 12th century, and continued to
be a language of creativity and communication and philosophy for most of
the Jews who lived in the countries of the East. Some of the most
important Jewish religious and philosophical writing, from Musa ibn
Maimun to Said ibn Yusef al-Fayumi (Maimonides and Saadia Gaon), was
written in Arabic and Judeo-Arabic. Moreover, of all the world’s widely
spoken languages today, Arabic is the closest to Hebrew. They are
“Semitic sisters,” as Jewish scholars referred to them, “and every root
that exists in Hebrew also exists in Arabic,” as Eliezer Ben-Yehuda
noted. Thus, the erasure of Arabic also means the erasure of part of the
Jewish past, and of the Jewish connection to the Arabic language, the
Middle East and the local peoples.
7.
Knowledge of Arabic among Jewish Israelis: The most recent survey about
Jewish Israelis’ knowledge of Arabic had disturbing findings. Conducted
by a Tel Aviv University polling institute in 2015, the survey found
that less than 10 percent of Jewish Israelis said they “understand
Arabic”; only 6.8 percent of Jewish Israelis said they “understand
Arabic letters”; 2.4 percent said “they could read a short text in
Arabic”; 1.4 percent said they could compose a brief email in Arabic and
just 0.4 percent said they could “read a novel in Arabic.” The
situation has never been worse. The generation that knew Arabic as a
mother tongue is disappearing. For the first time in the last 1,500
years there is no Jewish composition in Arabic in this country. And
erasing Arabic’s official status is the farthest thing from a solution
to this problem.
8. Opposition of the
professional organizations: Scholarly professional organizations opposed
the elimination of Arabic’s official status in Israel. The Israeli
Association for the Study of Language and Society, the lone professional
association concerned with the connection between languages and
populations in Israel, issued an opinion saying that its members
“adamantly oppose the language section of the bill, as any erasure of
language could have dire consequences.” The same goes for the Academy of
the Arabic Language in Israel, founded as the result of a government
law, which said “In light of the steep retreat in Arabic’s standing,
considered action should be taken to improve its status.” And most
scholars of Arabic studies feel the removal of Arabic’s official status
is bad and foolish. Only the MKs thought differently.
9. Arabic as an
official language – whom does it hurt?: “Official language” is a general
status given to a language and every country chooses how to interpret
that. One may require knowledge of the official languages for a
government job; others may choose to make the official language visible
on its currency. South Africa has 11 official languages. Does this mean
that every lecture at every public university is given in 11 languages?
Of course not. But it is a way for the state to say to its citizens: You
are part of us. In Israel, since 1948, there have been two official
languages, just as there are two peoples who live in the country.
Preserving Arabic’s official status is also important on the level of
principle, and eliminating that status will have much harsher
repercussions than maintaining the status quo ante would have had.
The Knesset has had
its say and the nation-state law has been enacted. Ironically, amid the
discussion of Israel’s “Jewish and democratic values,” a section of the
law that might have called for preserving Arabic’s official status and
promoting knowledge of the language would have been the only part of it,
in the deepest sense, to be both Jewish and democratic.
Dr.
Mendel is director of the Van Leer Institute’s Center for Jewish-Arab
Relations, director of the Forum of Hebrew-Arabic Translators and a
research fellow at the Forum for Regional Thinking.
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