Arabic under threat

When Dr. Mas'ad Barhum was appointed as director of Nahariya hospital in northern Israel some seven years ago, thus becoming the first Israeli-Arab to occupy such a post, his nomination was hailed as an important step towards the integration of the Arab minority in Israel, proof that Israel is a democracy, where everyone - whether Arab or Jew - is equal.

Not exactly. An instruction distributed by the same Dr. Barhum some weeks ago and made public only yesterday, stipulated that the only language allowed in the hospital is Hebrew. The staff should use only Hebrew with the patients and among itself. It should be remembered that more than 50 percent of the population in the northern district to which Nahariya hospital belongs are Arabs, and among the hospital's patients, the percentage is even higher. Many of the doctors and medical staff are also Arabs. So an Arab doctor will be forced to speak Hebrew with an Arab patient in order "to respect his colleagues," according to Barhum's instruction.

Barhum is not alone. While he is forcing his Arab colleagues not to speak Arabic in public, a group of right-wing Knesset members is going down the same path. Led by MK Shimon Ohayon (Likud) they demand to abolish the status of Arabic as an official language, a heritage from the times of the British Mandate. Currently, all laws, regulations and official forms must be published in Arabic as well as Hebrew, and every citizen is entitled to use Arabic while dealing with government institutions.

Ohayon, himself born in Morocco, claims that canceling Arabic's unique status "will help social cohesion and build a collective identity needed to create mutual trust" within Israeli society. Quite similar are the justifications used by Dr. Barhum in Nahariya. Interestingly enough, just a few months ago, Israel's education minister, Shai Piron, exempted high-school students from the long-time obligation to study Arabic, a language spoken by more than 20 percent of Israelis; as if there is a concerted effort to wipe out the Arab cultural presence from the Israeli public sphere.

"It is part of a policy of threats aimed at Palestinians in Israel," comments Jaafar Farah, head of Moasawa Center for the Rights of the Arab Minority in Israel. "The racist settler elite, which controls much of Israeli establishment, is trying to build a Jewish ghetto with walls around it. These ghettos suit them. What they don't realize is that despite them, Israel is turning into a multi-lingual society. In Haifa [Mosawa is based in this northern city], apart from Arabic, a third of the population speaks Russian."

Farah claims that even without abolishing its official status, the Arabic language is in continuous decline in Israel. "Once not only legislation, but all Knesset hearings were published in Arabic. Now, no more. On the homepage of government internet sites you have Arabic, but if you go in and try to fill a form, it's in Hebrew." His center decided to write all their bank cheques  in Arabic, and every week they get telephone calls from angry bank clerks, asking them to explain what is written upon them. "We are reminding them that this is an official language and they have to deal with it themselves."

During the height of Operation Protective Edge, when Israeli Palestinians were attacked on a daily basis, Ron Gerliz, co-director of Sikuy (Chance), an association working with the Arab minority, wrote an article in which he claimed that this violence is also a reaction to the advancement of Arabs in Israeli society.  When he was young, wrote Gerliz, in the Jewish cities you would meet Arabs only as laborers. Today it has completely changed: "A Jewish citizen coming into a pharmacy will almost always see there an Arab pharmacist, and if he will reach an emergency room, it is very  probable that he will treated by an Arab doctor." The Jewish extremists see these changes, are afraid to lose their hegemonic position, and are turning against the Israeli Arabs, wrote Gerliz.

Farah rejects this explanation. "The Israeli Palestinians are a weakened community and they remain such," he said. "We spend 40 billion shekels per year on consumption, but the advertisers ignore our community. The Arab media in Israel is getting weaker, even in Arab cities all billboards are in Hebrew." This doesn't say that the language itself is disappearing. On the contrary, more and more Israeli Arabs are watching international Arab channels like al-Jazeera or al-Mayadeen. "The younger generation knows literary Arab (fosha) better than I knew at my age," added Farah.

Although it is clear that the aim of the proposed law is to reduce Arab presence in Israel, the result maybe the opposite. "We are not afraid," said Farah. If this law will be passed and the official status of Arabic will be canceled, it will act as a boomerang, he predicts. A few years ago, Israel passed a law forbidding to commemorate the Nakba, the plight of the Arabs in 1948. Today, noted Farah, the number of Israeli Palestinians participating in Nakba memorials has risen from 10,000 to 30,000 each year.

Farah estimates that the same thing will happen after a law downgrading the status of Arabic passes; The Israeli Palestinians will strengthen their attachment to their language, and Israel's isolation in the world will deepen. The newly elected president Rubi Rivlin might understand it and condemn Ohayon's initiative. But then Rivlin has personal stakes in the Arabic language. His father, Professor Yossef Yoel Rivlin,was the first to translate the Koran into modern Hebrew. The memories of a Jewish-Arabic co-existence haven’t faded away completely. 

- Meron Rapoport is an Israeli journalist and writer, winner of the Napoli International Prize for Journalism for a inquiry about the stealing of olive trees from their Palestinian owners. He is ex-head of the News Department in Haaertz, and now an independent journalist.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.