Arabic in Israel: Language, Identity and Conflict

226 Pages·2017·2.35 MB·English

by  Muhammad Amara

ARABIC IN ISRAEL
In Arabic in Israel, Muhammad Amara analyzes the status of Arabic following the
creation of the State of Israel and documents its impact on the individual and col-
lective identity of Israel’s Palestinian Arab citizens. The interplay of language and
identity in conflict situations is also examined. This work represents the culmina-
tion of many years of research on Arabic linguistic repertoire and educational policy
regarding the language of the Palestinian citizens of Israel. It draws all of these
factors together while linking them to local, regional and global developments. Its
perspective is interdisciplinary and, as such, examines the topic from a number of
angles including linguistic, social, cultural and political.
Muhammad Amara is the head of Graduate Studies at Beit Berl College, Israel,
a lecturer at Al-Qasemi College and president of the Israeli Society for the Study
of Language and Society.
Routledge Studies in Language and Identity
Series Editor: Reem Bassiouney
For more titles, please visit www.routledge.com/languages/series/RSLI
The Routledge Studies in Language and Identity (RSLI) series aims to examine
the intricate relation between language and identity from different perspectives.
The series straddles fields such as sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, applied lin-
guistics, historical linguistics and linguistic anthropology. It aims to study identity
and language by utilizing novel methods of analysis as well as ground-breaking
theoretical approaches.
Titles in Series:
Arabic in Israel
Language, Identity and Conflict
Muhammad Amara
Identity and Dialect Performance
A Study of Communities and Dialects
Reem Bassiouney
ARABIC IN ISRAEL
Language, Identity and Conflict
Muhammad Amara
First published 2018
by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 Muhammad Amara
The right of Muhammad Amara to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-06354-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-06355-6 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-16093-1 (ebk)
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CONTENTS
List of tables, figures, and maps x
Preface xii
Acknowledgements xvii
1 Language, identity and conflict 1
Introduction 1
Identity and identities 1
Conflicting identities: Palestinian-Jewish relationships
inside Israel 4
Language and social identity 6
The Arabic language and social identity 8
Language and identity in Israel 10
The vitality of Arabic in Israel 13
Language and conflict 14
The role of language in the Arab-Israeli conflict 16
Conclusion 17
2 Internal and external challenges of the Arabic language 24
Introduction 24
Internal challenges 24
Diglossia: old and new challenges 24
Modernization and the Arabic language 26
External challenges 28
Colonialism, globalization and the Arabic language 28
Policy towards Arabic in the Arab world: encountering challenges 31
Conclusion 32
vi Contents
3 Internal and regional contexts and the Arabic language
in Israel 37
Introduction 37
Internal contexts 37
Regional contexts 40
Conclusion 46
4 The status of the Arabic language in Israel 52
The linguistic situation in Israel 52
The status of Arabic in Israel 53
Conclusion 57
5 Features of the Arabic language in Israel 60
Introduction 60
Arabic in Israel 61
Is there a unique variety of Arabic in Israel? 61
Influences from other Arabic varieties 62
Conclusion 64
6 Arabic in the shadow of Hebraization 66
Hebrew is the dominant language in Israel 66
Building the new Jewish Israeli identity 67
Putting Hebrew on the national agenda 67
Teaching Hebrew 68
Hebraization consequences 69
Ideologized Hebrew and its teaching to Palestinian pupils in Israel 70
Attitudes towards teaching Hebrew to Palestinian Arabs 71
The policy of teaching Hebrew: goals and curricula 71
A new curriculum 74
Textbooks and contents 74
Consequences of Hebraization for teaching 76
The penetration of Hebrew into the ‘Heart of Arabic’: borrowing 77
Introduction 77
Culture contact and its linguistic reflections 77
The importance of the study of Hebrew 79
The knowledge and use of Hebrew 80
Borrowing lexical items from Hebrew: integration and diffusion 81
The construction domain 82
The food domain 83
The domain of health services 83
Borrowing and its linguistic characteristics 83
The consequences of Hebraization on borrowing 85
Contents vii
7 English in the Palestinian linguistic repertoire in Israel 92
Introduction 92
English teaching in the Palestinian schools in Israel 92
The current English curriculum 94
Textbooks 95
Achievements 95
Borrowing from English 97
Globalization and English 98
Writing with Latin and Hebrew letters 99
Conclusion 100
8 Hebraization of Arabic place names 103
Introduction 103
Hebraizing names: the translation of ideological orientation
and political thinking 107
Conclusion 111
9 The current linguistic landscape in the Palestinian Arab
localities in Israel 114
Linguistic landscape: a brief background 114
Studies on linguistic landscape in Israel 115
The Palestinian Arab linguistic landscape in Israel 116
Hebrew and Hebraization 119
Palestinian Arab uniqueness 122
Conclusion 123
The linguistic landscape from a different perspective: Umm-el-Fahm
as a case study 124
Umm-el-Fahm: background 124
The linguistic landscape in the city 126
Mosques 126
Street names 126
Educational institutions 127
Local newspapers and Arabic 127
Location names 128
Social institutions 129
Language in the local politics 129
Conclusion 130
10 The Arabic language in the Palestinian Arab
education system 134
Introduction 134
The effect of the Arabic curricula on the Palestinian Arab identity 135
viii Contents
The hurdles blocking the achievement of high competence
in Standard Arabic 136
What is the role of the Arabic language in the Palestinian
Arab education system? 140
Conclusion 141
11 Teaching Arabic in Jewish schools: language
of the neighbour or the enemy? 145
Introduction 145
Teaching the Arabic language 146
Jewish attitudes towards the Arabic language 148
Goals of teaching Arabic 151
Bilingual schools: the Hand in Hand schools 152
Conclusion 153
12 Language ideology and attitudes: Arabic language
academies and future vision documents 157
Language ideology and attitudes towards Arabic 157
The Communist party and the Democratic Front 158
Balad 159
The Islamic Movement 160
Friday ceremonies 162
Transition rituals 162
Political festivals 162
Newspapers and websites 162
Schools for memorizing the Qur’an 163
The Center for Contemporary Studies 163
College of Islamic law 163
Civil organizations 164
Survey 165
Conclusion 168
Arabic language academies in the Israeli context: between the research
role and nationalist aspirations 168
Arabic language academies 169
A brief background 169
The Cairo academy as an example 170
The Cairo academy: goals, committees and
achievements 172
Arabic language academies in Israel 173
The formation of the Arabic Language Academy in
Israel 173
The official Arabic Language Academy 174
The Al-Qasemi Arabic Language Academy 175
Conclusion 176
Contents ix
The role of Arabic according to the future vision documents 178
Introduction 178
Arabic in the future vision documents 178
Conclusion 182
13 Epilogue: facing the challenges 186
Challenges of the Arabic language 186
Facing the challenges 191
Arabic as a strategic choice for building an Arab
knowledge society 191
Meeting the challenges: building a framework 194
The first avenue: linguistic practices 195
The second avenue: linguistic ideology 195
The third avenue: language policy 196
Practical proposals 197
The local level: reinvigorating Standard Arabic 197
The national arena: advocating for Arabic in Israel 198
Arabic education 198
Conclusion 199
Index 202