the israeli incorporation regime59
language rights, although Arabic is also an officially recognized language,
the Hebrew language is dominant in all spheres of Israeli society. This was
intensified in 2009 where the Transportation Minister announced the
Hebraization of all major road signs in Israel whereby the Arabic names of
cities, towns and villages would be replaced with its Hebrew name but in
Arabic script.22 Here, to the non-Arabic speaker viewing the Arabic letters,
Jewish ascendancy and the political project of the Hebraization of Israeli
society is painted as an apparent symbol of tolerance, inclusion and coexistence. Other than private-sphere events and immediate community
surroundings, Arabic speakers have limited state-affiliated means for the
development and exercise of their language. Indeed, the status of Arabic is
so inferior to that of Hebrew that government institutions and even entire
Ministries often turn down official documents in Arabic and request a
notarized Hebrew translator. In fact, in a recent publication titled The
Inequality Report (2011), Adalah states:
[M]ore than 200 major principle decisions issued by the Supreme Court
have been translated into English and have been published on the court’s
website along with the original Hebrew decisions. Although the majority of
these decisions are relevant to Palestinians in the OPT, none of them has
been translated into Arabic.23
Further, while several laws are implemented to promote and preserve
Jewish culture and create Jewish cultural institutions, such as The High
Institution for Hebrew Language Law (1973) among others, no such law
exists which refers to Palestinian-Arab culture, history, or heritage.24 As a
result, Jews are provided legally enshrined rights both as a collective and
as individual citizens, whereas Arab citizens of Israel lack a clear and official legal and formal status in Israel as a collective, and fail to identify with
the intrinsically Jewish and Zionist symbols of the state at an individual
level.
22 For instance, “Al Quds” – the Arabic name for Jerusalem – would become
“Yerushalaim,” but written out in Arabic letters. In The Inequality Report, Adalah: The Legal
Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel draws the readers attention to the Supreme Court’s
decision in HCJ 4112/99, Adalah, et al. v. The Municipality of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, et al., rendered on
July 25, 2002, by Justice Dalia Dorner. Submitted by Adalah together with the Association
for Civil Rights in Israel, this case referred to the lack of Arabic text on traffic, warning, road
and other informational signs in the mixed Arab-Jewish cities of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Ramla, Lydd,
Acre, and Nazareth Illit (Upper Nazareth), and requested its modification.
23 Ibid., 46.
24 See Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, “Additional
Information to the UN CERD Committee in Response to the List of Issues Presented to
Israel,” February 2007, http://www.old-adalah.org/eng/intl07/adalah-cerd-feb07.pdf.
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents