Opinion
Why is Arabic scary?
Marzuk Halabi
Published: 08.06.08, 09:52
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84 Talkbacks for this article
1. Make Russian the official language
Joqer ,   Amsterdam   (06.08.08)
It's already the de facto language
2. Say Allah'uwakbar & see how many people take cover.
LEE ,   NY, USA   (06.08.08)
3. Arabic is important in JEWISH culture
Aharon   (06.08.08)
I'm sick of Ashkenazim like Limor Livnat shunning all things Arabic as though they were the plague. In case she hasn't realised, about 50% of this country's Jews are from a Judeo-Arab background, whose ancestors communicated primarily in Arabic. This alone is reason enough not to touch the status of Arabic, without even considering the fact that many important Jewish religious works were written in it, or that this country has a large native Arab population which deserves rights equal to our own.
4. Arab school texts are worse
Aryeh Wetherhorn ,   Elazar, Israel   (06.08.08)
The texttbooks and curriculum used in Arab schools , specifically in Jerusalem, follow the Palestinian Authority and systematically delete Hebrew and Jewish references. A minority cannot expect to gain recognition for its own status by negating the status of other groups.
5. Arabs to Arabia, Jews to Yehuda!
Andras Bereny ,   Kfar Tapuah, Ephraim   (06.08.08)
6. Livnat is right: if you want to speak arabic move elsewhere!
Moshe   (06.08.08)
7. Halabi is someone from Aleppo, Syria
Thomas   (06.08.08)
That's where you need to go to speak your mother tongue. Why do you point to Canada and Finland as examples of multi-culturalism. Why not point out successful Arab multi-culturalism? Egypt is officially The Arab Republic of Egypt. Does that represent all of its citizens? How about the Arab Republic of Syria?
8. This is not a bi-national state.
Terry ,   Eilat, Israel   (06.08.08)
And it never will be. If the Arabs cannot reconcile theselves to the Jewish state, then they should leave. The very idea of a bi-national state is racist - in other words, Jews do not have a right to have a sovereign Jewish state with Hebrew as it's national language. These same Arabs who object to Hebrew as the only national language see no problem with a Judenrein Palestinian state. It is the Arabs who have a political agenda & it is not based on the phoney liberal rhetoric they spout for the benefit of foreigners & leftist Israelis. It is naive in the extreme to believe that their intentions are at all "honourable" - This is part & parcel of the effort to undermine the Jewish character of the State of Israel. They don't like "Jewish" symbols either like our flag or national anthem. The point is not that Arabic is "scary & threatening" - it is what is said in Arabic that is scary & threatening. This is not about discrimination nor about equal rights, this is a smokescreen to disguise their true intentions which is to eventually eliminate us as a Jewish state. Minorities in other countries have no trouble speaking the national language. Nor are most minorities hostile to the country they live in to the point of calling for it's elimination. The leadership of other minorities do not spend all their efforts undermining the legitimacy of their country nor do they support every enemy of that country. We do not need a "state within a state" especially when the object is to undermine our state.
9. thomas #7... livnat - the name says it all
ben yokhanan ,   pacific south seas   (06.08.08)
it means white, duh. and white, eurocentric racism is behind a lot of ashkenazi attitudes to arabic language and people. don't try to distract the issue by talking about arab racism and bigotry, i'm only too well aware of those. but by your logic those jews with names like goldberg, finkelstein, koenig etc should go back to germany. i guess the thousands who changed them to "sabra" surnames can stay ;-P the question is why now, after 60 years relegate arabic? terry, you make a good point that it is "not that arabic is scary and threatening - it is what is said in arabic", but this move will only alienate those israeli arabs who are loyal to israel. if arabic is learned and learned well then it will be possible to better disseminate values and civilized standards to the benighted arab world. in my humble opinion, the fact that israel HAS arabic as a second language distinguishes it and makes it better than its monocultural, monolingual neighbours
10. #3-Yes, Arabic is important in their past
Arie ,   BaGolan   (06.08.08)
It is part of where they came from, but NOT where they are now. This is Israel, not iraq or yemen. No one that originated from those countries are screaming "SPEAK ARABIC". Only the 5th column is!. If we follow your logic, why not make Russian or French a national language? A large segment of the population has roots in Russia and Morocco! The US has a very large segment that is Hispanic and Italian yet those languges are not considered national languages, Hebrew is the langugae of the Jews and the Jewish State. Speak others if you wish. But as for a "NATIONAL" language, it is what it is!
11. #8 Terry I couldn't agree with you more. Well put.
Stewart ,   USA   (06.08.08)
12. Arabs are not a race, being anti-Arab is NOT racist!
Antonio ,   Haifa   (06.08.08)
And this is the JEWISH State, not an Ayrab one. HEBREW AND ENGLISH (INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE) ONLY!
13. #8 Terry, your comment makes no sense.
DkS ,   J'lem, IL   (06.08.08)
The point Livnat makes is not to strengthen the Hebrew language, it is solely to weaken the Arab one out of narrow-minded nationalistic motives. She as an educated person should know better. Maybe Israeli Arabs would be more willing to reconcile themselves to a Jewish state if they would feel that their rights and cultural heritate were being valued here. Your entire post is basically one long rant reflecting your hatred for anything Arab but it barely touches the essence of the subject. If you think that trampling on Arab culture and language will 'strengthen' the Jewish character of the state, you're wrong. It will only undermine it and cause more alienation and possibly violence. But that's exactly what people like you seem to be aiming for, so as to have an excuse in order to expel our Arab citizens. I don't know if you served in the army. If you have, maybe you would value the importance of the Arab language in this region and how important it is for Israelis, being surrounded by hundreds of millions of Arabs, to speak the language. If anything, the status of Arabic in Israel should be upgraded and every Jewish Israeli should learn it. It won't do us any harm. Or to put it into terms you will understand: know and understand your enemy!
14. To #6, you are pathetic.
DkS ,   J'lem, IL   (06.08.08)
Say that to all the elderly Jewish refugees who came here from Arab lands with Arabic as a native tongue and who to this day continue to speak Arabic at home in IL. Why not say the same thing to people like you and me: if you want to speak English, move elsewhere? And what about Russian? And the zillion other languages being spoken throughout this country? Statements like yours reflect an unbelievably racist attitude and an IQ which I assume is too low to express in a numeric value. If you live in Israel, please go back to where you came from. The Arabs lived here before you, and you are telling them they can't speak their own language here? You're pathetic.
15. Are we so insecure about our collective existence...
DkS ,   J'lem, IL   (06.08.08)
...and national identity, that we can only safeguard it by oppressing another one? Sad.
16. nonsensical article
Matthew   (06.08.08)
Of course Arabic is "marginalized" in Israel, as only 20% of the people in Israel are Arabs. The author's use of Canda as an example of a bilingual state is absurd. Many French Canadians can barely stand being a part of the Canada. In another few years they will be voting again on whether or not to secede from the country. It is exactly because of the division caused by having a minority remain affixed to its own language and identity to the exclusion of those of the majority that French Canadians are not fully integrated into society. Now, imagine if there were 250 million or so French speakers living right next door to Canada. Millions of these Franco-phones were contstantly denying Canada's right to exist and agitating Canada's French population to fight against their own country. Imagine that Canada had already fought several wars againat these surrounding French speaking countries. Now, imagine how long it would be before the French Canadians decided to revolt, fight against their English speaking fellow citizens, and tear the nation apart. That is a comparison that is more on the mark. If Israel is ever going to have peace with its Arab minority then they must integrate into Israeli society, and that means speaking Hebrew.
17. My fellow racist Israelis make me puke
JPS ,   Efrat   (06.08.08)
As a resident of Judea, it ticks me off to no end when racist rosh-katans like Livnat and the above talkbackers stick their heads in a dark place. There are dozens of countries around the world with governments that recognize two or more official languages. Like it or not, we live in a country with a sizable minority of Arabic speakers who are citizens of the country. The law states that the government will serve these citizens in either Hebrew or Arabic. One of our biggest problems is that while most Arabs speak Hebrew, the number of Arabic speaking Jews is dwindling. The million or more Jews who were native Arabic speakers (for the ignorant among you, the Jews who came from Morocco to Iraq and down to Yemen almost all spoke ARABIC as their mother tongue). Thus, in the 1950's almost half the country were native Arabic speakers, be they Jews or Arabs. Ok, today that number is down a lot, but the Arabic citizens of Israel have the legislated right to government services in Arabic. Livnat wants to cancel that. She's wrong. The absolute opposite is true - we should be teaching our kids to speak, read and write Arabic, so that we understand our enemies and neighbors more. It will do us no harm and a lot of good. Just like the ignorant morons in western Canada who don't like to see French on their box of corn flakes, Israelis who reject Arabic doom us to fail when confronting our enemies.
18. Arabic Never Should Have Been A National Language
Yshai Kohen ,   YeShA, Israel   (06.08.08)
Only Hebrew should be; the language of the nation of Israel in the land of Israel. It has nothing to do with race, and it shouldn't even have to do with the Arabs being our enemies- although that's the nail in their coffin.
19. WHy speak the occupiers language?
JAy3 ,   Israel   (06.08.08)
This is a Jewish country.....we speak hebrew, not the occupiers language, Arabic! If anything, English should be the official second language Why they dropped it is absurd!
20. why?? because it's the language the terrorists use!
(06.08.08)
and there are more terrorists that speak arabic than "normal" arabs. simple as that
21. 8 perfectly said!!!!
sarah ramon   (06.08.08)
22. #3 Aharon. What's with the "Ashkenazi" thing?
Terry ,   Eilat, Israel   (06.08.08)
This has nothing to do with Ashkenazi or Mizrahi. Those days are past. Few younger Mizrahim speak Arabic or have any connection to the supposed "Judeo-Arab" culture aside from eating mofleta once in a while. I happen to come (recently, by the way) fom an Arab country & I speak Arabic. So what? I also speak French, Spanish, a bissel Yiddish, a smattering of Russian, rather basic Hebrew, & obviously English. It has nothing much to do with the discussion at hand. And why do you say the "native" Arab population "deserves" anything? What exactly have they done to "deserve" anything? What did they ever contribute to the success of this country? On the contrary, they have done everything possible to undermine, delegitimize, & work against this country. Their political leaders work tirelessly against the interests of the country, their intellectuals spend their time criticizing the country, & their religious leaders preach our destruction. They treated us like dirt when we lived in their countries & then threw us out, generally, stealing everything they could. And, they treated us like dirt for 1400 years. Face it - they are not our friends. We owe them absolutely nothing.
23. # 3
(06.08.08)
If this was about Ashkenazi bigotry then why hasn't Yiddish ever been made an official language? She's not saying speaking Arabic should be illegal which would be impossible, just not an official language. Two different things.
24. #3 is an Ayrab impostor
Antonio ,   Haifa   (06.08.08)
Everybody here knows how much Jews from the Ayrab countries "love" the Ayrabs and their filthy language.
25. Why do you idiots want us to lose the next war?
JPS ,   Efrat   (06.08.08)
Any time the subject of Arabic comes up, the IQ of many Israeli Jews drops by a factor of 10. If you don't know Arabic, you don't know what the enemy is saying. If you don't know what the enemy is saying, you put yourself in a military disadvantage. If you don't know what your neighbors are saying, you put yourself in a trade disadvantage. So the stupid racist Jewish talkbackers think we should never learn a word of Arabic? Sounds like they're volunteering for the enemy. I live in the "west bank" and the ignorance, stupidity and racism of my neighbors drives me nuts. It's also a danger to this country.
26. # 9 Ben Yokhanan
Thomas   (06.08.08)
I don't think I'm "distracting" from the issue by questioning why Arabs find liberal concepts such as human rights, tolerance, and multi-culturalism so imporatnt when these concepts are so alien in their own countries. "if arabic is learned and learned well then it will be possible to better disseminate values and civilized standards to the benighted arab world. " Yeah, that should work wonders. Be careful when you stand under those coconut trees .
27. JPS from Efrat, a sane voice in an ocean of ignorance.
DkS ,   J'lem, Israel   (06.08.08)
Thank you for your comments. People like you give me a little bit of hope that this country will not go to hell completely after all. You're not the only one who is at times flabbergasted by the depth of racism, ignorance and stupidity among our fellow Israelis. And we call ourselves an enlightened country. It shows! And people, don't start with all the comparisons to Arab countries. We want to represent a better standard than that, don't we?
28. Arabs are scary from their words and actions!
David ,   Jerusalem, Israel   (06.08.08)
They do NOT wish to coexist. They do not want to be a minority in any country, let alone Israel. Their tenant is that they must rule. They come from Syria, Lebanon, Iraq etc, looking for jobs. We, the Jews are moreso the native population then they will every be. So Halabi, go tell your lies somewhere else. You can speak arabic till you guts rot in you original homeland somewhere near Damascus.
29. # 25
(06.08.08)
There's a difference between outlawing Arabic and not having it as an official language. Your cries of racism at this are as ludicrous as the author of this article. I don't agree with Livnat but Im tired of the cries of racism at everything that the Arabs don't like. They say we do this with "anti-Semitism". Boy is it annoying.
30. To number 28 David... No you are not the native habibi!
Palestinian   (06.08.08)
You or your grand father came from somewhere else so do not forget that... I am myself proud that since the time my family took record of their ancestry, I have evidence to prove that we are from Palestine sine at least 800 years... Our family role during the Crusade time is documented....! If this is not an evidence what else... Do not tell me the torah and all that stuff.... Because judaism was a religion that was embraced by many in this region 2000 years back, but most people converted after that... Jesus himself being an Example!! Any case... You can never reach our level of indigenous status no matter how you cry about it.... Go to any West Bank town, and you see that in the dressings of the Old Women, in their Aramaic Levanite dialect... You will see that in the way they prepare the food from the basics that the Land of Palestine has given over the thousands of years... You will see the Soap (Saboon) industry still thriving in Nablus the way it was 4000 years ago.... You are the occupiers and no one except you... Yes the people of Palestine speak Arabic, and so every one else... Egypt speak Arabic.... Arabian tribes have been part of the Palestine and Syrian since before the time of Jesus Christ...! In fact, some people go as far as the Canaanites/Phonecians themselves.... Read the History of Arabs by Bernanrd Lewis.... Here is more stuff for people like you to read: http://www.palestine-encyclopedia.com/EPP/Introduction1o2.htm Habibi David,, open your eyes and minds.... Don't let hate cover what is left of your humanity..... Don't try to X mark our history because people who tried that before failed...!
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