Multilingualism in Jerusalem
When reading Second Person Singular by Sayed Kashua, I was interested in looking further into multilingualism in Jerusalem, especially with regards to bilingualism of Israeli-Arabs who speak Hebrew and Arabic. While both languages are West Semitic languages, they are not mutually intelligible to any significant degree, written or oral. Both languages share common features such as their consonant root structures and some cognate vocabulary, but have different abjads that are not very recognizable to those who speak only one of the languages. Such differences in the languages make for an interesting but controversial situation when large numbers of Hebrew speakers in West Jerusalem do not speak Arabic fluently, while many Israeli Arabs, especially those in professional careers, learn Hebrew from a young age to assimilate more fluidly.
Such a linguistic situation is not made simpler by the overwhelming political conflict between Palestine and Israel. The case of "integrated" schools becomes controversial in that Arab school boards would see accepting local Arabs as a violation of political beliefs as to allow Israel to control the West Bank (12). Additionally, organizations such as Lehava represent a far-right influence of Jewish Israelis who object to the idea of mixed schools since they believe no mixing of Jews and non-Jews should exist (Gopher, "Why is Bilingual Education in Israel a Threat to Some, and a Need For Others?"). Regardless of this conflict, Kashua's novel seems to indicate that the presence of bilingual schools in Israeli still exists and is popular among Israeli-Arab parents to send their children. The trend seems to be that both sides, Arabs and Jews, are becoming more accepting as a whole towards the idea of bilingual education (Gopher) (Kazis-Taylor, "Why Israeli Arabs Are Choosing Jewish Schools").
Such assimilation comes with an identity challenge for Arab Israelis. While sending you child to a Jewish school will lead them to speak very fluent Hebrew and probably English, their Arabic abilities may dwindle unless spoken at home regularly. Such a situation gives them advantages abroad and in Israeli but not among their foreign home or their families (Kazis-Taylor). Such a situation exists in the United States where many Hispanic children lose touch with the Spanish language when speaking only English in school. I was one of these children with half of my family being all Puerto Rican but learning mostly English growing up. I started learning Spanish intensively a while back to get in touch with that side of my family, but it is a challenge. This is the case for some children in Jerusalem and it will be interesting to see how the two sides are reconciled as the conflict between Israel and Palestine advances.
Such a linguistic situation is not made simpler by the overwhelming political conflict between Palestine and Israel. The case of "integrated" schools becomes controversial in that Arab school boards would see accepting local Arabs as a violation of political beliefs as to allow Israel to control the West Bank (12). Additionally, organizations such as Lehava represent a far-right influence of Jewish Israelis who object to the idea of mixed schools since they believe no mixing of Jews and non-Jews should exist (Gopher, "Why is Bilingual Education in Israel a Threat to Some, and a Need For Others?"). Regardless of this conflict, Kashua's novel seems to indicate that the presence of bilingual schools in Israeli still exists and is popular among Israeli-Arab parents to send their children. The trend seems to be that both sides, Arabs and Jews, are becoming more accepting as a whole towards the idea of bilingual education (Gopher) (Kazis-Taylor, "Why Israeli Arabs Are Choosing Jewish Schools").
Such assimilation comes with an identity challenge for Arab Israelis. While sending you child to a Jewish school will lead them to speak very fluent Hebrew and probably English, their Arabic abilities may dwindle unless spoken at home regularly. Such a situation gives them advantages abroad and in Israeli but not among their foreign home or their families (Kazis-Taylor). Such a situation exists in the United States where many Hispanic children lose touch with the Spanish language when speaking only English in school. I was one of these children with half of my family being all Puerto Rican but learning mostly English growing up. I started learning Spanish intensively a while back to get in touch with that side of my family, but it is a challenge. This is the case for some children in Jerusalem and it will be interesting to see how the two sides are reconciled as the conflict between Israel and Palestine advances.
Works Cited
Second Person Singular, Sayed Kashua.
"Why is Bilingual Education in Israel a Threat to Some, and a Need For Others?", Uri Gopher.
"Why Israeli Arabs Are Choosing Jewish Schools", Hannah Kazis-Taylor.
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