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ARABIC INSTRUCTION IN JEWISH SCHOOLS AND IN UNIVERSITIES IN ISRAEL: CONTRADICTIONS, SUBVERSION, AND THE POLITICS OF PEDAGOGY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 April 2010

Allon J. Uhlmann
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Extract

Teaching is never merely a technical, pedagogical issue. This is especially true of Arabic teaching in Israel. Two related factors have conditioned the evolution of Arabic instruction in Israel in various, often contradictory ways. One is the Zionist modernist project of inventing a Jewish nation by bracketing off Jews from gentiles and reconstituting them as a distinct Hebraic ethno-linguistic community. The other is the project of securing historic Palestine as an exclusive national homeland for this newly invented nation and the consequent ambivalence toward Arab existence in historic Palestine. Both make up what I term Zionist sectarianism, and their influence on Arabic pedagogy has been decisive and pervasive, yet contradictory and unpredictable, demonstrating that although practice is always political, it is never mechanically reducible to its political underpinnings.

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International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 42 , Issue 2 , May 2010 , pp. 291 - 309
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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References

NOTES

Author's note: This paper benefited from a postdoctoral fellowship at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, a research visitorship at the Department of Arabic Language and Literature at Haifa University, and a research fellowship at Cambridge University's Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre of Islamic Studies. The research was supported in part by the Center for International Studies at the University of Missouri–St. Louis and by a University of Missouri Research Board Award.

1 Cf. Eyal, Gil, Hasarat ha-Kesem min ha-Mizrah (Jerusalem: Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, 2005)Google Scholar.

2 Druze schools are administered separately from other Arab schools. Jewish schools comprise the National Stream and the National Religious Stream as well as the autonomous/independent ultraorthodox stream.

3 Amara, Muhammad Hasan and Marʾi, Abd Al-Rhaman, Language Education Policy: The Arab Minority in Israel (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2002)Google Scholar.

4 Hayam-Yonas, Adva and Malka, Shira, Likraʾt Patuah Takhnit Limudim be- ʿAravit le-Hativat ha-Benayim ve-la-Hativa ha- ʿElyona ba-Migzar ha-Yehudi: Mehkar Haʿarakha (Jerusalem: Henrietta Szold Institute, 2006)Google Scholar; Brosh, Hezi, “ʿAravit le-Dovre ʿIvrit be-Yisraʾel—‘Safah Shniyah’ O ‘Safah Zarah,’” Helkat Lashon 23 (1997): 111–31Google Scholar; Lustigman, Ran, “Horaʾat ha-Safah ha- ʿAravit be-Bate Sefer ʿIvriyim,” Shishim Shenot Hinukh be-Yisraʾel (Jerusalem, 2008), 174Google Scholar; Spolsky, Bernard and Shohamy, Elana, The Languages of Israel: Policy, Ideology and Practice (Clevedon, U.K.: Multilingual Matters, 1999), 128, 144–49Google Scholar; Bernard Spolsky, Elana Shohamy, and Smadar Donitsa-Schmit, Hinukh Leshoni be-Yisraʾel: Profil le-Horaʾat ha-Safah ha- ʿAravit be-Vate Sefer ʿIvriyim (Dec. 1995); report submitted to the Ministry of Education, www.biu.ac.il/hu/lpcr/home/ARAFHEB.htm (accessed 5 October 2007), 23–25.

5 Spolsky and Shohamy, The Languages of Israel, 22ff., chap. 7; cf. Bernard Spolsky, Elana Shohamy, and Sarit Wald, Hinukh Leshoni be-Yisraʾel: Profil le-Horaʾat ha-Safah ha-Anglit (Dec. 1995), report submitted to the Ministry of Education, http://www.biu.ac.il/hu/lprc/home/ENGLISH.htm (accessed 5 October 2007). Reliable estimates of the ratio of native-speaking English teachers is hard to make. In a well-supported study in the mid-1990s, Spolsky and his colleagues put the figure at forty percent for Jewish high schools. This varies widely by region and the socioeconomic standing of the catchment areas.

6 Cf. Ferguson, Charles A., “Diglossia,” Word 15 (1959): 325–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 Ferguson, Charles A., “Problems of Teaching Languages with Diglossia,” Georgetown University Monograph Series 15 (1963): 165–77Google Scholar. Incidentally, colloquial Arabic can also be (and often is) “Latinized” in instruction.

8 Brosh “ʿAravit le-Dovre ʿIvrit,” 117–21. See also the discussion of the curricular shift to communicative competence in English instruction during the 1970s in Spolsky and Shohamy, The Languages of Israel, 174ff.

9 Amara and Marʾi, Language Education Policy; Spolsky and Shohamy, The Languages of Israel, 140–42. Although currently the ratio of school-age Jews who speak Arabic at home is small, the educational situation was not substantially different a generation or two ago, when the ratio was much higher.

10 The matriculation certificate is a qualification that is normally awarded upon completion of high school to qualifying students and is essential for enrollment at university. The grades are calculated based on the performance in national standardized tests for different subjects and the grades obtained at school. To be awarded a certificate students need to complete a minimum number of units, some of which are compulsory and others of which are electives that make up a major, or specialization area.

11 Spolsky and Shohamy, The Languages of Israel, 140, 151ff.

12 Bourdieu, Pierre, “The Forms of Capital,” in Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, ed. Richardson, John G. (New York: Greenwood Press, 1986)Google Scholar.

13 Cf. Spolsky and Shohamy, The Languages of Israel, 128, 144–49; Spolsky, Shohamy, and Donitsa-Schmit, Profil le-Horaʾat ha-Safah ha- ʿAravit, 23–25.

14 The language of instruction can be contentious among Arabs too. One Arab instructor who insists on the exclusive use of Standard Arabic in class recounted that a female Arab student once informed him that she did not feel comfortable speaking Standard Arabic and would not participate if he insisted on her sticking to the Standard register. He said that she kept silent in class throughout the semester.

15 By Arab Jews I mean Jews from the Arab world. I prefer this to the term Mizrahi Jews, which includes Jews from non-Arab countries, and use it as an equivalent to the Hebrew yehude ʿarav. I am not implying here a meaningful category of self-identity, even though some people do identify as Arab Jews or Jewish Arabs.

16 Cf. Fishman, Joshua A., Cooper, Robert L., and Conrad, Andrew W., The Spread of English (Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House, 1977)Google Scholar.

17 Spolsky and Shohamy, The Languages of Israel; Brosh, “ʿAravit le-Dovre ʿIvrit,”; Lustigman, “Horaʾat ha-Safah ha- ʿAravit be-vate Sefer ʿIvriyim.”

18 Amara and Marʾi, Language Education Policy, 83.

19 Suleiman, Yasir, “Charting the Nation: Arabic and the Politics of Identity,” Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 26 (2006): 125–48CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

20 Jew and Arab as national or ethnic categories have been bureaucratically reified through a system that defines a person as Jew or Arab explicitly (through the population registry) and effectively (through the differential deployment of law and bureaucracy) so that nearly all in Israel (with but a handful of exceptions) know their “place” regardless of whether they agree with it or like it. Moreover, this invention has been largely successful, as demonstrated by the active popular participation of Jews in Zionist sectarianism.

21 Hezi Brosh and Eliezer Ben-Rafael, “Mediniyut Leshonit mul Metsiʾut Hevratit: ha- ʿAravit be-Veit ha-Sefer ha- ʿIvri,” ʿIyunim be-Hinukh 59–60 (1994): 333–51; cf. Shohat, Ella, “The Invention of the Mizrahim,” Journal of Palestine Studies 29 (1999): 5–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Shenhav, Yehouda, Ha-Yehudim ha- ʿAravim: Leʾumiyut, Dat ve- ʿEtniyut (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 2003)Google Scholar; Snir, Reuven, ʿArviyut, Yahadut, Tsiyonut: Maʾavak Zehuyot be-Yetsirotehem shel Yehude ʿIrak (Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute, 2005)Google Scholar.

22 Cf. Eyal, Hasarat ha-Kesem.

23 For example, Bourdieu, Pierre, “The Genesis of the Concept of Habitus and Field,” Sociocriticism 2 (1985): 11–24Google Scholar.

24 Cf. the early items in both Yosef Yonai, ed., ʿAravit be-Vatei Sefer ʿIvriyim (Jerusalem: Ministry of Education and Culture, Branch of History of Education and Culture, 1992) and Jacob M. Landau, ed., Horaʾat ha- ʿAravit ke-Lashon Zarah: Leket Maʾamarim (Jerusalem: School of Education of the Hebrew University and the Ministry of Education and Culture, 1962).

25 Spolsky and Shohamy, The Languages of Israel.

26 See the collection of policy documents and pedagogical debates in Yonai, ʿAravit, and Landau, Horaʾat ha- ʿAravit ke-Lashon Zarah.

27 State Comptroller, “Horaʾat ha-Safah ha- ʿAravit be-Vate ha-Sefer ha- ʿIvriyim,” in Doh Shnati 46: Lishnat 1995 U-le-Heshbonot Shnat Haksafim 1994 (Jerusalem: State Comptroller, 1996), 367–78; cf. Hayam-Yonas and Malka, Likrat Pituah Takhnit Limudim be- ʿAravit, chap. 1.

28 See Military Intelligence, Tippuah Limudie Mizrahanut (Section on Development of the Study of Orientalism), http://www1.idf.il/aman/Site/EnterTelem/EnterTelem.asp (accessed 5 February 2004). As an indication of the hegemonic domination of the military in this area, one might also note that the state comptroller's staff, in formulating its report on Arabic instruction, consulted the military and dedicated much space to the military's need for Arabic speakers. No other body outside the Ministry of Education and the teaching force was consulted. The report formulators do not feel the need to justify this reliance on the military at a time when academic departments and other stakeholders were not consulted and their interests in school education were not explicitly considered. The central position of the military in the area of Arabic instruction is taken for granted. See State Comptroller, “Horaʾat ha-safah Ha- ʿAravit.”

29 For example, see a report on one such visit in the Journal of Teachers of Arabic in Hebrew-Speaking Schools 5 (2000): 59.

30 Military Intelligence, Tippuah Limudie Mizrahanut; State Comptroller, “Horaʾat ha-Safah ha- ʿAravit”; Lustigman, “Horaʾat ha-Safah ha- ʿAravit be-Vate Sefer ʿIvriyim,” 170–71.

31 State Comptroller, “Horaʾat ha-Safah ha- ʿAravit,” 374; Lustigman, “Horaʾat ha-Safah ha- ʿAravit be-Vate Sefer ʿIvriyim,” 174.

32 State Comptroller, “Horaʾat ha-Safah ha- ʿAravit,” 367–78; Lustigman, “Horaʾat ha-Safah ha- ʿAravit be-Vatei Sefer ʿIvriyyim,” 172.

33 Knesset, 1986, “Duah Vaʿadat ha-Hinukh shel ha-Kneset,” in ʿAravit be-Vate Sefer ʿIvriyim, ed. Yosef Yonai (Jerusalem: Ministry of Education and Culture, Branch of History of Education and Culture, 1992), 174–80.

34 Abraham Fund, http://www.abrahamfund.org/ (accessed 7 June 2008); Hand in Hand, http://www.handinhandk12.org (accessed 14 December 2009).

35 State Comptroller, “Horaʾat ha-Safah ha- ʿAravit,” 372.

36 Hayam-Yonas and Malka, Likrat Patuah Takhnit Limudim be- ʿAravit.

37 Cf. So'en, Dan and Debby, Edna, “ʿAravit—Lamah Mah?’ ʿEmdot Talmidim Klape ha- ʿAravit u-Nekhonutam li-Lmod et ha-Safah,” Ha-Hinukh u-Svivo: Shnaton Seminar ha-Kibutsim 28 (2006): 193–206Google Scholar.

38 See Brosh and Ben-Rafael, Mediniyut Leshonit mul Metsiʾut Hevratit, 341–44; So'en and Debby “ʿAravit—Lamah Mah?’”

39 Shahar Ilan, “Hatsaʿat Ḥok: ʿAravit Loʾ Tihyeh Safah Rishmit,” Haaretz Daily, 19 May 2008.

40 Sharon Roffe-Offir, “Sar ha-Tahburah Isher Et Hahlafat ha-Shlatim be- ʿAravit ve-Anglit le-Taʿatik ʿIvri Tahor,” Y Net, 13 July 2009. http://www.ynet.co.il/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3745579,00.html (accessed 13 July 2009)

41 Or Qashti, “Misrad ha-Hinukh Ḥazar bo: ha-Safah ha- ʿAravit Tishaʾer be-Takhnit Halibah,” Haaretz Daily, 14 April 2008.

42 Cf. Hayam-Yonas and Malka, Likrat Patuah Takhnit Limudim be- ʿAravit, 46–81, 142–74.

43 Eyal, Hasarat ha-Kesem.

44 Hayam-Yonas and Malka, Likrat Patuah Takhnit Limudim be- ʿAravit, 46–81, 142–74.

45 Such rationalizations are by no means new. For an early version see the 1946 background briefing by the supervisor of Arabic in the Education Department of the Jewish Assembly in Palestine. Israel Ben Zeev, “Horaʾat ha- ʿAravit be-Shnat 1946,” in ʿAravit be-Vate Sefer ʿIvriyim, ed. Yosef Yonai (Jerusalem: Ministry of Education and Culture, Branch of History of Education and Culture, 1992), 36–38.

46 The program was administered at Givʿat Haviva and has yet to be studied by independent scholars.

47 Much of the debate can be seen in contributions to the Journal of the Teachers of Arabic in Hebrew Schools, and echoes of it can be gleaned from the open comments made by principals and student that are cited by Hayam-Yonas and Malka, Likrat Patuah Takhnit Limudim be- ʿAravit, chaps. 2–3.

48 Naomi Weisblatt, “Horaʾat ha- ʿAravit—Hirhurim Veʾetgarim,” Journal of the Teachers of Arabic in Hebrew-Speaking Schools 29–30 (2003): 170–73; Aryeh Levin, “Horaʾat ha- ʿAravit—Neyyar ʿEmdah,” Journal of the Teachers of Arabic in Hebrew-Speaking Schools, 29–30 (2003): 174–77.

49 Cf. Brosh “ʿAravit le-Dovre ʿIvrit,” 121–23.

50 Ferguson, “Problems of Teaching.”

51 See, for example, Journal of the Teachers of Arabic in Hebrew-Speaking Schools 27 (2002): 35ff.

52 Hayam-Yonas and Malka, Likrat Patuah Takhnit Limudim be- ʿAravit, 191.