Language:
Hebrew
Year of publication:
2021
Titel der Quelle:
תרבות דמוקרטית
Angaben zur Quelle:
20 (תשפב) 267-297
Keywords:
Linguistic rights
;
Nation-state
;
Arabic language
;
Palestinian Arabs Legal status, laws, etc.
Abstract:
The Basic Law: Israel, the Nation State of the Jewish people [Hereinafter: the INS], which was passed on 19 July 2018 by the Israeli parliament, determines that Hebrew is the "state language" of Israel, while Arabic is a language with “special status". The INS also declares that "specific arrangements concerning the use of the Arabic language in governmental institutions" will be set in future legislation, and promises that the INS "does not harm the prior status of the Arabic language before its enactment".Before the INS, Hebrew and Arabic were both officially considered Israel's official languages. Proponents of the INS claim that the INS does not harm the status of the Arabic language, since its status was already weak and fragile before the enactment of the INS. Some argue that the INS harms the status of Arabic only on the symbolic level, since the INS clearly stipulates that it does not harm the status given to the Arabic language before the INS came into effect.In light of these claims, the purpose of this paper is to suggest purposive interpretation to the special status of Arabic in the INS. The article argues that the special status of Arabic in the INS should be purposively interpreted by courts in light of five considerations. The first is the legislators' intent as it is manifested in public debates in the Knesset before the enactment of the INS. The second is the intrinsic value of Arabic as the Arab minority's exclusive marker of cultural identity. The third consideration is the way courts interpreted the special status of Arabic after the enactment of the INS. The forth consideration is the lesson we can learn from countries that created a hierarchy between the majority language and the minority language, and countries, which chose the opposite path of positively recognizing the minority language by according it a more equal status to the majority language. The fifth consideration concerns the positive potential of a strong legal protection of Arabic to create a basis for civic solidarity between Jews and Arabs in Israel.
Note:
With an English abstract.
URL:
אתר את הפרסום בקטלוג המאוחד של ספריות ישראל
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