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= History of language education policy in the Palestine-Israel region = Language education policy in the Palestine-Israel region has been implemented by different rulers and governments over the last 500 years, shifting the prevalence of different languages and of multilingualism. Between the 8th and 14th centuries was the Islamic Golden age of progress, such as in science, maths and works in philosophy. Multilingualism was a normality both in learning and knowledge production, as well as day to day life. There were also Jewish Talmudic Academies that taught in Arabic, giving Jewish scholars access to Arabic texts .This was followed by Ottoman rule between 1517-1917. The Ottoman’s started schools in Turkish for the Arab population to go to, using language to cement their rule over the territory. There were also private Muslim schools that were more popular with the Arab population, and private religious schools for other religous groups. For Jews, there were also schools run by the Alliance Israelite Universelle, a French Jewish organisation with a civilising mission over the Jews in the middle east. The British mandate then took over Ottoman rule in 1917, taking over their government schools. These were instructed in Arabic but teaching of Arabic History was banned to prevent Arab nationalism.

Following the Arab-Israeli war in 1948, Jews occupied parts of Palestine and many Arabs were displaced from their homes. Hebrew was used by the government to communicate between Jews from different parts of the world as well as asserting Jewish rule over the region. Both Hebrew and Arabic were declared official languages. However, Arabic was not official in practice, with Hebrew taking precedence. After the 1948 war, the West Bank and Gaza were were occupied by Jordan and Egypt. Education of the West Bank and Gaza was under their respective management and hence is not covered in this wikipedia article. Arabs in the regions occupied by Israel were under military rule between 1948 and 1967. The securitisation of the Arabs by the Israeli government affected their education. Their education was not allowed to contain any anti-jewish sentiments and was overseen by Jewish educators. They were taught Arabic only for competence of the language rather than appreciation of it’s history and culture, with the amount of hours of Arabic study cut down from the British Mandatory times.

After the Six-Day war in 1967, Arabs who lived in the areas occupied by the Jews in 1948 were considered Arab-Israeli citizens by the Israeli Government. Their education was run by the Jewish Ministry of Education. Arabs living in the areas newly occupied in 1967 were considered Palestinians and governed their own education system (see Education in the State of Palestine). This was to avoid having a higher percentage of more integrated Arabs that would threaten Jewish the majority of citizens and therefore Jewish rule. Arab-Israeli education continued to be securitsiated and the hidden curriculum conveyed to Arabs to accept the Israeli Government's narrative as truth. The government selected classic Arabic literature to be added to the curriculum and content was delivered without teaching or encouraging to critically analyse it or to read outside of it.

In 1981 goals were declared by the Ministry of Education to encourage Arab cultural and national pride and identity. The content taught did not reflect this. The selection of writing by Palestinians in the curriculum lacked any mention of nationalism. This established to the students through the hidden curriculum what appropriate boundaries of expressing Arab identity are. Additionally, a The New Language policy in 1995 made Hebrew teaching a priority at the expense of Arabic teaching hours.

In Jewish schools Arabic is securitised and taught with the intention of preparing students for the army, particularly to enter the intelligence service.

Alternative to the traditional government schools ere eight bilingual schools in Israel. These schools were started by three NGOs and aim to use inter-group contact and bilingualism to improve Jewish-Arab relations. The valuing of Arabic and Arab culture is used to challenge power dynamics within the Israeli society. Additionally, critical thinking is encouraged both directly, and through simultaneously learning two languages with different pedagogies and narratives built into them.

Arabic and Hebrew during the Islamic Golden Age:
Between the 8th and 14th centuries in the middle east is what is known as the Islamic Golden age. Arabs made many advancements at that time, such as in science, maths and philosophy. They also preserved and translated ancient classic works including Greek philosophical texts that would have otherwise been lost. Bilingualism and multilingualism were a part of life and education in that era. During the 10th century there were Jews in many different parts of the world including Europe, Spain , The Middle East and North Africa. Between the 8th or 10th centuries until the mid 11th century, was what was considered the Jewish Golden Age for the Jews in Spain, which was under Muslim rule at the time. Arabic became the main language of the Jews in Spain and the Middle East for use in science, business and philosophy,, with hebrew being largely spiritual. Jews also took part in the advancements of the science, philosophy, etc., that flourished in the Islamic Golden age. They were involved in translating many of these works from Arabic to the romance languages, like they had previously taken part in translating ancient Greek and Hebrew texts to Arabic. There were also the Jewish Talmudic Academies which were centres for Jewish scholarship that taught both Arabic and Hebrew scripts. This allowed them access to texts written in Arabic and those texts best preserved and translated by the Arabs.

Language and education in the Ottoman era (1517-1917)
Following this era was the rule of the Ottoman Empire between 1517 – 1917. Turkish was the language of the government meaning that those who interacted with government officials had to know the language. During the Ottoman Empire it was common for most people to be bilingual or multilingual with Jerusalem having Turkish, Greek, Yiddish, English, German, Latin and Aramaic as prevalent languages. There were different educational institutions in the Ottoman Empire. Before the 19th century there were primarily traditional Islamic style elementary and secondary schools. In the late 19th century, the Government introduced schools with Turkish as the sole language of instruction with Arabic taught as second language. This was the government's way to assimilate the population to their language in order assert their rule over the territory.

However, these government schools were not very popular with the local Palestinian population as a result of Turkish being the language of instruction. More popular were the private Muslim schools. These were mostly religious and would have mostly taught Arabic. After public demonstrations the Turkish schools switched to Arabic in 1913, with Turkish as a second language. This allowed them to develop better intellectually within these schools by continuing to develop academic skills in their mother tongue.

Minorities had their own religous schools including Jewish schools. Different Jewish schools taught in different languages including Yiddish, Aramaic and Judeo-Arabic. There were also schools by the Alliance Israelite Universelle which was a French organisation with a civilising mission, opening their first school in Palestine in 1870. It started secular schools in the Middle East taught mostly in French, with Hebrew eventually also used as language of instruction for a few subjects. These schools also taught Arabic and English as second languages. They were instructed in French to westernernise the Middle Eastern Jews through language, moving away from the Jewish-Arabic education.

Language and education in the British Mandatory period (1917-1948)
The British replaced Ottoman rule in 1917. The British Mandate in Palestine lasted untill 1948 and English became the language of government. The government took over the Ottoman era state schools but kept the language of instruction as Arabic. The British government saw the schools’ role as maintaining colonial power through repressing Arab nationalism. This entailed banishing Arab history and forms of education that encourage critical thinking from the curriculum. Christians and Jews ran their schools separately from the government as protected minorities, but would have learned Arabic to communicate with the Arabs.

Background context
The number of Jews began to increase in the years before World War I with the birth of the nationalist Zionist movement. The movement was to establish a Jewish state in Palestine where Palestinians currently resided. The British supported this with the Balfour Declaration in 1917 as part of the British Imperial Project. After World War II the number of Jews grew considerably. In 1947 the UN proposed a treaty for Palestine to be split in to two states. The Palestinians did not want the partition, and a war broke out. Lots of Arab people were displaced from their homes as the Jewish state occupied part of Palestine. The parts occupied were the parts of the land the UN proposed for them to occupy and more. The parts of Palestine not ruled by Israel became ruled by Egypt and Jordan. Areas with majority Arab populations in the Israeli state were under Jewish military rule.

Language policy
Following the Zionist revival of Hebrew, laws were created from 1948 that entrenched Hebrew as national language. This was partly in order to have one shared language between all of the different Jewish immigrants. For example, public uses of Yiddish were banned, such as in plays. With the forced uprooting of Palestinians, the government also used the language of Hebrew to assert the rule of Jews in the land. For example original Arabic place names were changed to Hebrew ones. Hebrew and Arabic were declared official languages by the Israeli government. In practice Arabic is not used much in Israeli public institutions. Arabs can barely function in Israel without Hebrew, it is needed in most aspects of life in Israel, such as work. Arabic can be used in courts, and government policies are published in Arabic as well, but they are published in Hebrew first. Before the popularisation of cable channels, there were television slots in Arabic, but Israeli TV was given prime television times (with the popularisation of cable channels, there are now separate Arabic and Hebrew television channels). The Citizenship Law of 1951 requires knowledge of Hebrew to acquire citizenship. Meanwhile English can be found in every public sector and students are required to study it at school. This is as a result of Israel valuing westernness and the global spread of English, as well as Arabic being the language of Palestinians (so therefore not wanted to be used by Israeli government). In 2018 the Israeli Knesset passed the ‘Basic Law’ which changed the status of Arabic from an official language to a language with a protected status - making it non-official. This was a symbolic act of the continued separation and subjugation of Palestinians but has not made much difference in practice.

1948-1967:
Between 1948 and 1966 education for Palestinians in West Bank and Gaza were run by Jordan and Egypt respectively and is not covered in this Wikipedia article. The Palestinians in Israel were under the military rule of the Israeli government and seen as a security threat by them. The Palestinian schools were separate to the Jewish schools. Arabic was kept as the language of instruction with Hebrew as a second language. The Israeli government’s securitisation of the Palestinians shaped the schooling in several ways. The Government ruled that there were not allowed to be any anti-Jewish sentiments in the curriculum The Arab schools, while taught by Palestinians, were overseen by Jewish educators in the initial period of transition. The curriculum taught functional competence in reading and writing of Arabic, while for Jews learning Hebrew as a first language incorporated national and cultural pride. The hidden curriculum of thus reinforces the power dynamics in the Israeli society by devaluin Arabic culture and Arab identity. The hidden curriculum of schooling was also used to discourage Arab rebellion in students as students received rewards or sanctions for following or disobeying orders. Additionally, students were given 2 hours a week to learn the Koran, while previously five hours of studying Koran a week was assumed the minimum needed to learn Arabic. This limited development in their mother tongue and suppressed their academic and cognitive development.

1967-1980:
Following the Six-Day war in 1967, Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza, that were previously occupied by Jordan and Egypt. The government separated Arabs into Arab-Israeli citizens who lived in the areas occupied in 1948 and Palestinians who lived in areas occupied after 1967. This was to avoid the newly occupied Arabs reducing the majority percentage of Jews in the population and therefore threaten Jewish rule. Those in the newly occupied areas ran their education system separately (see Education in the State of Palestine) while Arab-Israelis went to schools run by the Israeli government. Between 1968 and 1980, new curricular material was developed for the Arab-Israeli schools. Classic Arabic literature was introduced to the curriculum, without any modern content. Students were not encouraged critically analyse what they have read or to read outside of the curriculum. This continued the securitisation and repression of the Palestinians through the hidden curriculum disregarding intuitive knowledge or curiosity, and conveying that they should accept what they are taught as truth. They also had to take part in in national exams, giving the government more control on the way in which content it is taught, as well as surveillance of the students and teachers.

1981 –1995:
In 1981 some changes were made to the Arab curriculum, including adding modern literature, teaching how to analyse it critically, and how to think scientifically – using literary Arabic to do this. The Ministry of Education also published a goal for Arab education that the Arab “student should take pride in Arabic as his national language” for middle and high school education. Then in 1989 they published the goal for Arab children in elementary education of “strengthening his ties and belonging to his Arab nation”. The literature studied in the curriculum did not reflect these goals. The Ministry of Education selected works by modern Palestinian writers without in any nationalist content. The government thereby establishes the boundaries of what ways it is appropriate to be and express Arab identity, in a way palatable to Jewish state. Additionally, they were required (and still are today) to celebrate Memorial Day and Independence Day, which are days that involved the suffering of many Palestinians. For example, what Israeli’s call Independence Day, Arabs refer to as Nakba, meaning catastrophe. Jews, however, are not required to learn about Arab culture.

Literary Arabic needs to be effectively taught as a second language to spoken Arabic. Despite this, less than 8% of teaching hours are assigned to Arabic. Both Arab and Jewish schooling systems get the same number of hours for language studies, however, in the Arab education sector they have to learn three languages (Arabic, Hebrew and English), while in the Jewish sector they are only required to learn two (Hebrew and English). In 1995 the New Language Policy was passed stating that Arab education needs to prepare Arab students to be highly competent in Hebrew. The reasoning given was to enable graduates to reach higher education and be well integrated to the economy. This allowed Arab schools to teach more Hebrew at the expense of hours spent teaching Arabic. Through limiting time spent developing in their mother tongue it limits their academic development and the hidden curriculum reinforces power dynamics of the Israeli society by devaluing their language and identity.

In 2009 Netanyahu passed a bill to remove the word Nakba from a textbook used in Arab schools, suppressing Arab national identity and history, and controlling the narrative in favour of the Israeli government.

Arabic in Jewish schools:
Although some students in the Jewish school's study Arabic, it is not compulsory. It is also very connected to being in the military, with tasks given in the Arabic lessons including cracking military style codes in Arabic. There have been several warnings by the military about the lack of Jewish graduates fluent in Arabic and most Jews who take Arabic in matriculation exams do it to serve in the intelligence sector of the army. This securitises Arabic, teaching it as the language of the enemy. English on the other hand is compulsory to learn and competency in the language is necessary to be able to study in the Israeli universities.

Bilingual schools:
There are eight bilingual schools that operate under three different NGOs. They have instruction in both languages for both Arabs and Jews, with Arabs and Jews studying together. Having both languages as languages of instruction fosters critical thinking through learning through the different pedagogies and narratives built into each language (for example ‘Independence Day’ for Israeli Hebrew speakers being called ‘the catastrophe’ (Nakba) in Arabic). Critical thinking helps the students challenge the dominant perspectives in society by thinking about which perspectives are shown in society and the media and which are excluded and why. The schools also challenge power dynamics in Israeli society through both Jews and Arabs seeing Arab language and culture being valued as part of the core curriculum. A study from one of the Hand in Hand schools recorded less favouritism of students to their own ethnic group than the non-bilingual schools. It also recorded low if any levels of ethnic stereotyping and discrimination. The students report realising the limitations of the school but still appreciating what it has done for them. The study reports that impacts of the school include that they learn some critical thinking and acknowledge that multiple perspectives can enhance their understanding and leads to better dialog.

Limitations:
The lack of continuation beyond their secondary education is a limitation, especially with Jewish graduates conscripted to the Israeli army that is violent towards Palestinians. Other limitations include the bilingual schools’ official public-school status. This was done to gain a wider impact and meant that they are now under the regulations of the Ministry of Education. This means they have to implement the official Jewish nationalist curriculum. To make this work with their goals and philosophies they either adapt curriculum material, supplement it with additional sources, or by innovating new curricula material that keeps within the Ministry of Education’s regulations. However, this does limit what they can do. For example they had to change their multi-religion religious studies course after the Ministry of Education did not approve it. Additionally, they use extracurricular activities to teach things they are concerned the ministry would not approve, which through the hidden curriculum, conveys that these subjects are less valuable because they are not core content.