Slippery Slope

The Education Ministry has neglected to translate the material for its new civics curriculum into Arabic, Israel’s second official language, even though all schools have been required to teach it since the start of the current school year and students will be tested on it in the matriculation exam given this summer.

A study by Van Leer Institute scholar Dr. Yusri Khaizran concludes that the Arabic language studies for Druze schoolchildren are being used to deepen a sense of Druze identity as separate from the Arab community by filtering out Arab nationalist writers and works that relate to a broader Arab literary context. (Haaretz)

(Hebrew – Haaretz)

The Center for the Defence of the Individual (Hamoked), Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and the Reform Center  for Religion and State have filed a petition with the High Court for Justice against the National Insurance Institute.  The organizations demand that the National Insurance Institute place a professional translator, knowledgabe in medical terms, in committees dealing with the insurance claims of residents of East Jerusalem, or alternately, that Arabic speaking physicians be posted in the committees.  The organizations claim that even though the National Insurance Institute website and the committee summons letters state that claimants are allowed to bring an interpreter with them to the committee hearing, the East Jerusalem branch of the Institute does not always allow them to do so.

(Hebrew – Haaretz)

In civil cases which require translation services from and to Arabic, the defendants and plaintifs are required to pay for the service. (Haaretz)

(Hebrew – Haaretz)

The Ministry of Culture and Sport plans to change the requirements for state funding so that museums will no longer have to provide Arabic explanations for short-term exhibits. (Haaretz)

(Hebrew – Haaretz)

A new B’Tselem report on the long term impact of the separation barrier on the Palestinian communities on whose land it is built, reveals that despite its commitment to the High Court, the steps taken by the State have not prevented the barrier’s harmful effects on the lives of Palestinians.  Since the construction of the barrier, Palestinian residents of these communities have lost the ability to make profitable use of their lands - their major remaining resource.  Moreover, the spatial division between neighboring communities, and between them and their land, strains their ability to survive and paralyzes sustainable development.  In addition, over eight years after imposition of the permit regime, the Civil Administration has still not bothered to translate into Arabic the collected Seam Zone orders—describing the types of permits and approval criteria. (B’Tselem)

The University of Haifa removed the Arabic wording from its official logo.

(Hebrew - Haaretz)

The management of the education center of Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba forbids Arabic-speaking teachers and students working at the center to use Arabic when speaking to each other. This violates Ministry of Health directives.

The Jerusalem municipality distributed brochures explaining next year’s kindergarten registration procedures including the new implementation of free education from age three. The Arabic-language brochures did not mention the change.

(Hebrew)

Israel Railways CEO Boaz Zafrir recently rejected an appeal by the Shutafut-Sharakah group, whose goal is to advance Jewish-Arab equality in Israel, to have station names announced in Arabic as well as Hebrew and English.  According to Zafrir, ”Multiple announcements and the long time it would take to make them by adding another language would make the train ride noisy.”