by JNS and ILH Staff
Blue and White's Michal Cotler-Wunsch says she hopes legislation requiring mandatory Arabic language studies in Jewish schools "will provide the path forward to mutual recognition, enhanced conversation, coexistence, and sustainable peace with additional peoples and countries in our region and beyond."
Blue and White MK Michal Cotler-Wunsch has submitted a bill to the Knesset requiring mandatory Arabic-language studies in Jewish schools.
Learning both spoken and written Arabic would allow Jewish Israeli students to understand and communicate with their Arab neighbors in Israel and the region, helping to bridge existing cultural and language gaps, Cotler-Wunsch said.
"Always and especially with the potential paradigm shift taking place in the Middle East—away from rejectionism and toward normalization based on a recognition that enables negotiation, and ultimately, peace—it is imperative our children be able to communicate and engage with Arabs in Israel and [our] neighbors in the region," she said. "I am hopeful that this will provide the path forward to mutual recognition, enhanced conversation, coexistence, and sustainable peace with additional peoples and countries in our region and beyond."
Cotler-Wunsch announced her plans to propose the legislation during an online conference on Nov. 30 titled "Transforming trauma: How Jewish voices from Iran and Arab lands can be a bridge for peace." The event brought together a group of activists who each shared their experiences and thoughts on how to further the cause of Jewish refugees and their descendants, and work towards normalization with Arab and Muslim countries.
At the conference, she posited that the Abraham Accords were an opportunity to "challenge the paradigm from rejectionism to normalization." She said the 'Three Nos' of the 1967 Khartoum Resolution, the fourth Arab League summit held following Israel's victory in the 1967 Six-Day War, could be changed to 'Three Yeses' – yes to recognition of Israel, yes to negotiations with Israel, and yes to peace with Israel.
Arabic studies, according to Cotler-Wunsch, can help Israel's citizens become "a bridge for peace and education." She emphasized that the shared Abrahamic values that bind us are an opportunity for "power of moderation from all religions … call[ing] out radical voices and expos[ing] double standards that other countries enable."
Radicalism, she said, "ultimately encourages a culture of terror regimes."
As an international lawyer and human-rights activist, Cotler-Wunsch added there was "tremendous opportunity" to "utilize the language of rights," not only by teaching Arabic in Israeli schools, but also by "fighting for hearts and minds using legal mechanisms, technology, and digital platforms."
'Educate the public on our history and heritage'
Others at the online event also mentioned language as one of the ways Israelis and Mizrahi Jews can blaze a path toward sustainable peace in the region.
Ellie Cohanim, deputy special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism at the US State Department, related seeing a "historic opportunity" in the Abraham Accords and normalization of ties with several Arab countries, likening it to "cousins being reunited after a forced exile."
"It is something many of us imagined only possible for our children and grandchildren," said Cohanim, adding that Mizrahi and Persian Jews "can play a particularly special role, as we have a cultural understanding, the language, food, warmth of personality—and we understand each other."
Sarah Levine, executive director of the nonprofit Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa, also referred to "Arabic outreach" as vital to spreading awareness and advocating for Jewish refugees and their descendants and educating the public "on our history and heritage."
Reflecting on the 850,000 Jews that were ethnically cleansed from Arab lands and Iran—a collective exile that has had personal, national, and international implications—Cotler-Wunsch maintained that remembrance was a prospective imperative, as opposed to a retrospective imperative.
"We create and give voice to the manifestations of the challenges that this historic moment presented and its opportunities, bringing us back to our shared ancestral homeland," she said.
Reprinted from JNS.org
JNS and ILH Staff
Source: https://www.israelhayom.com/2020/12/15/mk-submits-bill-to-promote-arabic-language-studies-in-israeli-schools/
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