Israeli Ministers Approve Mandatory Arabic Study

A bill approved by the Ministerial Committee on Legislation in Israel would make it mandatory for Jewish schools to teach Arabic starting in first grade. The Jerusalem Post newspaper reported that the bill was introduced by Oren Hazan, a member of Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud party. “In these days, when terror is on the rise and coexistence is undermined, it’s important to lower the flames among the nation’s citizens, and there is no better way to do that than by understanding each other’s language, to understand the culture and mentality of 1.5 million Arab citizens of Israel and hundreds of millions of Arabic- speakers in the Middle East,” Hazan said. “I have no doubt that when the Jewish population will understand Arabic, the way the Arab public understands Hebrew, we will see better days.” Arab citizens of Israel study Hebrew starting in first grade in their schools, while Arabic studies are often optional and usually begin only in sixth or seventh grade in Jewish schools.