The De-Arabised Israeli Arabic: Between Eradication among Arab-Jews and Ashkenisation in Society

In a process that began towards the end of the 1920s, persisted through the major junction of the year 1948, and reached its zenith in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s – the Arabic language among the Jewish community in Palestine/Israel was transformed from a language where the main motivation for learning it was in order to become oriented in the area; for communication in and between communities; integration; culture and commerce, into a battered language with a few specific motivations for its study. Arabic gradually became associated with military-intelligence aspirations and lost it regional and cultural significance. Focusing on the Arab-Jewish (or Mizrahi) community in Israel, this article highlights that the second generation of Arab-Jews developed a sense of alienation towards Arabic, thereby becoming “more Israeli” according to Israeli socio-political definitions. In a nutshell, this is the story of the Arabic language in Israel that is uncovered in the article: its preservation as a security-oriented language, its gradual ascent as a language with more Ashkenazi (Jewish-European) than Mizrahi speakers, and its decline as a possible instrument for the creation of social and peaceful contacts between Jews and Arabs in the region.