TWO years ago Ayman Odeh, the pragmatic new leader of Israel’s Arab parliamentary bloc, said that within a decade Arabic would be “on Tel Aviv street signs as part and parcel of the urban environment”. It is happening faster than he predicted. Across Jewish as well as Arab towns, Arabic signage is sprouting on highways, bus routes and, most recently, railway stations. Some 40% of the digital panels on public buses now list their routes in Arabic alongside Hebrew, up from near zero two years ago. By 2022, says the government, the service will be fully bilingual. A new department pumps out road-safety warnings in Arabic.
In tandem a five-year plan, Resolution 922, aims to narrow the gap between Jews and Arabs in education, housing and policing. Though not the first, it is by far Israel’s most ambitious. It costs 15bn shekels ($4.3bn), and unlike previous plans was devised together with Arab representatives.
The government of Binyamin Netanyahu, the prime minister,...Continue reading
Source: Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/2B9EoML
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