In the past week, many in Israel have been found greeting their brothers with the popular greeting "Ramadan Karim" (without realizing that this is not really the equivalent of "Happy holiday").
In general, more and more Israelis are adopting, as a matter of routine, terms that have been created and fermented in the other side's habitat, without paying attention to the question of the content folded in them.
This is not a natural "process".
The driving force behind this trend is the taste makers, mainly scholars and media people who make a simple, seemingly ageless statement: the Arabs of the Land of Israel are not going anywhere;
Therefore, it would be good, for their own sake, if we knew the neighbors through language.
Functional interest.
Ostensibly, right - in practice, wrong.
Here is a selection of examples.
Until the end of the 1970s, there was no presence of "Palestinians" in the Hebrew language.
Arabs walked in it.
Since then, however, tastemakers have been careful to distinguish between two identities: "Arabs" versus "Palestinians."
In other words: the Arabs of Judea and Samaria (and perhaps also the Arabs of Israel) are a separate national unit from the Arab collective;
And implicitly, they deserve rights, such and such.
This conclusion may make sense, one that is consistent with historical developments, had it not been for the fact that those same determinants who promoted this distinction made selective use of it.
For example, when Bedouin citizens, natives of the country, break through a fence and engage in violence, it is suddenly revealed that Arab and Palestinian identities are eluding, and in their place the title "young" is attached to criminals.
Meaning: It is not the culture or nationalism that is behind the violence, but the age: young, reckless, youthful.
And forgiven all the people by mistake.
In 1987, the citizens of Israel experienced firsthand the events of the first intifada, which included stone-throwing and stabbings.
Against this background, Israeli journalists, for the first time in history, were found to be pushing aside the terms that had been on the Zionist shelf for about a century.
Instead of "riots" and "mass incited", we got the enemy's language: "intifada", which has the simple meaning: insurrection.
The use of the "intifada" is not innocent, but carries with it political consequences: since it is an uprising, that is, a renunciation of tolerance and subordination to the masters (at least in European thinking), because then it is a "logical" response and perhaps enemy violence can be understood.
further.
For many in Israel, "jihad" is a holy war that breaks out by way of armed struggle.
In fact, jihad is a holy war in which tools are used from WNM, including an economic and cultural boycott (see, for example, the story of the Iranian wrestler, who under pressure from the Iranian regime is absent from the final stage of the competition against Israeli contender Sagi Muki).
Decision-makers and politicians in Israel are not aware of this broad definition, and derive a strategy that draws from their lack of understanding.
Another example: In Hebrew-Israeli, "hudna" means a ceasefire, a temporary non-combat.
At least for Israelis, this understanding inevitably encodes a possibility that one day the temporary will become permanent, and hence a certain strategy of negotiation.
But what to do, on the other hand, the hudna, which is completely hewn from history and the Muslim religion, takes on a different meaning, in the style: "We do not agree with you, but we will accept the ceasefire.
It is possible that this process, in which terms are penetrated from the Arabic language into everyday Hebrew, even in the technical aspect, is natural and can be lived with.
No.
A situation of do's and don'ts may turn out to be a mistake, since sometimes the lack of supervision (in the cultural sense) over the process can end, at best, in misunderstanding (in terms of anthropology: "language embarrassment");
Or at worst: in a blind acceptance of the enemy narrative.
To prevent this, a simple thing must be done: to learn the truth, that is, the structure of meaning unique to the group.
To this end, academic conferences and discussions in Knesset committees should be promoted and the study of the Arabic language encouraged.
Culture hidden in language.
Indeed, there is a situation where taste engineers and its determinants will boycott and label such initiatives as "racist."
This is the treat.
The main thing?
Do not be scared.
Were we wrong?
Fixed!
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