Giv‘at Ḥavivah and Ulpan ‘Aḳiva

Abstract

While the education system in Israel is the largest provider of Arabic language education, it is not the only sphere in which Jewish-Israelis can learn Arabic. Obviously, there is the military establishment (including the IDF, the Ministry of Defence, the General Security System known by its Hebrew acronym, Shabak, and the Mossad) where language study is intended directly to serve strategic and security interests. These frameworks of study are not examined by this research, as it is expected that in situations of political tension (and even among ‘friendly’ countries), learning languages widely used in the ‘other’s’ country for the purpose of gleaning intelligence is part and parcel of every country’s security apparatus. Examples that come to mind can include the Egyptian Military Intelligence studying Hebrew or American’s need for Russian- speakers during the Cold War and so on. Therefore, what is of interest here is not Arabic studies in the military establishment — soldiers teaching soldiers or security personnel learning from security personnel — rather, the influence of the military establishment on Arabic studies in the civil sphere, as well as the military’s needs and the discourse perpetuated in civilian bodies. As such, this study focuses on the military influence on traditionally civilian realms such as educational bodies, the school system and civil society organisations.KeywordsMilitary ServiceArabic LanguageMilitary EstablishmentSecurity DepartmentNobel Peace PrizeThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.