In Mideast, a Growing Linguistic Divide

Shrinking Numbers of Israelis, Palestinians Studying Each Other's Language

Mazen Abu Shamsiya, who runs a Hebrew language institute in the West Bank city of Hebron, said most of his students are Palestinian merchants who do business in Israel. (Scott Wilson - Twp)

ROSH HAAYIN, Israel -- Recruiters from Israel's military intelligence first identified Ran Vittelson, a stellar Arabic student, as a blue-chip prospect when he was a sophomore at the large public high school here.

Quiet and studious, Vittelson has a rare talent for Arabic, a language of dwindling interest to Israeli Jews, many of whom identify it with their enemy.

"I'll be translating Arabic texts and listening also to avoid terror attacks," said Vittelson, 18, who will begin his compulsory army service after graduation in a few months.

Malek Iram, a Palestinian merchant, is also a talented language student. The aluminum siding salesman is studying Hebrew, a language of declining interest to Palestinians who identify it with their enemy, at a small institute in the West Bank city of Hebron.

"I have to understand what the Israeli businessmen are saying," Iram, 26, said after class on a recent afternoon. "Otherwise, I'll be at a disadvantage."

As their physical separation grows, a shrinking number of Israelis and Palestinians are studying each other's language, a casualty of the enduring hostility between two peoples still sharing one land. Those Israelis and Palestinians studying Arabic and Hebrew, both official languages of the Jewish state, are doing so for reasons that reveal vastly different outlooks on the future.

"The attitude on both sides toward the other language, and by extension those who speak it, is very disappointing," said Sasson Somekh, who helped found the Arabic department at Tel Aviv University nearly 40 years ago. Now retired, he is lobbying against its closure. "Both sides are just very afraid of the other," he said.

Judging by enrollment in universities and private institutes, the number of Israeli Jews and Palestinians choosing to study the languages has fallen by a third in some places and nearly disappeared in others since 1993, when the Oslo peace accords established the semiautonomous Palestinian Authority and began separating the two peoples.

Many Israelis look to Europe as their prime economic and cultural reference point. In business, the language they need is more likely to be English or French than Arabic. Today, among those Israeli Jews studying Arabic, many more than a decade ago are doing so for one reason: preparing for service in the Israeli security agencies.

By contrast, many Palestinians view Israel's thriving economy as the nearest path to prosperity, even though fewer and fewer of them have permission to work in Israel. For ambitious Palestinians, Hebrew remains the lingua franca of business and a useful tool for navigating the Israeli military checkpoints.

"At the end of this there will be two states," said Mazen Abu Shamsiya, who runs the Hebrew language institute in Hebron that Iram attends. "But I am convinced Israel will never live without the Arabs, so long as there is an economic connection."

In Israel's Jewish public school system, Arabic is technically compulsory through the 10th grade, although about 35 percent of students choose instead to study French or Russian or to enroll in religious schools where Arabic is not required.