In a positive move, particularly symbolic as it comes on the eve of the resumption of direct peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians, the Israeli government has announced a program which will make Arabic language lessons mandatory for Jewish 5th grade students.
Previously, Arabic students were required to learn Hebrew, but Jewish students were not required to learn Arabic. Both are official languages of Israel. This move will not only have practical benefits, but could serve to improve inter-religious harmony within Israel itself. Although Israel is officially a Jewish state, roughly one-fifth of its population consists of Arab citizens.
In some ways, Israeli Arabs enjoy lives that their fellow Arabs in Arab-majority countries might envy. They have access to higher education and a free press and may participate in the democratic process (about one-tenth of the membership of the Knesset consists of Israeli-Arabs). But in terms of housing, social services, and grade-school education, the Israeli Arab population suffers discrimination roughly akin to that suffered by African-Americans in the American South during the Jim Crow Era. Furthermore, under the Law of Return, Jewish immigrants to Israel are automatically made Israeli citizens, whereas immigrants from Arab countries are not.
The prospects for peace in the Middle East would be considerably enhanced if the Israeli government took more concrete steps to improve the quality of life for its Arab citizens and remove the barriers to equality that currently exist. The implementation of mandatory Arabic language lessons for Jewish schoolchildren is a good first step, and one that will hopefully improve understanding between the two communities, but there remains a very long road ahead.
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