Si pubblica in calce la seguente
PETIZIONE DELLA “ARABIC LANGUAGE ACADEMY OF ISRAEL”
TENDENTE A SCONGIURARE LA PROPOSTA DI ALCUNI MEMBRI DELLA KNESSET ISRAELIANA A CHE SI CANCELLI LA LINGUA ARABA QUALE UNA DELLE LINGUE UFFICIALI DELLO STATO DI ISRAELE
Dear Colleagues,
At the end of August 2014, a number of members of Knesset in Israel proposed a bill to make Hebrew the only official language of Israel, and thus to demote Arabic from its current status as an official language of the State. Arabic is the native language of over 20% of the population in Israel, and it has been spoken here continuously at least since the 7 th century. This proposal thus has both practical consequences and symbolic significance.
The Arabic Language Academy in Israel has circulated a general petition in Hebrew protesting this proposal. We feel that it is important, in addition, that linguists and experts in language research throughout the world add their voices to the protest. The text of the petition is below. If you would like to add your name to the petition you can access it at
http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/arabiclanguage
When we have enough signatures, we would like to publish the text of the petition (in three languages) in Ha-aretz newspaper. If you are prepared to contribute to funding such an advertisement, please send an email to arabic.language.petition@gmail.com . We would need 50-60 people who are prepared to contribute 100 shekels each in order to fund the advertisement. If enough people are interested in contributing, we will let you know how to send the money.
Please sign the petition with your name and affiliation.
Please forward this to as many relevant people as possible.
Thank you!
Professor Elinor Saiegh-Haddad
Professor Susan Rothstein
Department of English Literature and Linguistics, Bar-Ilan University (for both of us)