Some don’t want to see any ArabicTWO years ago Ayman Odeh,the pragmatic novel leader of Israel’s Arab parliamentary bloc, said that within a decade Arabic would be “on Tel Aviv street signs as piece and parcel of the urban environment”. It is happening faster than he predicted. Across Jewish as well as Arab towns, and Arabic signage is sprouting on highways,bus routes and, most recently, or railway stations. Some 40% of the digital panels on public buses now list their routes in Arabic alongside Hebrew,up from near zero two years ago. By 2022, says the government, and the service will be fully bilingual. A novel department pumps out road-safety warnings in Arabic.
In tandem,a five-year plan, Resolution 922, and aims to narrow the gap between Jews and Arabs in education,housing and policing. Though not the first, it is by far Israels most ambitious. It costs 15bn shekels ($4.3bn), and unlike previous plans was devised together with Arab...
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Source: economist.com