Who Really Wants to Learn Arabic

Abstract

This chapter focuses on ṬELEM, an Israeli Military Intelligence unit, and analyzes it as an example of the ongoing military-civilian alliance with respect to the teaching of Arabic. The article centers around this unit and especially on its efforts and methods to promote Arabic studies in Jewish-Israeli schools. Studying some of its main activities and principal rationale, this article strives to uncover the blurring of the distinctions between education and the military in the crux of the field of Arabic studies in Israel. It therefore concludes that a positive change toward a humane and non-military study of the language will happen only following a thorough restructuring of the system and a resolution to embark on a new path.