Arabic Archives - The Jerusalem Fund

Israel’s war on the Arabic language

April 20, 2016April 11, 2016 by Lucian Dieterman

Tel Aviv – Israel’s one in five citizens, whose mother tongue is Arabic, are increasingly fearful of using it in public as hostility has mounted towards the language from both officials and the Jewish public, human rights groups warned this week. The alert comes as lawyers have threatened the municipality of Tel Aviv , Israel’s largest city, with a contempt of court action for failing to include Arabic on most of the city’s public signs – 14 years after the Israeli supreme court ordered it to do so.

Classical Calligraphy by Nawaf Soliman

July 27, 2021March 22, 2016 by Lucian Dieterman

Calligraphy is more than beautiful Arabic handwriting. It is the imaginative expression of individual creativity, the area of aesthetics where skill meets genius. Primarily a means for worshipping the Creator, the Arabic language is organically linked to the Qur’an. Thus both words and the forms of words take on power greater than their individual entities. It is from this that ornamental calligraphy stems.

Palestinian Steadfastness and the Ramallah Friends School

July 27, 2021June 19, 2015 by Lucian Dieterman

By Palestine Center Interns

On 16 June, the Palestine Center hosted Gordon Davies, Betsy Brinson and Joyce Ajlouny to speak on the history of the Friends School in Ramallah. The school has withstood the test of time, witnessing Ottoman domination, the British Mandate, Jordanian administration, and Israeli occupation. Yet, the school’s commitment to Quaker values of nonviolence, dialogue, and equality has never wavered. Davies and Brinson spoke on the research and experiences that led to their book Sumoud: Voices and Images of the Ramallah Friends School.