Published: 28 January 2019
Last updated: 4 March 2024
“I was brought up to believe Arabic had lots of bad things associated with it. Until a relatively late age, the language sounded bad to me,” she said. “I would only hear the language on the news or in leaders’ speeches. It was never accessible to me.”
But a few months ago, some friends shared a novel idea with Kalif, a psychology graduate at Hebrew University. To fight the new Nation State Law -- which downgraded the status of Arabic from an official language to a language with “special status” – they would translate the menus of West Jerusalem restaurants into Arabic. Kalif was immediately sold.
The grassroots group behind the “bilingual certificate” is Standing Together, a Jewish-Arab social action movement founded in 2015. The certificate, launched at an event in a downtown-Jerusalem café on January 21, is given to businesses committed to “equal treatment to all of its clients and employees, irrespective of nationality, religion, race, sex or language.”
“This establishment has no place for racial expressions of any kind,” reads the certificate. “We strive to make it a space in which everyone can feel comfortable. Anyone offended by a racial slur in this establishment – whether an employee or client – will find support and understanding here.”
Kalif and other local activists go from restaurant to restaurant across town, offering to translate their menus from Hebrew into Arabic using native speaking volunteers. Once complete, the businesses print the bilingual menu for the benefit of all clients.
“Arabic was never equal to Hebrew in the public sphere, and I believe it really should be,” she said. “Most restaurants were very receptive to the idea. I only got one definite ‘no’, where I was told that their restaurant was not interested in that kind of clientele. The rest really loved it.”
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Suf Patishi, a 26-year-old law student and member of Standing Together, said most restaurants in Jerusalem would love to cater to Arab clients, but simply don’t have the time or ability to translate their menus. But the National State Law, he noted, made the need for placing Arabic front and centre in Jerusalem’s public domain all the more pressing.
“I felt the State was trying to marginalise the Arabic language,” he said. “This project is the response of citizens and private business owners saying ‘we reject this process of marginalisation. On the contrary, we want to embrace Arabic.’ I think it’s a powerful statement.”
According to a study conducted by Jerusalem’s Van Leer Institute in 2015, just 10% of Israeli Jews reported being able to speak or understand Arabic. However, nearly 58% said knowing Arabic was important.
Those statistics are unsurprising. While Israeli Arabs are obligated to study Hebrew in school -- and require the language to integrate in the Israeli job market -- Israeli Jews are seldom taught Arabic, but get along fine with no knowledge of the regional lingua franca.
Jerusalem is a different story, however, as many Arab residents of the city were educated in the Palestinian school system where Hebrew is not taught.
Patishi said the bilingual certificate is aimed at making Arab speakers feel more comfortable in Jewish restaurants, regardless of their language skills. But it equally caters to Jews interested in conveying a message of tolerance to their Arab counterparts.
“Even Arab students who study at Hebrew University would feel much better knowing that their restaurant embraces them,” he said.
Jerusalem is known for being among the more conservative and right-wing cities in Israel, Patishi noted. He had visited some 20 restaurants over the past three weeks to advocate for his bilingual certificate.
“For many years we were taught to think that Jerusalem is a racist city that rejects Arabs,” he added. “That’s why I was so pleasantly surprised to discover so many places that welcomed my initiative so warmly.”
A total of 34 establishments have already agreed to partake in the project, and five menus have already been translated and await delivery to their owners. Standing Together hopes to reach 50 by early February.
The bilingual certificate relies on a tradition of socially-minded certification born in Jerusalem. In 2004, Circles of Justice (currently rebranded as 2B Friendly), an Israeli non-profit dedicated to ethical consumerism, created the Social Certificate. Over the previous decade, it was given to some 300 businesses that promised to abide by employment laws and guarantee access to disabled clients.
“The local aspect is what’s so beautiful about this initiative,” said Nadav Bigelman, a community organiser at Standing Together. “People here know the concept of alternative certificates. Ours is the best answer to segregation, racism and violence.”
Photo: Left to right, Suf Patishi, Yael Kalif and Nadav Bigelman display the bilingual certificate during its launch in Jerusalem on January 12 (Elhanan Miller)
