Language rights in Israel
Subtitle: meeting the challenges
By: by Meital Pinto.
Published: 2005
Language: eng
Number of pages: 251
Subjects: University of Toronto. -- Faculty of Law -- Dissertations.; Language policy -- Israel.; Linguistic minorities -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- Israel.; Constitutional law -- Israel.
Description: Language rights should protect the intrinsic interest in language as a marker of cultural identity. Mandatory legal acknowledgment of the intrinsic value of the Arabic language in Palestine has faded with the establishment of Israel. Israeli ruling has recently shifted from an instrumental view to an intrinsic view of the value of Arabic in the acknowledgment of language rights' positive dimension, selective nature, and public character in 'multidimensional linguistic cases'. Comparatively evaluating the Arab minority's interest in Arabic, and the Russian linguistic minority interest in Russian, I argue that Israeli Arabs have a stronger interest in Arabic since it is their exclusive marker of identity. Acting within a constitutional state, Israeli courts should positively protect the intrinsic value of Arabic. Because language is primarily a people's cultural asset, rather than a state's, such support should be viewed within the cultural nationalism model that enables equal support for Hebrew and Arabic in the Jewish national state.
Notes: Thesis (LL.M.)-University of Toronto, 2005.

Includes bibliographical references.

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