In a crowded classroom in Gaza City, hands shoot inside the air when teacher Moussa Ziara asks for a volunteer to come back to the blackboard. The selected boy carefully chalks a letter of the alphabet amid enthusiastic applause from his classmates.
It seriously is not, perhaps, an atypical scene in a spot where education is extremely valued. What’s unusual, however, is that these Palestinian boys are studying Hebrew; a part of a resurgence in learning the “language of the enemy”, fostered – remarkably – by Gaza’s Hamas government.
Around 750 ninth-grade pupils in Hamas-run schools have begun studying Hebrew in a pilot scheme which may be extended within the coming years. It’s the first time for nearly 20 years that the language of Israel is at the school curriculum.
And on the Islamic University in Gaza City, an establishment with close ties to Hamas, 19 students have enrolled in a one-year postgraduate diploma in Hebrew on the way to qualify them to show in government schools.
Somayia al-Nakhala, director of curriculum on the ministry of education, explains why Hamas put Hebrew at the curriculum: “It’s better to grasp what Israel is thinking and saying than to grasp nothing. We need to know the language of our enemy – or our neighbour.”
She points out that folks in Gaza consume Israeli products, are prescribed Israeli drugs and sometimes watch Israeli television via satellite or access Israeli websites. “We’re connected to Israel,” she said. “Politics isn’t the same as practicalities.”
Until twenty years ago, thousands of Gazans worked as labourers or factory workers in Israel, picking up Hebrew as a part of their daily existence. Palestinian doctors worked in Israeli hospitals; Gazan businessmen liaised with their Israeli counterparts on import and export deals; some learned the language during spells in Israeli prisons.
But, as Gaza was increasingly closed off from Israel, after the establishment of limited self-rule by the Palestinian Authority in 1994, the suicide bombings of the second one intifada and the increase of Hamas as Gaza’s ruling Islamist faction, the collection of Hebrew-speaking Palestinians dwindled. Hamas is now taking steps to reverse the craze.
And there is not any shortage of takers. At Shefie elementary school for boys, 350 out of 400 ninth-grade pupils desired to join Hebrew last September. Most were disappointed; simply by limited teaching capacity, the varsity could offer just one class of 40 pupils.
“The youngsters are very wanting to learn, maybe because it’s as regards to Arabic and straightforward to profit,” said Ziara, their teacher. The category notched up a pass rate of 100% on the end of the primary term.
In general, Gaza has high standards of education regardless that its overcrowded schools are forced to run large classes and a shortened day to house two shifts in a single premises. Greater than 92% of its population are literate, a stronger rate than countries with comparable economies.
Ziara used to work in Israel as a trader, but have been barred from entry since 1999. “i am not a political candidate, but we’re neighbours with Israel whether we’re at war or peace. So we have to learn their language.
“And the language is filled with literature and culture, so it’s enriching to benefit,” he said, stressing that this can be a personal viewpoint.
One of the men in his class, 14-year-old Naji Ayyad, says his family encouraged him to soak up Hebrew, which his father speaks from his time as a worker in Israel. “It’s essential understand the enemy language so as to counter them,” he said.
Indeed, language has become a weapon within the propaganda war between both sides. The army wing of Hamas, which doesn’t recognise Israel’s right to exist, tweeted in Hebrew throughout the eight-day conflict in November. The Israeli authorities regularly send text messages in Arabic to Gazans, and shower the territory with warning leaflets written in Arabic.
At the Islamic University, teacher Jamal al-Hadad, who gained a diploma in Hebrew literature from Israel’s Ben-Gurion University in 1978, says the language is simple for Arabic speakers to be informed. “Arabic and Hebrew are very close, the languages have the identical roots.” He uses as a teaching tool a stapled booklet of his own poems – on “peace, beauty, love, politics and friendship” – which he has translated into Hebrew.
There were a number of objections to Hebrew being taught in Gaza, he says, but “a lot of persons desire to learn the language precisely because we’re in a conflict with Israel. They would like to grasp the impact of that conflict, they need so one can follow the inside track in Israel.”
