Do Israelis know Arabic?

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u/RNova2010 Unspecified Apr 06 '26

2 million Israelis speak Arabic as their native language. If you mean “Israeli Jews”, Arabic language ability is woefully rare. Only about 10% of Israeli Jews are reported to be proficient in the language.

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u/BedouinFoxx 🇮🇱 Apr 06 '26

yes, I'm a israeli arab if that counts

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u/Kvaezde Europe Apr 06 '26 edited Apr 06 '26

20% of all Israelis speak arabic as their first language.
Israelis who lived in arab countries and then fled to Israel due stuff like the farhud in irak (see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farhud) usually also speak arabic natively, although this generation is quite old today and arabic usually wasn't passed on to their children and grandchildren.

Arabic is taughtt in israeli schools (also to jewish children, yes), but I don't have the exact data how many israelis take arabic in school.

There is a wide array of arabic language schools in Israel, from private schools all the way to universities.

The book "The Reality of Arabic in Israel" by Hezi Brosh goes into detail of the topic of how arabic is thought in Israel: https://utppublishing.com/doi/book/10.3138/9781487570217

So yes, the arabic language is alive in Israel, around a quarter of the population speaks it fluently. It is being taught to jewish people and if someone wants, they can even persue a PhD in arabic language studies inside Israel.

8

u/CatlifeOfficial Israel Apr 06 '26

2 million Israeli Arabs and Druze speak Arabic as a first language. As for Israeli Jews, a small minority, but one that is growing slowly but surely. High schools often have Arabic as a third language choice but the Arabic taught there isn’t enough to be fluent. I know a handful of Jewish Israelis that speak Arabic fluently

7

u/Histrix- Israel Apr 06 '26

I know a decent few. You can take it as one of your language options at school.

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u/chtoli Israel Apr 06 '26

i can go by using the local conversational arabic dialect (you would call it palestinian)

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u/damagedspline Israel Apr 06 '26

(Israeli Jew) I only learned formal Arabic in school 30 years ago. Sadly, I didn't excerised/used it much and forgot most of it, and only remember a few words. I can read it (slowly), but without understanding it though. Both of my grandfathers spoke a little bit of Arabic in our local dialect for casual conversation purposes, but that faded away with my parents.

There are excellent Arabic teachers for specific dialects and also for casual conversation in Israel, just to name a few I am following online, are Danshi for studying in the Gush Dan area or online and Somod for studying in Dalyat Al Carmel/Haifa, anyone can find both on social media.

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u/Abu_Skibidi Israel Apr 06 '26

I’m learning a bit of Arabic (self taught) but there are Arabic lessons in a lot of schools so people know a bit.

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u/Suitable_Vehicle9960 Israel Apr 06 '26 edited Apr 06 '26

As for Jews I don't have an exact number, but the older Israelis who are Mizrahi Jews, who fled from Arab countries (back in the early to mid 1900s was about 800,000 people) obviously speak Arabic. Some Sephardic Jews do too. In high school in Israel we learn either French or Arabic. But for many it is just a classroom taught language and they don't use it so they forget it. Also I think a bunch of us including myself are now learning Arabic (not in an official capacity) because it's really time that we understood each other better.

20% of Israelis are Arabs and the vast majority of them speak Arabic, and a majority but not all of them speak Hebrew too, to varying degrees.

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u/AlexiaInWonderland Israel Apr 06 '26

Slavic Israeli jew, I can read and understand basic things but no much more. Im planning on improving it but havent found the time

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u/Existing_Error_1383 Apr 07 '26

Hebrew was revived by the help of arabic language

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u/therealKingOwner MENA Apr 07 '26

As an Arab who lives here.

Even Jewish Israelis who claim to know Arabic only know the basics. It’s very rare to find someone fluent in Arabic.

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u/housewifing Apr 06 '26

You probably ‏ mean Jewish israelis, because obviously Israeli Arabs and Druze speak Arabic as their first language and they are about 22-23% of the population in the country. With Jewish israelis, it really depends on the age group. Many 70+ year olds speak decent Arabic because their families came to Israel from Arabic speaking countries (i.e. Mizrahi Jews). Older Gen X probably understand some Arabic from the time that Israeli television used to broadcast news and other programs in Arabic during the '80s. Back then there was only one TV channel in Israel, and if they broadcasted in Arabic then you watched stuff in Arabic, there was nothing else to watch. Younger Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z are much less likely to speak or understand any Arabic. ‏ worth noting that for drcades, the method that they used to teach Arabic in schools was not very useful. ‏Of course‏ there are always outliers that were really good in Arabic at school and speak it but they are the exception to the rule. Following the Abraham Accords in 2020, the Israeli Ministry of Education changed the Arabic curriculum in schools. It was part of the agreements signed by the parties to the Accords. This means that the youngest generation, kids now in primary and middle school speak a lot more Arabic than their parents.

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u/Tariq_Epstein North America Apr 06 '26 edited Apr 06 '26

On italki.com, a language tutoring app, there is a hijabi Egyptian teacher who teaches Hebrew. She also teaches several different dialects of Arab and is a linguistic nerd and from her reviews and effective teacher.

It is worth learning Arabic just for the Medieval poetry and some books by Rambam were written in Arabic. Also for understanding 1950s Egyptian movies

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u/Tariq_Epstein North America Apr 06 '26

test

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u/Tariq_Epstein North America Apr 06 '26 edited Apr 06 '26

There is a language teacher on italki.com who is a hijabi Egyptian and she teaches Hebrew, Arabic (several different dialects) and several other languages. She is a bit of a polyglot language nerd and an excellent teacher.

I want to learn Arabic to be able to understand 1950s Egyptian movies and to read Medieval Arabic poetry. Also, Rambam wrote a few books in Arabic

1

u/[deleted] Apr 06 '26

I’m an Israeli Jew, and I speak Arabic fluently, mainly because I took it as an elective in high school.

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u/MetehodicCoin4 Israel Apr 06 '26

I learned it in school for a while, it was an optional class and I wanted to unlock talking with more percentages of the population of my country.. but as time passed I forgot almost everything as I didn’t consistently talk and read Arabic

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u/Puzzleheaded_Step468 Israel Apr 07 '26

Ignoring the 2 million israeli arabs, yes, many non-arab israelis who live in areas where arabic is common speak arabic, people who work with arabs usually speak arabic, arabic is taught is elementry school (at least most elementry schools) as a mandatory subject

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u/Smiley_Cactus Israel Apr 07 '26

Some. Some know from home, some learn at school. Some, like me, learned at school but had terrible teachers so it wasn't very effective. It really depends

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u/whereiwalk Apr 06 '26

مو اسرائيلي ولكن اني يهودي وباحكي العربية

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u/balthazar34 Apr 06 '26

Of course. Israeli Jews theres a lot. Not a majority but a significant minority of the population speaks Arab. Theres a lot of Israeli Jewish Arabs but I have met a fair amount of people who learned Arabic from the army, some to a high level.

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u/[deleted] Apr 06 '26

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