Language in any culture and society is an embodiment of national identity and a crucial pillar in preserving the cultural heritage of any people… Therefore, we see that all countries that respect and protect their cultural heritage appoint scientific and advisory bodies to preserve the original language and develop and renew it in line with industrial, informational, and cultural advancements in their environment… I have said it and I repeat it: whoever wants to survive must renew and develop themselves.

Peoples, not only colonial ones, spend huge sums to spread their language and culture among other peoples and societies and open cultural centers teaching language and civilization across the globe. This step is used by Western countries such as Germany, France, England, Spain, and others as a means to spread their culture… It is, in a way, a mild cultural colonialism, despite its positive impact on some peoples, and the result benefits these countries with scientists and experts who move there to live and profitable trade for their industrial products.

This strategy is firmly established in the foreign policies of these countries, which is why we see that Western cultural centers and their funding fall under the jurisdiction of the ministries of foreign affairs of these countries.

The matter is completely different when language is one of the tools of colonialism and a successful means to dismantle the national identity of the indigenous population so they become followers in every sense of the word … This is what happened in most countries in Africa, Latin America, and some Arab countries. The impact of brutal colonialism

is clearly noticeable as these peoples blatantly forgot their mother tongue and mostly speak only the colonizer’s language and adopted it as the official language of their national state and the official language of education.

High, even after the defeat of colonial occupation and the seizure of freedom and independence… North African countries are a glaring example of this ongoing destruction of national identity and ethnic identity.

The peoples of Latin America and the peoples of Africa and India and some North African peoples were forced in one way or another to adopt the language of the colonizer and its political elites, even after the defeat of colonialism, did not

seize the opportunity to rid themselves of the destructive colonial burden on the national identity of their peoples … this reality deepens the identity crisis in these societies.

The matter is completely different in Palestine occupied in 1948… the state of occupation of Zionism in historic Palestine, before and after its establishment, committed massacres against the indigenous people to displace them

and uproot them from their homeland, and this is a matter agreed upon by all historians and is no longer a subject of debate or denial… this entity has and continues to falsify historical

and civilizational records of the indigenous people to establish its falsification of history and distortion of its course… but since the first day of its establishment on the ruins of the Palestinian people it has not worked to erase the original language of the people who remained and persevered on their land for various reasons … this is an undeniable fact.

The occupying state adopted Arabic language alongside Hebrew, which was revived by the Zionist movement after it was close to extinction, as an official language of the state.

Arabic remained the official language alongside Hebrew until the racist Nation-State Law was enacted… fundamentally offensive, and it continues daily to harm the Arabic language and its status as a fundamental pillar of the national identity within Palestinian interior—the indigenous people of the land … the sons and daughters of the Palestinian minority in Israel.

I am certain and fully aware that living with another culture in its language, customs, and traditions over many years inevitably leaves its mark on the person and on their way of speaking and daily language… some words from the majority language enter into the daily ordinary speech of the society in which the individual lives, pardon me… and it is sometimes difficult to notice the intermingling of words from different languages, but what we observe within the Palestinian interior is a deliberate denial of the mother tongue!

There are many and varied points by which an observer can prove the denial by the indigenous people of the land of their mother tongue within the Palestinian interior… and here I am not talking about inserting a Hebrew word or phrase in the general speech of youth… what I am talking about are central points in commercial scientific and political life for the Palestinian minority in Israel.

Those who most harm the mother tongue within the Palestinian interior are the elite, especially the political elite, and the academic and commercial elite in general… this elite from whom everyone expects to guard the cultural heritage and to safeguard Palestinian national identity for the indigenous people of the land and to be a good example for the young generations.

What we have seen and observed for seventy years within the Palestinian interior of cultural and linguistic colonization has become frightening today and is completely contrary to what we expect… there is a noticeable and deliberate increase in the use of Hebrew in every gathering and every place, even where there is no need for it.

Since Palestinians inside Israel became involved in politics, we have never heard any Palestinian member of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, deliver a full speech in Arabic, even though it is an official language of the state…

On the contrary, we see Palestinian members competing among themselves over who is more proficient in Hebrew,

as if this were a distinguished national achievement… Even those members who are not fluent in Hebrew, such as Jabr al-Dahesh and Abu Rabiea and others, delivered their speeches in broken Hebrew despite their lack of proficiency…

I truly do not know if these members are aware of the harm they inflict on the Palestinian national identity of the indigenous people by voluntarily abandoning the use of Arabic in the Knesset and promoting Hebrew instead!

Arabic is an official language of the state and they are obligated to translate it into their language… This matter is not symbolic as some believe… rather, it is at the core of the challenge, resilience, and preservation of national identity… The honorable Palestinian members of parliament defended the Arabic language in the Israeli parliament in Hebrew when Zionist official institutions distorted the names of Palestinian villages and cities and when Arabic was removed as an official language by the racist Nation-State Law… We rightfully ask: where is the credibility of these members in defending the backbone of Palestinian national identity – the Arabic language – in Hebrew? This grave mistake cannot be overlooked by populist acts by some members such as raising the call to prayer in the Knesset or insulting in Arabic or throwing an Arabic phrase here or there during their speeches in the Knesset.

Unfortunately, this issue is not limited, as we mentioned, to the political elite only, but also affects other elites… During your visit to Palestinian areas inside Israel, you see signs on the walls of lawyers' offices, doctors' clinics, grocery stores, and garages only in Hebrew… even though not a single customer among them is from the Jewish community… We ask: why this gratuitous voluntary denial of the mother tongue and national identity? And why this flattery to the master? Where are the officials in municipalities and local councils who adorn themselves with slogans of nationalism during election periods amidst all this?

Resistance to the racist Nationality Law that has become the backbone of Israel thirdly, this Israel that boasts of its racism and fears the other and his culture and encloses itself in its Judaism, this resistance is not complete except by affirming the national identity of the Palestinians and its backbone – the Arabic language.

Today we are required as individuals, parties, and associations, elites and others, to Arabize our space and make our mastery of the language of the racist occupier a means of strength and not the subservience of the slave to the master and his culture.

The discourse in Arabic and conducting the journalistic interview only in Arabic, O politicians and activists, and writing the banners in Arabic, O intellectuals, merchants, and professionals, and speaking Arabic in public squares, on the train, on the bus, and at the airport, O Palestinian people inside… all this is a challenge and steadfastness and not an exaggeration of patriotism and nationalism… They wanted to break the backbone of our Palestinian steadfastness and belonging and erase our national and patriotic identity by neutralizing the Arabic language, and we are all required to begin the clear challenge by manifesting it and defending it!

We were, are, and will remain the native speakers and the original people of the land.