Introduction
Academia is acknowledged as playing a significant role in shaping society, directly and indirectly. Higher education institutions are central sources of knowledge and discourse design (Etzkowitz & Viale, 2010); they are a symbol
of ethic and values (Bok & Bok, 2009); a place that cultivates economic, social, and political leaders (Astin & Astin, 2000); and the scene of social and political activism. Furthermore, formal education is known to influence social engagement
and foster critical thinking. Over the years, the world has witnessed the involvement of academics and students who have protested regime injustices
and reacted to social inequality, violent conflicts, and neglect of democratic values. Such involvement is, however, rare in the Israeli higher education system, and appears to be particularly low, almost nonexistent, when the issue
concerns the struggle for the rights of Arabs in Israel (Amara, 2002, 2018).
The lack of symmetry and equality between the Hebrew and Arabic languages
in Israel, reflected in various fields, such as the linguistic landscape,
the education system, the media, public services, and the labor market, has
long been documented (e.g., Ben-Rafael, Shohamy, Amara & Trumper-Hecht,
2006; Mendel, 2014; Saban & Amara, 2004; Yitzhaki, 2013). This asymmetry had
existed long before Arabic lost its status as an official language in 2018. It is an
expression of the tense relations between the Jewish majority and the Arab
minority in Israel and an indication of dangerous processes of Arab exclusion
from the social and political sphere. In a country that defines itself as the
nation-state of the Jewish People, the Arabs necessarily become second-class citizens, and their culture and language have been demoted as well (Chaitin, Steinberg & Steinberg, 2019).
Promoting so-called “national interests” at the expense of humanistic values
is not a unique Israeli phenomenon. Maintaining national strength and unity
is a well-known justification for favoring the majority and for unequal allocation
of resources, while ignoring the rights of other groups (Meadwell, 1989).
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