HispanicVista Columnists

Israel and Palestine: Language and World Public Opinion

By Frank Gómez

April 4, 2005

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s withdrawal of settlements from Gaza and the West Bank is a courageous step that can only improve prospects for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.  With the death of Yasir Arafat and the election of new Palestinian leaders, it is helping to end the “intifada” that has raged for four and one-half years.  Perceptions of violence and related events in the region are colored significantly by language.  Perceptions shape public opinion and public opinion affects the formulation of policy. 

On September 28, 2000, candidate Sharon visited Jerusalem’s Temple Mount Jerusalem to make a point: the site was part of Israel and if he were elected it would remain so.  He was sending a signal to the Israeli electorate that, consistent with his long record as a hard-liner, he would be a tough fighter for his country’s territorial and national interests. 

For Palestinians, however, the visit was a deliberate provocation.  Youths began throwing rocks at Israeli troops who responded with rubber bullets and tear gas, and the violence escalated in succeeding days, months.  This does not suggest that some Palestinian elements had not amassed weapons for use when the opportunity arose.  The intifada had begun, in any case, and hundreds of lives have been lost on both sides since then. 

The Provocation

English-language media reported Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount, a Hebrew holy place.  His action was a provocation for the Palestinians because the mount is also a Muslim site, for it is the home of the Al Aqsa mosque, one of the most revered holy sites in the region.  In Arabic, the language carrying the news throughout the Middle East, Mr. Sharon was trampling on a mosque, a well-known symbol of Islamic faith. 

For French and Spanish speakers elsewhere the offense was clearer than to speakers of English.  In French the Temple Mount is called the “Esplanade de la Mosquée,” while in Spanish it is the “Explanada de la Mesquita,” or the Esplanade of the Mosque!   So for millions of people around the world, Sharon’s campaign stunt was an obvious provocation.  A candidate for prime minister, the former defense minister, the militarist viewed by many as responsible for the massacres of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shattila refugee camps in Beirut was proclaiming Israeli sovereignty over a Palestinian mosque. 

For Americans, as English language media reported, Sharon visited a synagogue, a temple in Jerusalem.  It certainly was not a provocative act other than that it took place in Jerusalem and Sharon was escorted by a heavy security force.  For Arabs, however, the Muslim world and much of the rest of the world, the act was a direct, deliberate provocation, perhaps even a profanation of a Muslim holy site, the Al Aqsa mosque. 

Language and Perceptions

We Americans are very familiar with the term “West Bank.”  It denotes a territory north and east of Israel which is part of the ancient land of Palestine.  When Israel became a state after World War II, someone came up with the neutral geographic descriptor of “west bank” for the land west of the Jordan River.  We have been using it ever since. 

The term “West Bank” merely says where the land is; it is devoid of any historic, ethnic, religious or linguistic connotation.  Surely, Palestinians and their Arab neighbors, as well as most in the Muslim world, are aware that the West Bank is really Palestine, and they continue to call it Palestine.  As in the case of the Temple Mount, however, French and Spanish speakers call this territory “Cisjordanie” and “Cisjordania,” respectively.  For them it is part of the ancient land of Jordan, on both sides of the River Jordan.  It conveys historic ownership and even a relationship to the kingdom of Jordan to the East. 

For Arabs, Muslims, French and Spanish speakers and millions of others, therefore, what Israel does in the West Bank is perceived as a violation of a historical claim to the territory by Palestinians.  Thousands of Palestinians fled the region after the occupation, many ending up in squalid refugee camps in Lebanon.  The West Bank, “Cisjordania,” is their ancient homeland.  They have no other (the United Nations reports a Palestinian refugee diaspora of 3.4 million, including in the West Bank, Gaza and Israel). 

The United States is perceived as Israel’s best friend.  So when Mr. Sharon makes a misstep in the eyes of Muslims, it affects the way we are viewed by millions around the world.  And when U.S. actions are awkward, or when our leaders’ speeches are inelegant (President Bush’s “crusade” against terrorists), without appreciating their full impact across other lands, we lose standing in foreign public opinion. 

We may read news about the same events, but our perceptions of them and their underlying causes and outcomes are shaped by the language in which we receive the news and by our historic relationships with other lands.  Spain was occupied by Arabs for 800 years, so many place names and historical references are rooted in that experience.  France has a long colonial and diplomatic tradition that has shaped its language.  And Muslims today account for 10% of the French population, the legacy of a colonial past.

A continental country, the United States was highly self-reliant for most of its history.  Consequently, its linguistic inadequacies made it an oddity in the community of nations.  But it does not have to remain that way.  We can take greater advantage of the immigrants among us to improve our language competence, we can do research, and we can take steps to appreciate the implications of language in the shaping of foreign public opinion.  To communicate more effectively, we must first listen and understand the historical and cultural context of what we are hearing.  (970 words)

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Frank Gómez, a contributing columnist to HispanicVista.com (www.hispanicvista.com), is a retired career Foreign Service Officer and Corporate Executive, as is a member of the Hispanic Council on International Relations.  Now a communications consultant, he can be reached at fgomez@latininsights.com.