ABSTRACT
The status of Arabic, as it is reflected by the extent of its visibility in the public space in Israel is a central question guiding my research on linguistic landscape (LL) as a sociosymbolic phenomenon. In this chapter, I shall claim that the language battle between Hebrew and Arabic on signage in mixed cities serves as an instrument within a wider status struggle between the two national groups. This language battle, which is taking place in mixed cities, constitutes “a microcosm of Israeli society” reflecting Jewish Arab relations (Torstrick 2000) in a country suffering from an unresolved national divide. This chapter focuses on the mixed city of Upper Nazareth: the legal battle for the representation of Arabic on public signs and the story of Arabic on private signs in the city’s mall. The case of Upper Nazareth shows how through language, Jews and Arabs construct their respective national identities and define the national identity of the public space they share.
