התנגדות בשפה: חוק הלאום, שפה ודמוקרטיה

This article addresses the issue of democratic decline in the Israeli context of the new Basic Law: Israel - Nation State of the Jewish People. This law redefines Hebrew as Israel’s only official language, relegating Arabic to a ‘special status’. Against this backdrop, we identify the emergence of a counter-movement, creating new sites that we call “resistance in language”. These initiatives rely on law but subvert the view that the Supreme Court is the principal protector of democracy.The article analyses these processes in light of the growing literature on the role of law in democratic retrogression. Thus far, this body of literature has focused on criticizing the assumption that the rule of law is an efficient barrier to democratic decline, and has pointed to ways in which populist rulers use legalistic reforms, constitutional amendments and legal rhetoric to entrench their regimes. This article examines the dilemma these processes pose for civil society and organizations, which traditionally turn to the courts to safeguard democracy. Targeted by legal devices, these organizations feel compelled to turn to the courts for help, but this very move marks them as non-democratic, as they rely on the court and legal experts instead of on popular mobilization. In Israel, this double bind has led to the emergence of an alternative course of action - “resistance in language” - that includes multiple initiatives for studying spoken Arabic,theatrical performances, creating alternative archives, and offering new sites for exploring the relationship between language, law and justice.This article focuses on three sites of “resistance in language” that grow from and operate within the legal sphere. The first is a transcript-theater performance based on the criminal trial against the Palestinian poet Darin Tatur. The second site is a petition to declare the Nation-State Basic Law invalid, filed by a group of prominent Israeli Jews of Mizrahi origin. The petition offers an alternative historical narrative and aspires to shift the discourse surrounding Arabic in Israel. The third site, which developed in Tel-Aviv University’s Faculty of Law, is an alternative space for Israeli –Jews and Arabs – to explore the relationship between Arabic and justice and offer a critique of legal education in Israel through joint study and deliberation. The article argues that this form of resistance is based on anew understanding of law as a performative-linguistic phenomenon,offering opportunities for participation and subversion for excluded groups. The article aims to show how the different initiatives of “resistance in language” can also be considered expressions of critical approaches to transitional justice.