Israeli City Set to Remove Arabic Announcements on Buses

In the latest attack against Palestinians, an Israeli bus company will now be removing Arabic-language announcements in the city of Beersheba, in the country's southern Negev region.

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Aided and abetted by Israel's Ministry of Transportation, which instructed the Dan Bus Company to follow through with the move after several local Jewish-Israeli residents lodged complaints to the company, the company had previously had announcements in both Hebrew and Arabic, the country’s official languages.

Knesset member Yousef Jabareen, member of the mostly Arab Joint List electoral coalition, said the move was an attempt to make "Arabic as the language of the enemy."

"It is the duty of transportation companies to respect (the Arabic language) and use it in all their work and projects, including on buses and trains," Jabareen told Al Jazeera.

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Amjad Iraqi, international advocacy coordinator at the Adalah Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, said the bus company "caved in to racism."

"By agreeing to remove the Arabic announcements, the company gave credit to the belief that the use of Arabic — an official language of the state — is a public offense, not a basic human right or practice," Iraqi told Al Jazeera.

"This is just one example of other recent attempts to further erase Arabic language and culture from the Israeli public sphere," he added, referring to the "Muezzin Bill," proposed legislation that is seeking to ban mosques in the country from making calls to prayer.