Between Arabic and Hebrew: Language Choices for IraqiJewish writers after their immigration to Israel

Since its inception, the Israeli society has been a strange and heterogenous mixture of immigrants from different countries. The Iraqi-Jewish stratum is among the main social strata of the society. It has included a considerable number of fiction writers and poets facing serious issues after their immigration to Israel. Among these issues are attempts to marginalize and wipe out Arabic from Jewish literature. Hence, these attempts force many writers to abandon writing in Arabic and replacing it with Hebrew. It is noticeable, however, that even after the transfer of those writers and poets to write in Hebrew, the spirit of Arabic and its culture remain present in their literary production. This study comes to discuss the fiction writers’ and poets’ suffering to choose a mediation between Arabic and Hebrew while writing their literature. The study also examines those who have continued to write in Arabic and those who have used Hebrew to write their literary texts. Moreover, it attempts to study the barriers some have met in their choice of the language and the justifications proposed by others who have opted for Hebrew in their literary production. Keywords: Iraqi-Jewish; immigration; "Israel"; Language; literary writing.