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Source: http://www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?intarticleid=13068&intcategoryid=1
Teaching Arabic to Israeli Cops
(JTA) Uriel Heilman - This summer Israeli police officers are taking a special Arabic course offered through Ulpan Akiva, the Netanya-based institute for Hebrew language and culture. "The police are taught the appropriate vocabulary for their work - if it's a conversation at a checkpoint, if it's a greeting, if it's about customs and respecting the locals," says Salman Amer, director of the ulpan's Arabic language program. Knowing the language is key to building positive relationships with Israel's Arabs, Amer says. Most Arabs who teach the language to Jews aren't comfortable about publicizing that fact. The ulpan's lone Arab Muslim teacher says he asks his parents not to tell anybody in his village. The other two Arabic teachers on staff are Israeli Druse, both veterans of the IDF.