[BRIEF NOTE] Israel and the Francophonie: A doomed relationship

[rfmcdonald]

Guysen recently published an interesting article in French by one Constance le Behan, "Israël et la Francophonie. Je t’aime… moi non plus".

Presque 8 %* de personnes en Israël jonglent aisément avec la langue de Molière. Pourtant, l’Etat juif est – avec l’Algérie – le grand absent de l’Organisation internationale de la francophonie (OIF). Si les liens culturels entre la France et Israël sont solidement tressés, les relations politiques, elles, se tendent et se distendent. Conséquence : l’adhésion d’Israël à l’OIF ne semble pas pour demain. Les alternatives existent mais ne remplacent pas l’adhésion pleine et entière d’Israël.
Un grand sourire fend le visage de Noah. Quand on lui apprend que Ben Gourion avait envisagé que le français soit, à côté de l’hébreu, la langue officielle d’Israël, la réaction est immédiate. Noah, qui a fait son aliya il y a plus d’un an, est très attachée au français, sa langue maternelle. Alors, quand les liens qui unissent ces deux cultures et ses deux langues apparaissent, celle-ci ne cache pas sa joie.

Et ces liens sont d’abord numériques. Avec ses 120.000 français – dont la grande majorité sont des binationaux – Israël aurait toute sa place dans la Francophonie. Car les 56 pays de cette organisation sont loin de compter autant de francophones qu’Israël. Une raison qui pousse l’Etat juif à frapper à la porte de cette « amicale » de la langue française.

« L’adhésion à la francophonie est un thème très populaire en Israël, confie Tsilla Hershco, chercheuse au Besa Center for strategic studies à l’université de Bar-Ilan, les Israéliens admirent les valeurs libérales portées par la France. La francophonie, c’est l’antithèse du fondamentalisme. »

Selon cette spécialiste des relations franco-israéliennes, une adhésion revêtirait de nombreux avantages. « Cela permettrait notamment de faire découvrir Israël au monde autrement que par le prisme du conflit israélo-palestinien », amène-t-elle, caressant vivement l’espoir que le ralliement à l’OIF soit bientôt scellé.

Tobie Nathan possède la même aspiration. Le Conseiller culturel de l’Ambassade de France en Israël enrichit même l’argumentaire. « La francophonie fonctionne comme un lobby, fédéré par la pratique commune d’une langue. » Avec malice, l’ancien professeur de psychopathologie ajoute : « Cela permettrait de dialoguer avec des pays du monde entier et de se faire des amis inattendus… Au Maghreb par exemple. ».

En Israël, nul n’en doute. L’Etat hébreu a vocation à intégrer la Francophonie. Le prétexte est culturel, les bénéfices seraient politiques.

Below, in English.

Almost 8% of people in Israel juggle easy with the language of Molière. Yet the Jewish state - with Algeria - are absent from the International Organization of la Francophonie (OIF). If the cultural ties between France and Israel are firmly implanted, political relations, they are tended and distended.The impact? Israel's accession to the OIF won't happen tomorrow.Alternatives exist, but do not replace Israel's full membershp.

A smile cracks the face of Noah. When he learns that Ben Gurion had envisaged that French was should be, alongside Hebrew, the official language of Israel, the response is immediate. Noah, who made his aliya more than a yea ago, is committed to French, his mother tongue. When links between these two cultures and two languages appear, he does not hide his joy.

And these links are primarily digital. With its 120,000 French - the vast majority are binational - Israel should have its place in the Francophonie. For the 56 countries of this organization do not count Israel's Francophones. This is one reason why the Jewish state to knock on the door of this "friendly" of the French language.

"Membership in La Francophonie is a very popular in Israel," says Tsillas Hershco, researcher at the Besa Center for Strategic Studies at the University of Bar-Ilan, Israelis admire liberal values brought by France. The Francophonie is the antithesis of fundamentalism. "

According to this specialist in Franco-Israeli relations, membership has many benefits. "This would allow Israel to discover the world outside the prism of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," she says, strongly hoping that the support for the OIF will soon be sealed.

Tobie Nathan has the same aspiration. The Cultural Counselor of the Embassy of France in Israel enriches the same arguments. "The French language works as a lobby, united by the common practice of a language." With eneergy, the former professor of psychopathology adds: " It would interact with countries around the world and make unexpected friends ... In the Maghreb, for example."

In Israel, nobody questions the Hebrew state's integration in the Francophonie. The reason is cultural, profits are political.

I blogged about this twice in the distant past, once in 2003 and once in 2004. I continue to agree with my arguments of 2004.

The fact that France isn't the dominant power in la Francophonie is something that's frequently overlooked. Now, granted that in terms of the numbers of Francophones and overall economic and geopolitical power France is by far the most important member-state. France didn't start la Francophonie, though--rather, that institution can trace its origins to an initiative of Francophone African states to establish cooperation between themselves on educational and other matters. A France in the process of a rather prolonged and nasty decolonization in Algeria was in no mood to establish links which could plausibly be called neo-colonial, particualrly not with the Left ascendant over the 1960s.

In the meantime, a Québec which was quickly developing throughout the 1960s into a self-consciously Francophone entity with a much stronger international profile than ever before began to look towards the countries of Francophone Africa, and separately started to draw France into much closer and more direct relations. Partly in order to preempt the development of an autonomous Québec foreign policy, the Canadian federal government began to echo Québec's initiatives. (The Communauté française de Belgique and other Francophone communities in Europe seem to have started their own participation in la Francophonie for a combination of motives, some perhaps echoing those of Québec/Canada.)

The important point is that la Francophonie began as a decentralized network, with North American and African nodes existing largely independently of France and in fact playing a determinative role in the organization of the international Francophone community. As the number of member-states has expanded, particularly into the Middle East and the nominally Francophile countries of central and southeastern Europe, so have the chances for France to establish a formal hegemony within institutional structures--as opposed to an informal one through the predominance of French mass media--dropped sharply.

Israel should join la Francophonie. Given that it has a million speakers of French--including a quarter-million or so mother-tongue speakers--it's arguably more Francophone than participating governments like Poland and Lithuania. I suspect, though, that the opposition of many Arab Francophone states, particularly but not only Lebanon, will keep Israel out.

Worse still for Israeli prospects, based on Ethnologue data, it seems that a near-majority of Francophones (including speakers of French as a second language) live in countries with a Muslim majority population. If the Arab-Israeli situation does become a pan-Muslim issue, then however desirable Israeli membership might be impossible. This would be a terrible pity, needless to say, given Israel's qualifications and given how France's Jewish community is second-largest in the Jewish diaspora by size.

In the Guysen article quoted above, Mauritania, Chad, and--of course--Lebanon were all cited as opposing Israeli membership.