162-692: The Arab Peace Initiative ( Arabic : مبادرة السلام العربية ; Hebrew : יוזמת השלום הערבית ), also known as the Saudi Initiative ( Arabic : مبادرة السعودية ; Hebrew : היוזמה הסעודית ), is a 10 sentence proposal for an end to the Arab–Israeli conflict that was endorsed by the Arab League in 2002 at the Beirut Summit and re-endorsed at the 2007 and at the 2017 Arab League summits. The initiative offers normalisation of relations by
324-676: A basis for future negotiations with the Palestinians. The Arab League summit held after the Six-Day War , during which Israel occupied large swathes of Arab territory, established the Khartoum Resolution on September 1, 1967. It contained the "three noes" that was to be the center of all Israeli-Arab relations after that point: No peace deals, no diplomatic recognitions, and no negotiations. UN Security Council Resolution 242 , which called for normalization of Israel with
486-575: A collection of related dialects that constitute the precursor of Arabic, first emerged during the Iron Age . Previously, the earliest attestation of Old Arabic was thought to be a single 1st century CE inscription in Sabaic script at Qaryat al-Faw , in southern present-day Saudi Arabia. However, this inscription does not participate in several of the key innovations of the Arabic language group, such as
648-469: A comprehensive peace agreement has been reached." Though the president later stressed that it could only be implemented with the cessation of terrorist attacks against Israel. His successor, Barack Obama expressed praise in the spirit, but not support of its details, for the Initiative in the first days of his presidency. In an interview with Al-Arabiya network on January 27, 2009, he said: Look at
810-435: A corpus of poetic texts, in addition to Qur'an usage and Bedouin informants whom he considered to be reliable speakers of the ʿarabiyya . Arabic spread with the spread of Islam . Following the early Muslim conquests , Arabic gained vocabulary from Middle Persian and Turkish . In the early Abbasid period , many Classical Greek terms entered Arabic through translations carried out at Baghdad's House of Wisdom . By
972-460: A debate had hitherto been avoided "because, of course, to look too closely at the Middle East would raise disturbing questions about the region, about our Western policies in those tragic lands, and about America's relationship with Israel ". In 2007, Fisk expressed personal doubts about the official historical record of the attacks. In an article for The Independent , he wrote that, while
1134-1081: A dialect of Arabic and written in the Latin alphabet . The Balkan languages, including Albanian, Greek , Serbo-Croatian, and Bulgarian , have also acquired many words of Arabic origin, mainly through direct contact with Ottoman Turkish . Arabic has influenced languages across the globe throughout its history, especially languages where Islam is the predominant religion and in countries that were conquered by Muslims. The most markedly influenced languages are Persian , Turkish , Hindustani ( Hindi and Urdu ), Kashmiri , Kurdish , Bosnian , Kazakh , Bengali , Malay ( Indonesian and Malaysian ), Maldivian , Pashto , Punjabi , Albanian , Armenian , Azerbaijani , Sicilian, Spanish, Greek, Bulgarian, Tagalog , Sindhi , Odia , Hebrew and African languages such as Hausa , Amharic , Tigrinya , Somali , Tamazight , and Swahili . Conversely, Arabic has borrowed some words (mostly nouns) from other languages, including its sister-language Aramaic, Persian, Greek, and Latin and to
1296-551: A dream ... that you were a spiritual person ... this means you are a true Muslim". Fisk replied: "Sheikh Osama, I am not a Muslim. ... I am a journalist [whose] task is to tell the truth." Bin Laden replied: "If you tell the truth, that means you are a good Muslim." During the 1996 interview, bin Laden said the Saudi royal family was corrupt. During the final interview in 1997, bin Laden said he sought God's help "to turn America into
1458-407: A former British Ambassador to Libya, Oliver Miles , complained of "a deplorable number of mistakes" in the book's 1,366 pages which "undermine the reader's confidence", and that "vigilant editing and ruthless pruning could perhaps have made two or three good short books out of this one". Richard Beeston , a longtime foreign correspondent and then foreign editor for The Times , wrote in a review of
1620-713: A gas attack, and Fisk queried the incident. Fisk's reporting drew criticism for having relied on government supplied contacts, with Asser Khattab writing in Raseef22 that the doctor quoted by Fisk "had been introduced to him by officials in the Syrian government and army". Richard Spencer and Catherine Philp in The Times wrote that journalists had been taken to Douma on a government-organised trip while international investigators were forced to remain in Damascus, and that
1782-411: A journalistic eye without which we shall be partially blind, a pen without which our capacity to express the truth is diminished, a soul without which our own empathy for victims of imperialism will be lacking." Christian Broughton , the managing director of The Independent , said "Fearless, uncompromising, determined and utterly committed to uncovering the truth and reality at all costs, Robert Fisk
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#17327655750511944-487: A lesser extent and more recently from Turkish, English, French, and Italian. Arabic is spoken by as many as 380 million speakers, both native and non-native, in the Arab world, making it the fifth most spoken language in the world, and the fourth most used language on the internet in terms of users. It also serves as the liturgical language of more than 2 billion Muslims . In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked Arabic
2106-577: A local Muslim leader intervened, Fisk absolved the attackers of responsibility and pointed out that their "brutality was entirely the product of others, of us—of we who had armed their struggle against the Russians and ignored their pain and laughed at their civil war and then armed and paid them again for the 'War for Civilisation' just a few miles away and then bombed their homes and ripped up their families and called them ' collateral damage '." According to Richard Falk , Fisk said of his attacker: "There
2268-636: A meeting with Arab leaders at the World Economic Forum in Jordan in May 2007 said that his government would mount a counter-proposal. An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman said that "Israel has no interest in stagnation and unfortunately, if the Arab initiative is take it or leave it, that will be a recipe for stagnation". In October 2008, it was reported that the Israeli government were considering
2430-690: A millennium before the modern period . Early lexicographers ( لُغَوِيُّون lughawiyyūn ) sought to explain words in the Quran that were unfamiliar or had a particular contextual meaning, and to identify words of non-Arabic origin that appear in the Quran. They gathered shawāhid ( شَوَاهِد 'instances of attested usage') from poetry and the speech of the Arabs—particularly the Bedouin ʾaʿrāb [ ar ] ( أَعْراب ) who were perceived to speak
2592-412: A million, Palestinians would invade the country, that would be the end of the state of Israel as a Jewish state.... That's not why we created the state." Prime Minister Ehud Olmert also stated that month that "I'll never accept a solution that is based on their return to Israel, any number.... I will not agree to accept any kind of Israel responsibility for the refugees. Full stop.... It's a moral issue of
2754-758: A negotiated outcome between the two sides." However, Pulitzer Prize -winning columnist Thomas Friedman met Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah in February 2002 and encouraged him to make the peace proposal. Only ten of the twenty-two leaders invited to the March 27 Arab League summit in Beirut , Lebanon attended. The missing included Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat , President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt , and King Abdullah of Jordan . Ariel Sharon's government , despite American and European pressure, had told Arafat that he would not be allowed to return if he left for
2916-526: A nonstarter and called then Defense Minister Ehud Barak's supportive remarks "an empty political gesture." In a recent study by Joshua Teitelbaum, for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs , he calls on Israel to reject the plan based on its "all or nothing" attitude, emphasizing that true peace will come with negotiations. Polls of the Palestinian people have generated large support for
3078-594: A result, many European languages have borrowed words from it. Arabic influence, mainly in vocabulary, is seen in European languages (mainly Spanish and to a lesser extent Portuguese , Catalan , and Sicilian ) owing to the proximity of Europe and the long-lasting Arabic cultural and linguistic presence, mainly in Southern Iberia, during the Al-Andalus era. Maltese is a Semitic language developed from
3240-462: A script derived from ASA attest to a language known as Hasaitic . On the northwestern frontier of Arabia, various languages known to scholars as Thamudic B , Thamudic D, Safaitic , and Hismaic are attested. The last two share important isoglosses with later forms of Arabic, leading scholars to theorize that Safaitic and Hismaic are early forms of Arabic and that they should be considered Old Arabic . Linguists generally believe that "Old Arabic",
3402-515: A shadow of itself". Fisk strongly condemned the September 11 attacks , describing them as a "hideous crime against humanity ". He also denounced the Bush administration's response to the attacks, arguing that "a score of nations" were being identified and positioned as "haters of democracy" or "kernels of evil", and urged a more honest debate on U.S. policy in the Middle East . He argued that such
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#17327655750513564-470: A single language, despite mutual incomprehensibility among differing spoken versions. From a linguistic standpoint, it is often said that the various spoken varieties of Arabic differ among each other collectively about as much as the Romance languages . This is an apt comparison in a number of ways. The period of divergence from a single spoken form is similar—perhaps 1500 years for Arabic, 2000 years for
3726-586: A suspected stroke . Due to the Irish Government COVID-19 restrictions , his funeral was held privately. The president of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins said "with his passing the world of journalism and informed commentary on the Middle East has lost one of its finest commentators" and the Taoiseach Micheál Martin stated that "he was fearless and independent in his reporting, with a deeply researched understanding of
3888-507: A type of Arabic. Cypriot Arabic is recognized as a minority language in Cyprus. The sociolinguistic situation of Arabic in modern times provides a prime example of the linguistic phenomenon of diglossia , which is the normal use of two separate varieties of the same language, usually in different social situations. Tawleed is the process of giving a new shade of meaning to an old classical word. For example, al-hatif lexicographically means
4050-664: A unanimous resolution on March 30, Resolution 1402 , which criticized all sides: Expressing its grave concern at the further deterioration of the situation, including the recent suicide bombings in Israel and the military attack against the headquarters of the President of the Palestinian Authority, 1. Calls upon both parties to move immediately to a meaningful ceasefire; calls for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Palestinian cities, including Ramallah; and calls upon
4212-425: A unilateral one – does not advance peace, but rather establishes a terror base for radical Islam." In 2015 he elaborated: "there are positive aspects and negative aspects to it [the initiative]." While noting that the situation has changed in the 13 years since the deal was proposed, he asserted that "the general idea - to try and reach understandings with leading Arab countries - is a good idea." However, he objected to
4374-507: A variety of regional vernacular Arabic dialects , which are not necessarily mutually intelligible. Classical Arabic is the language found in the Quran , used from the period of Pre-Islamic Arabia to that of the Abbasid Caliphate . Classical Arabic is prescriptive, according to the syntactic and grammatical norms laid down by classical grammarians (such as Sibawayh ) and the vocabulary defined in classical dictionaries (such as
4536-476: A wider audience." In the wake of the industrial revolution and European hegemony and colonialism , pioneering Arabic presses, such as the Amiri Press established by Muhammad Ali (1819), dramatically changed the diffusion and consumption of Arabic literature and publications. Rifa'a al-Tahtawi proposed the establishment of Madrasat al-Alsun in 1836 and led a translation campaign that highlighted
4698-737: Is a Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world . The ISO assigns language codes to 32 varieties of Arabic , including its standard form of Literary Arabic, known as Modern Standard Arabic , which is derived from Classical Arabic . This distinction exists primarily among Western linguists; Arabic speakers themselves generally do not distinguish between Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic, but rather refer to both as al-ʿarabiyyatu l-fuṣḥā ( اَلعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ "the eloquent Arabic") or simply al-fuṣḥā ( اَلْفُصْحَىٰ ). Arabic
4860-590: Is a minimum level of comprehension between all Arabic dialects, this level can increase or decrease based on geographic proximity: for example, Levantine and Gulf speakers understand each other much better than they do speakers from the Maghreb. The issue of diglossia between spoken and written language is a complicating factor: A single written form, differing sharply from any of the spoken varieties learned natively, unites several sometimes divergent spoken forms. For political reasons, Arabs mostly assert that they all speak
5022-559: Is a sister language rather than their direct ancestor. Arabia had a wide variety of Semitic languages in antiquity. The term "Arab" was initially used to describe those living in the Arabian Peninsula , as perceived by geographers from ancient Greece . In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside the Ancient South Arabian family (e.g. Southern Thamudic) were spoken. It
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5184-500: Is an important one, but it is liable to founder if terrorism is not stopped. We cannot, of course, ignore the problematic aspects which arose at the Beirut Summit and the harsh and rejectionist [sic] language used by some of the speakers. It is also clear that the details of every peace plan must be discussed directly between Israel and the Palestinians, and to make this possible, the Palestinian Authority must put an end to terror,
5346-478: Is believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages (non-Central Semitic languages) were spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hejaz , Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages. In Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested. In eastern Arabia, inscriptions in
5508-408: Is credited with establishing the rules of Arabic prosody . Al-Jahiz (776–868) proposed to Al-Akhfash al-Akbar an overhaul of the grammar of Arabic, but it would not come to pass for two centuries. The standardization of Arabic reached completion around the end of the 8th century. The first comprehensive description of the ʿarabiyya "Arabic", Sībawayhi's al - Kitāb , is based first of all upon
5670-472: Is credited with standardizing Arabic grammar , or an-naḥw ( النَّحو "the way" ), and pioneering a system of diacritics to differentiate consonants ( نقط الإعجام nuqaṭu‿l-i'jām "pointing for non-Arabs") and indicate vocalization ( التشكيل at-tashkīl ). Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi (718–786) compiled the first Arabic dictionary, Kitāb al-'Ayn ( كتاب العين "The Book of the Letter ع "), and
5832-585: Is every reason to be angry. I've been an outspoken critic of the US actions myself. If I had been them, I would have attacked me." During the 2003 invasion of Iraq , Fisk was based in Baghdad and filed many eyewitness reports. He criticised other journalists based in Iraq for what he calls their "hotel journalism": reporting from one's hotel room without interviews or first-hand experience of events. Fisk's criticism of
5994-605: Is no chance whatsoever that the Saudi initiative will bring peace" and labeled it "a recipe for Israel's destruction". Kadima Chairperson Tzipi Livni has distanced herself from it given her uncompromising opposition to the return of the Palestinian refugees . In October 2008, Likud Knesset Member Yuval Steinitz , who served on the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, referred to the 2007 initiative re-launch as
6156-574: Is not present in the spoken varieties, but deletes Classical words that sound obsolete in MSA. In addition, MSA has borrowed or coined many terms for concepts that did not exist in Quranic times, and MSA continues to evolve. Some words have been borrowed from other languages—notice that transliteration mainly indicates spelling and not real pronunciation (e.g., فِلْم film 'film' or ديمقراطية dīmuqrāṭiyyah 'democracy'). The current preference
6318-878: Is offered". The initiative calls for the establishment of a special committee composed of a portion of the Arab League's concerned member states and the Secretary General of the League of Arab States to pursue the necessary contacts to gain support for the initiative at all levels, particularly from the United Nations, the United Nations Security Council, the United States of America, the Russian Federation,
6480-855: Is official in Mali and recognized as a minority language in Morocco, while the Senegalese government adopted the Latin script to write it. Maltese is official in (predominantly Catholic ) Malta and written with the Latin script . Linguists agree that it is a variety of spoken Arabic, descended from Siculo-Arabic , though it has experienced extensive changes as a result of sustained and intensive contact with Italo-Romance varieties, and more recently also with English. Due to "a mix of social, cultural, historical, political, and indeed linguistic factors", many Maltese people today consider their language Semitic but not
6642-424: Is prepared today to bring peace closer. Today." Israeli Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on April 21, 2009, that the plan is "a dangerous proposal, a recipe for the destruction of Israel." Likud party spokesperson Zalman Shoval said in March 2007 that Israel would never accept the return of refugees who had lived in pre-1967 Israeli territory, saying "If 300,000–400,000, or maybe
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6804-489: Is rubbish. As a journalist, you have got to be neutral and unbiased on the side of those who suffer." Former Chartered Institute of Journalists president Liz Justice wrote: "I knew him as a very detailed and knowledgeable journalist. My friend had to edit his work from 2,000 words to 400 and we have very different views involving eggshells and walking carefully. We both agree he will be missed." Richard Falk , in an interview with CounterPunch , said: "Fisk's departure from
6966-508: Is the third most widespread official language after English and French, one of six official languages of the United Nations , and the liturgical language of Islam . Arabic is widely taught in schools and universities around the world and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, governments and the media. During the Middle Ages , Arabic was a major vehicle of culture and learning, especially in science, mathematics and philosophy. As
7128-530: Is the variety used in most current, printed Arabic publications, spoken by some of the Arabic media across North Africa and the Middle East, and understood by most educated Arabic speakers. "Literary Arabic" and "Standard Arabic" ( فُصْحَى fuṣḥá ) are less strictly defined terms that may refer to Modern Standard Arabic or Classical Arabic. Some of the differences between Classical Arabic (CA) and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) are as follows: MSA uses much Classical vocabulary (e.g., dhahaba 'to go') that
7290-413: Is to avoid direct borrowings, preferring to either use loan translations (e.g., فرع farʻ 'branch', also used for the branch of a company or organization; جناح janāḥ 'wing', is also used for the wing of an airplane, building, air force, etc.), or to coin new words using forms within existing roots ( استماتة istimātah ' apoptosis ', using the root موت m/w/t 'death' put into
7452-505: Is unique in terms of the comprehensive “payoff” it offers Israel and, with regard to refugees, both the absence of any direct mention of the right of return and the recognition that Israel's agreement to a solution must be solicited. It represents huge progress from the days in 1967". American-Israeli journalist Caroline B. Glick , editor of the English-language Jerusalem Post said in March 2007 that "there
7614-524: Is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the industrial and post-industrial era , especially in modern times. Due to its grounding in Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic is removed over a millennium from everyday speech, which is construed as a multitude of dialects of this language. These dialects and Modern Standard Arabic are described by some scholars as not mutually comprehensible. The former are usually acquired in families, while
7776-445: The Lisān al-ʻArab ). Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) largely follows the grammatical standards of Classical Arabic and uses much of the same vocabulary. However, it has discarded some grammatical constructions and vocabulary that no longer have any counterpart in the spoken varieties and has adopted certain new constructions and vocabulary from the spoken varieties. Much of the new vocabulary
7938-599: The Arab world with Israel, in return for a full withdrawal by Israel from the occupied territories (including the West Bank , Gaza , the Golan Heights , and Lebanon ), with the possibility of comparable and mutual agreed minor swaps of the land between Israel and Palestine, a "just settlement" of the Palestinian refugee problem based on UN Resolution 194 , and the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. A Palestinian attack called
8100-660: The Armenian genocide of 1915 and supported moves to persuade the Turkish Government to acknowledge it. For Remembrance Day in 2011, Fisk wrote that his father "old Bill Fisk became very ruminative about the Great War. He learned that Haig had lied, that he himself had fought for a world that betrayed him, that 20,000 British dead on the first day of the Somme – which he mercifully avoided because his first regiment,
8262-730: The Carnation Revolution in 1974. He then was appointed Middle East correspondent (1976–1987). In addition to the Troubles and Portugal, he reported the Iranian revolution in 1979. When a story of his on Iran Air Flight 655 was spiked shortly after the paper's takeover by Rupert Murdoch , Fisk moved to The Independent in 1989. The New York Times described Fisk as "probably the most famous foreign correspondent in Britain". The Economist referred to him as "one of
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#17327655750518424-550: The Iraq disarmament crisis that would later escalate into the 2003 invasion of Iraq . Some reporters were skeptical about the summit's prospects. Robert Fisk explained the absence of Egypt's Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah : "they can smell a dead rat from quite a long way away." On March 14, analyst Shai Feldman stated on The News Hour with Jim Lehrer that "[t]here's little hope that negotiations will pick up or that negotiations will eventually succeed in bringing about
8586-611: The NATO air campaign against the FRY in 1999 . His 2005 work, The Great War for Civilisation , was critical of Western and Israeli approaches to the Middle East. Neal Ascherson , for The Independent on Sunday commented: "This is a very long book, allowing Fisk to interleave political analysis, recent history and his own adventures with the real stories which concern him. These are the sufferings of ordinary people under monstrous tyrannies or in criminal, avoidable wars". In The Guardian ,
8748-493: The Passover massacre took place on 27 March 2002, the day before the Initiative was published, which initially overshadowed it. The Palestinian Authority led by Yasser Arafat immediately embraced the initiative. His successor Mahmoud Abbas also supported the plan and officially asked U.S. President Barack Obama to adopt it as part of his Middle East policy. Initial reports indicate that Islamist political party Hamas ,
8910-625: The Shatt-al-Arab when covering the early stages of the conflict. After the United States and allies launched their intervention in Afghanistan , Fisk was for a time transferred to Pakistan to cover the conflict. While reporting from there, he was attacked and beaten by a group of Afghan refugees fleeing heavy bombing by the United States Air Force . In his graphic account of his almost being beaten to death until
9072-844: The Soviet–Afghan War , the Iran–Iraq War , the Arab–Israeli conflict , the Gulf War , the Kosovo War , the Algerian Civil War , the Bosnian War , the 2001 international intervention in Afghanistan , the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Arab Spring in 2011 and the ongoing Syrian Civil War . During the Iran–Iraq War , he suffered partial but permanent hearing loss as a result of being close to Iraqi heavy artillery in
9234-467: The Xth form , or جامعة jāmiʻah 'university', based on جمع jamaʻa 'to gather, unite'; جمهورية jumhūriyyah 'republic', based on جمهور jumhūr 'multitude'). An earlier tendency was to redefine an older word although this has fallen into disuse (e.g., هاتف hātif 'telephone' < 'invisible caller (in Sufism)'; جريدة jarīdah 'newspaper' < 'palm-leaf stalk'). Colloquial or dialectal Arabic refers to
9396-455: The al-Aqsa Intifada beginning in September 2000. In fall 2002, the Bush administration strenuously tried to push a temporary cease-fire in the intifada to give breathing room for the Beirut summit but failed to achieve an agreement. However, the presence of American negotiator Anthony Zinni in Israel led to a lull in the conflict for the two weeks before the summit. During this period, the Bush administration hoped to draw attention away from
9558-411: The government of Syria , which insisted on letting the Palestinians pursue armed resistance. It also objected to the use of the term "normalization" and insisted that any such offer was too generous to Israel. The government of Lebanon expressed concerns that some of its Palestinian refugees would try to settle where they are, which it strongly opposes. A suicide bomber killed 30 Israelis in Netanya
9720-494: The northern Hejaz . These features are evidence of common descent from a hypothetical ancestor , Proto-Arabic . The following features of Proto-Arabic can be reconstructed with confidence: On the other hand, several Arabic varieties are closer to other Semitic languages and maintain features not found in Classical Arabic, indicating that these varieties cannot have developed from Classical Arabic. Thus, Arabic vernaculars do not descend from Classical Arabic: Classical Arabic
9882-419: The "learned" tradition (Classical Arabic). This variety and both its classicizing and "lay" iterations have been termed Middle Arabic in the past, but they are thought to continue an Old Higazi register. It is clear that the orthography of the Quran was not developed for the standardized form of Classical Arabic; rather, it shows the attempt on the part of writers to record an archaic form of Old Higazi. In
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#173276557505110044-773: The "purest," most eloquent form of Arabic—initiating a process of jamʿu‿l-luɣah ( جمع اللغة 'compiling the language') which took place over the 8th and early 9th centuries. Kitāb al-'Ayn ( c. 8th century ), attributed to Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi , is considered the first lexicon to include all Arabic roots ; it sought to exhaust all possible root permutations —later called taqālīb ( تقاليب ) — calling those that are actually used mustaʿmal ( مستعمَل ) and those that are not used muhmal ( مُهمَل ). Lisān al-ʿArab (1290) by Ibn Manzur gives 9,273 roots, while Tāj al-ʿArūs (1774) by Murtada az-Zabidi gives 11,978 roots. Robert Fisk Robert William Fisk (12 July 1946 – 30 October 2020)
10206-454: The 11th and 12th centuries in al-Andalus , the zajal and muwashah poetry forms developed in the dialectical Arabic of Cordoba and the Maghreb. The Nahda was a cultural and especially literary renaissance of the 19th century in which writers sought "to fuse Arabic and European forms of expression." According to James L. Gelvin , " Nahda writers attempted to simplify the Arabic language and script so that it might be accessible to
10368-462: The 4th to the 6th centuries, the Nabataean script evolved into the Arabic script recognizable from the early Islamic era. There are inscriptions in an undotted, 17-letter Arabic script dating to the 6th century CE, found at four locations in Syria ( Zabad , Jebel Usays , Harran , Umm el-Jimal ). The oldest surviving papyrus in Arabic dates to 643 CE, and it uses dots to produce the modern 28-letter Arabic alphabet. The language of that papyrus and of
10530-603: The 8th century, knowledge of Classical Arabic had become an essential prerequisite for rising into the higher classes throughout the Islamic world, both for Muslims and non-Muslims. For example, Maimonides , the Andalusi Jewish philosopher, authored works in Judeo-Arabic —Arabic written in Hebrew script . Ibn Jinni of Mosul , a pioneer in phonology , wrote prolifically in the 10th century on Arabic morphology and phonology in works such as Kitāb Al-Munṣif , Kitāb Al-Muḥtasab , and Kitāb Al-Khaṣāʾiṣ [ ar ] . Ibn Mada' of Cordoba (1116–1196) realized
10692-416: The Allied victory of 1918, at the end of my father's war, the victors divided up the lands of their former enemies. In the space of just seventeen months, they created the borders of Northern Ireland , Yugoslavia and most of the Middle East . And I have spent my entire career—in Belfast and Sarajevo , in Beirut and Baghdad —watching the people within those borders burn." Fisk wrote extensively about
10854-666: The Arab Peace Initiative, and has urged Israel to support it on several occasions. Most recently, in an October 19, 2008, statement, Erekat said that "I think Israel should have [supported the Initiative] since 2002. It is the most strategic initiative that came from the Arab world since 1948.... I urge them to revisit this initiative and to go with it because it will shorten the way to peace." Arabic language Arabic (endonym: اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ , romanized : al-ʿarabiyyah , pronounced [al ʕaraˈbijːa] , or عَرَبِيّ , ʿarabīy , pronounced [ˈʕarabiː] or [ʕaraˈbij] )
11016-410: The Arab countries and Israel to live in peace and good neighborliness, and provide future generations with security, stability and prosperity." These expressions in the Arab peace initiative are inspirational and promising – a serious opening for real progress. At the 2009 American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference, President Shimon Peres expressed satisfaction at the "u-turn" in
11178-424: The Arab states and for Israel to withdraw from territories taken during the war , was enacted on November 22, 1967, and faced initial rejection by most of the Arab world . The peace initiative marked a major shift from the 1967 position. Like most peace plans since 1967, it was based on UN Security Council Resolution 242 . It followed the July 2000 Middle East Peace Summit at Camp David which ended in failure and
11340-435: The Arab states will do the following: (a) Consider the Arab–Israeli conflict over, sign a peace agreement with Israel, and achieve peace for all states in the region; (b) Establish normal relations with Israel within the framework of this comprehensive peace. Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia made a speech to the Arab League on the day of its adoption saying that: In spite of all that has happened and what still may happen,
11502-431: The BBC in 2005, he articulated this position further: "If you believe that victims should have more of a say than people who commit atrocities, then yes, I take a definite position. If reporters don't do that then they are out of their minds." On coverage of foreign reporting, he observed in a 2006 interview with Harry Kreisler of the Institute of International Studies at UC Berkeley: "the French are very good at getting to
11664-400: The Beirut Summit that "the major problem with it is that it only called upon Israel to do a series of things and there was no call upon the Palestinians to stop terrorism." BBC News stated that the 2007 re-adoption prompted a more supportive response from the government than the initial 2002 initiative, which ended up being "rejected... outright after it was first proposed". Shimon Peres in
11826-601: The Beirut summit. The Palestinian Authority condemned the attack and Arafat personally ordered the arrests of militants associated with Hamas, Islamic Jihad , and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades as a response. However, Ariel Sharon blamed Arafat for the attack as well. An Israeli government spokesperson stated that "[t]here ain't going to be any negotiations under fire". Another government spokesperson, Raanan Gissin , said that Israel would continue to pursue
11988-473: The Bush administration was incapable of successfully carrying out such attacks due to its organisational incompetence, he was "increasingly troubled at the inconsistencies in the official narrative of 9/11" and added that he did not condone the "crazed 'research' of David Icke ", but was "talking about scientific issues". Fisk had earlier addressed similar concerns in a speech at Sydney University in 2006. During
12150-511: The Cheshires, sent him to Dublin and Cork to deal with another 1916 "problem" – was a trashing of human life. In hospital and recovering from cancer, I asked him once why the Great War was fought. 'All I can tell you, fellah,' he said, 'was that it was a great waste.' And he swept his hand from left to right. Then he stopped wearing his poppy . I asked him why, and he said that he didn't want to see 'so many damn fools' wearing it." He returned to
12312-731: The Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace in Jerusalem found that only 36% of Israelis support the plan. A June 2008 Angus Reid Global Monitor poll found that about 67% of Palestinians and 39% of Israelis support it. In 2007 Benjamin Netanyahu who in 2009 would for the second time become Prime Minister of Israel rejected the Initiative. He told visiting Arab foreign ministers that "The withdrawal from Gaza two years ago proved that any Israeli withdrawal – particularly
12474-477: The Initiative's calls for Israel to withdraw from the Golan Heights and to repatriate Palestinian refugees. In 2018, Netanyahu rejected the Arab Peace Initiative as a basis for negotiations with the Palestinians. On March 28, 2002, then Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said: Israel views positively every initiative aimed at arriving at peace and normalization. In this respect, the Saudi step
12636-642: The Israel-Palestine conflict. Fisk was profiled in Yung Chang 's 2019 documentary film This Is Not a Movie . In reviewing the film, Slant Magazine stated: "The two things that give this documentary its power and provocativeness are intellectual rather than dramatic: Fisk’s work, and his ideas." Cath Clarke, writing for The Guardian , said the film asks its audience about war: "Is there something deep in our souls that permits it because it feels natural? His painful, deeply serious question about
12798-591: The Middle East (2005), and Syria: Descent Into the Abyss (2015). The term fisking (meaning a line-by-line rebuttal) was named after him. Fisk was an only child, born in Maidstone , Kent, to William and Peggy Fisk. His father was Borough Treasurer at Maidstone Corporation and had fought in the First World War . His mother was an amateur painter who in later years became a Maidstone magistrate. At
12960-412: The Middle East and North Africa have become a badge of sophistication and modernity and ... feigning, or asserting, weakness or lack of facility in Arabic is sometimes paraded as a sign of status, class, and perversely, even education through a mélange of code-switching practises." Arabic has been taught worldwide in many elementary and secondary schools, especially Muslim schools. Universities around
13122-459: The Middle East is the strategic option of the Arab countries." This is Israel's strategy as well. It continues that its goals are to: "...consider the Arab–Israeli conflict ended, and enter into a peace agreement with Israel, and provide security for all the states in the region. Establish normal relations with Israel in the context of comprehensive peace. Stop the further shedding of blood, enabling
13284-515: The Muslim states and the European Union . This special commission would also consist of delegations from both Egypt and Jordan on behalf of the Arab world. Initially, the initiative was met with enthusiastic support from the Bush administration. According to Bush's spokesperson Ari Fleischer "the president praised the crown prince's ideas regarding the full Arab-Israeli normalization once
13446-690: The Qur'an is referred to by linguists as "Quranic Arabic", as distinct from its codification soon thereafter into " Classical Arabic ". In late pre-Islamic times, a transdialectal and transcommunal variety of Arabic emerged in the Hejaz , which continued living its parallel life after literary Arabic had been institutionally standardized in the 2nd and 3rd century of the Hijra , most strongly in Judeo-Christian texts, keeping alive ancient features eliminated from
13608-659: The Relationship between Dublin , Belfast and London , 1939–1945". It was published as In Time of War: Ireland, Ulster and the Price of Neutrality 1939-1945 (London: André Deutsch, 1983; reprinted in Dublin by Gill & MacMillan, 1996). Reviewer F. I. Magee in 1984 stated: "This book presents a detailed and definitive account of Anglo-Irish relations during the Second World War....Fisk's excellent book highlights
13770-576: The Romance languages. Also, while it is comprehensible to people from the Maghreb , a linguistically innovative variety such as Moroccan Arabic is essentially incomprehensible to Arabs from the Mashriq , much as French is incomprehensible to Spanish or Italian speakers but relatively easily learned by them. This suggests that the spoken varieties may linguistically be considered separate languages. With
13932-635: The Saudi offer and Defense Minister Ehud Barak again suggested a counter-proposal. But so far, no Israeli government has made any formal counter-proposal. In terms of public opinion, the Oxford Research Group has reported that attitudes range "between those who have never heard of it, and those who don't believe a word of it." A November–December 2008 poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah and
14094-685: The Syrian Golan Heights, to the 4 June 1967 line and the territories still occupied in southern Lebanon; (b) Attain a just solution to the problem of Palestinian refugees to be agreed upon in accordance with the UN General Assembly Resolution No 194 . (c) Accept the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state on the Palestinian territories occupied since 4 June 1967 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital. In return
14256-673: The U.S. invasion , and occupation of Iraq . An Arabic speaker, he was among the few Western journalists to interview Osama bin Laden , which he did three times between 1993 and 1997. He began his journalistic career at the Newcastle Chronicle and then the Sunday Express . From there, he went to work for The Times as a correspondent in Northern Ireland , Portugal and the Middle East ; in
14418-575: The ads and only 14% actually read them. Peace Now reciprocated the PLO's gesture by running its own ads in the Palestinian press. After the 2007 summit, Mahmoud Abbas said that "This initiative simply says to Israel 'leave the occupied territories and you will live in a sea of peace that begins in Nouakchott and ends in Indonesia'". Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat has offered his full support of
14580-525: The ambivalence in relations between Britain, the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland and goes a long way towards explaining why the current situation is so intractable." Fisk worked on the Sunday Express diary column before a disagreement with the editor, John Junor , prompted a move to The Times . From 1972 to 1975, at the height of the Troubles , Fisk was The Times ' Belfast correspondent, before being posted to Portugal following
14742-418: The attitudes of Arab states toward peace with Israel as reflected in the Saudi initiative, though he did qualify his comments by saying: "Israel wasn't a partner to the wording of this initiative. Therefore it doesn't have to agree to every word." Nevertheless, Israel respects the profound change, and hopes it will be translated into action," Peres added. "I trust that the leadership of President Obama will pave
14904-440: The book that Fisk's "central argument is lost in a verbal avalanche, as Fisk empties 30 years of notebooks onto the page" and that while there are what he calls "passages of descriptive brilliance" he regarded some of his arguments "ridiculous" and "utter nonsense". Fisk produced a three-part series titled From Beirut To Bosnia in 1993 which Fisk said was an attempt "to find out why an increasing number of Muslims had come to hate
15066-501: The bravest." Former Leader of the UK Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn eulogised him on Twitter , finding it "[s]o sad to hear of the death of Robert Fisk. A huge loss of a brilliant man with unparalleled knowledge of history, politics and people of Middle East." The Greek politician and economic theorist Yanis Varoufakis also posted a eulogy on Twitter, declaring that "[w]ith Robert Fisk's passing we have lost
15228-495: The cease-fire but that "when we will feel that we have exhausted all the possibilities of achieving such a cease-fire, then of course we will take all the necessary measures in order to defend our citizens." The Passover Massacre as well as other attacks lead to an escalation of the al-Aqsa Intifada and helped falter the initiative. The violence led the United Nations Security Council to issue
15390-428: The complexities of the Middle East, eastern history and politics". The Australian anti-war journalist John Pilger declared upon hearing of his death that "Robert Fisk has died. I pay warmest tribute to one of the last great reporters. The weasel word 'controversial' appears in even his own paper, The Independent , whose pages he honoured. He went against the grain and told the truth, spectacularly. Journalism has lost
15552-632: The contrary, we said we will endorse and enter a dialogue with the Saudis or anyone else – indeed in the entire Arab world – if they are serious on the normalization issue. The thing is, that life in the Middle East has taught us to be extremely skeptical and extremely wary of these kind of declarations until they are actually delivered in the Arabic language. Yossi Alpher , a political consultant and writer and former senior advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said in November 2008 that: "The initiative
15714-574: The conversion of Semitic mimation to nunation in the singular. It is best reassessed as a separate language on the Central Semitic dialect continuum. It was also thought that Old Arabic coexisted alongside—and then gradually displaced— epigraphic Ancient North Arabian (ANA), which was theorized to have been the regional tongue for many centuries. ANA, despite its name, was considered a very distinct language, and mutually unintelligible, from "Arabic". Scholars named its variant dialects after
15876-775: The death squads. Many of the death squads work for the Ministry of Interior . Who runs the Ministry of Interior in Baghdad? Who pays the Ministry of the Interior? Who pays the militiamen who make up the death squads? We do, the occupation authorities. ... We need to look at this story in a different light." Fisk interviewed Osama bin Laden on three occasions. The interviews appeared in articles published by The Independent on 6 December 1993, 10 July 1996 and 22 March 1997. In Fisk's first interview, "Anti-Soviet warrior puts his army on
16038-654: The doctor interviewed by Fisk admitted to not having been to the hospital where the victims were taken. The Snopes website said other reporters on the same trip as Fisk had interviewed locals who said they had inhaled toxic gas. Fisk returned to the subject of the Douma attacks in early January 2020, in an article concerning internal disagreements within the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) recorded in documents released by WikiLeaks . He
16200-477: The elected government of the Gaza Strip , was deeply divided, while later reports indicate that Hamas accepted the peace initiative. The Israeli government under Ariel Sharon rejected the initiative as a "non-starter" because it required Israel to withdraw to pre-June 1967 borders. In 2015, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed tentative support for the Initiative, but in 2018, he rejected it as
16362-587: The emergence of Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include: There are several features which Classical Arabic, the modern Arabic varieties, as well as the Safaitic and Hismaic inscriptions share which are unattested in any other Central Semitic language variety, including the Dadanitic and Taymanitic languages of
16524-434: The end of the war Bill Fisk was punished for disobeying an order to execute another soldier; his son said, "My father's refusal to kill another man was the only thing he did in his life which I would also have done." Though his father said little about his part in the war, it held a fascination for his son. After his father's death, he discovered that he had been the scribe of his battalion's war diaries from August 1918. Fisk
16686-728: The eve of the conquests: Northern and Central (Al-Jallad 2009). The modern dialects emerged from a new contact situation produced following the conquests. Instead of the emergence of a single or multiple koines, the dialects contain several sedimentary layers of borrowed and areal features, which they absorbed at different points in their linguistic histories. According to Veersteegh and Bickerton, colloquial Arabic dialects arose from pidginized Arabic formed from contact between Arabs and conquered peoples. Pidginization and subsequent creolization among Arabs and arabized peoples could explain relative morphological and phonological simplicity of vernacular Arabic compared to Classical and MSA. In around
16848-607: The fact that they participate in the innovations common to all forms of Arabic. The earliest attestation of continuous Arabic text in an ancestor of the modern Arabic script are three lines of poetry by a man named Garm(')allāhe found in En Avdat, Israel , and dated to around 125 CE. This is followed by the Namara inscription , an epitaph of the Lakhmid king Imru' al-Qays bar 'Amro, dating to 328 CE, found at Namaraa, Syria. From
17010-508: The fight". Fisk dismissed the controversy related to his reporting in Syria, saying that he was "writing only what he saw and heard". His ex-wife, Lara Marlowe , took exception to the use of the adjective "controversial" in his obituaries, saying "he was a prolific non-conformist in the world of journalism, whose judgments avoided jumping on the bandwagon" and, in her experience, had been "intuitive, rapid [...] and invariably right". Similarly,
17172-433: The foreign correspondent for The Independent Patrick Cockburn , responding to criticisms raised in obituaries, said " Derring-do in times of war usually gets good notices from the press and from public opinion, but moral endurance is a much rarer commodity, when the plaudits are replaced by abuse, often from people who see a world divided between devils and angels and denounce anybody reporting less than angelic behaviour on
17334-510: The fourth most useful language for business, after English, Mandarin Chinese , and French. Arabic is written with the Arabic alphabet , an abjad script that is written from right to left . Arabic is usually classified as a Central Semitic language . Linguists still differ as to the best classification of Semitic language sub-groups. The Semitic languages changed between Proto-Semitic and
17496-662: The guts to break this fake conformity and toss their sordid poppies in the office waste paper bin." Fisk married American-born journalist Lara Marlowe in 1994. The couple divorced in 2006. At the time of his death, he was married to Nelofer Pazira , an Afghan-Canadian journalist, author and human rights activist. On settling down, he wrote in 2005: "I told the journalism students there [at City, University of London] that when I saw families walking happily in London or Paris, I wondered whether I had not missed out on life, that perhaps comparative safety and security with nothing more than
17658-462: The highest level. I don't think that we should accept any kind of responsibility for the creation of this problem." In general, however, Olmert has described the initiative as a "revolutionary change". The day before, the Israeli consul general in New York City had said: Look, the Saudi idea has a lot of positive elements in it, which is why we have never dismissed it at face value.... Quite
17820-592: The horrifying expression of which we witnessed just last night in Netanya. On November 12, 2008, Peres reiterated his support for the initiative at the UN General Assembly Meeting on Inter-Faith Dialogue: The Arab peace initiative states that: "A military solution to the conflict will not achieve peace or provide security for the parties." Israel agrees with that assumption. Further on, the initiative states that: "A just and comprehensive peace in
17982-538: The inclusion of new words into their published standard dictionaries. They also publish old and historical Arabic manuscripts. In 1997, a bureau of Arabization standardization was added to the Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization of the Arab League . These academies and organizations have worked toward the Arabization of the sciences, creating terms in Arabic to describe new concepts, toward
18144-425: The inevitability of war sets the tone of this documentary about his career." Fisk was known for his criticism of the foreign policy of the United States , particularly the country's involvement in the wars in Afghanistan and the Middle East. He was consistently critical of Israel, labelling some of the country's actions against Palestinians as " war crimes ". One of his beliefs was that he should report events from
18306-497: The initiative into its Middle East policy. Israeli officials have made many different responses ranging from positive, to neutral, to negative. When the plan came out in 2002, the Israeli government rejected the initiative, on the grounds that it would result in the return of a large number of Palestinian refugees into Israel. Israel expressed reservations on "red line" issues on which it stated that it would not compromise. Oslo Agreement negotiator Joel Singer commented shortly after
18468-438: The initiative served as a proposal up for further negotiations rather than a take-it-or-leave-it ultimatum for both sides. PLO negotiations chief Saeb Erekat refused to accept anything other than the summit's draft and ruled out any negotiations that could alter it. In contrast, Saudi Foreign Minister Saudi al-Faisal said that members have "to take notice of new developments, which require additions and developments in whatever
18630-565: The invasion was rejected by some other journalists. Fisk criticised the Coalition 's handling of the sectarian violence in post-invasion Iraq and argued that the official narrative of sectarian conflict is not possible: "The real question I ask myself is: who are these people who are trying to provoke the civil war? Now the Americans will say it's Al Qaeda , it's the Sunni insurgents. It is
18792-613: The language. Software and books with tapes are an important part of Arabic learning, as many of Arabic learners may live in places where there are no academic or Arabic language school classes available. Radio series of Arabic language classes are also provided from some radio stations. A number of websites on the Internet provide online classes for all levels as a means of distance education; most teach Modern Standard Arabic, but some teach regional varieties from numerous countries. The tradition of Arabic lexicography extended for about
18954-630: The last role, he based himself in Beirut intermittently from 1976. After 1989, he worked for The Independent . Fisk received many British and international journalism awards, including the Press Awards Foreign Reporter of the Year seven times. Books by Fisk include The Point of No Return (1975), In Time of War (1985), Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War (1990), The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of
19116-604: The late 6th century AD, a relatively uniform intertribal "poetic koine" distinct from the spoken vernaculars developed based on the Bedouin dialects of Najd , probably in connection with the court of al-Ḥīra . During the first Islamic century, the majority of Arabic poets and Arabic-writing persons spoke Arabic as their mother tongue. Their texts, although mainly preserved in far later manuscripts, contain traces of non-standardized Classical Arabic elements in morphology and syntax. Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali ( c. 603 –689)
19278-420: The latter is taught in formal education settings. However, there have been studies reporting some degree of comprehension of stories told in the standard variety among preschool-aged children. The relation between Modern Standard Arabic and these dialects is sometimes compared to that of Classical Latin and Vulgar Latin vernaculars (which became Romance languages ) in medieval and early modern Europe. MSA
19440-883: The many national or regional varieties which constitute the everyday spoken language. Colloquial Arabic has many regional variants; geographically distant varieties usually differ enough to be mutually unintelligible , and some linguists consider them distinct languages. However, research indicates a high degree of mutual intelligibility between closely related Arabic variants for native speakers listening to words, sentences, and texts; and between more distantly related dialects in interactional situations. The varieties are typically unwritten. They are often used in informal spoken media, such as soap operas and talk shows , as well as occasionally in certain forms of written media such as poetry and printed advertising. Hassaniya Arabic , Maltese , and Cypriot Arabic are only varieties of modern Arabic to have acquired official recognition. Hassaniya
19602-558: The mortgage to worry about was preferable to the existence I had chosen for myself. A friend of my father's once said I had enjoyed the privilege of seeing things that no other man had seen. But after a flood of questions from students in Sydney about suffering in the Middle East, I began to wonder if my privilege had not also been my curse." On 30 October 2020, Fisk died aged 74 at St. Vincent's University Hospital in Dublin , Ireland, after
19764-778: The most influential correspondents in the Middle East since the second world war." Fisk lived in Beirut from 1976, remaining throughout the Lebanese Civil War . He was one of the first Western journalists to report on the Sabra and Shatila massacre in Lebanon, as well as the Hama Massacre in Syria . His book on the Lebanese conflict, Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War , was published in 1990. Fisk also reported on
19926-782: The need for a lexical injection in Arabic, to suit concepts of the industrial and post-industrial age (such as sayyārah سَيَّارَة 'automobile' or bākhirah باخِرة 'steamship'). In response, a number of Arabic academies modeled after the Académie française were established with the aim of developing standardized additions to the Arabic lexicon to suit these transformations, first in Damascus (1919), then in Cairo (1932), Baghdad (1948), Rabat (1960), Amman (1977), Khartum [ ar ] (1993), and Tunis (1993). They review language development, monitor new words and approve
20088-424: The one whose sound is heard but whose person remains unseen. Now the term al-hatif is used for a telephone. Therefore, the process of tawleed can express the needs of modern civilization in a manner that would appear to be originally Arabic. In the case of Arabic, educated Arabs of any nationality can be assumed to speak both their school-taught Standard Arabic as well as their native dialects, which depending on
20250-604: The overhaul of Arabic grammar first proposed by Al-Jahiz 200 years prior. The Maghrebi lexicographer Ibn Manzur compiled Lisān al-ʿArab ( لسان العرب , "Tongue of Arabs"), a major reference dictionary of Arabic, in 1290. Charles Ferguson 's koine theory claims that the modern Arabic dialects collectively descend from a single military koine that sprang up during the Islamic conquests; this view has been challenged in recent times. Ahmad al-Jallad proposes that there were at least two considerably distinct types of Arabic on
20412-583: The part of the latter for being secret sympathisers with the devil." Cockburn wrote that Fisk was better than anyone at "find[ing] out significant news as fast as possible, disregard[ing] all efforts by governments, armies and media to suppress it, and pass[ing] that information on to the public so they can better judge what is happening in the world around them". Fisk described himself as a pacifist and non-voter . He said that journalism must "challenge authority, all authority, especially so when governments and politicians take us to war". He quoted, with approval,
20574-636: The parties to cooperate fully with Special Envoy Zinni, and others, to implement the Tenet security work plan as a first step towards implementation of the Mitchell Committee recommendations, with the aim of resuming negotiations on a political settlement With the exception of Libya , all leaders from the Arab League's 22 member states attended the two-day summit in Riyadh , the capital of Saudi Arabia , from March 28, to March 29, 2007. The initiative
20736-563: The people of the region and allow the region to pursue development rather than war. In light of the above, and with your backing and that of the Almighty, I propose that the Arab summit put forward a clear and unanimous initiative addressed to the United Nations security council based on two basic issues: normal relations and security for Israel in exchange for full withdrawal from all occupied Arab territories, recognition of an independent Palestinian state with al-Quds al-Sharif as its capital, and
20898-550: The period from 1988 to 2003, the period Fisk and Marlowe worked together. Fisk received the British Press Awards ' International Journalist of the Year seven times, and twice won its "Reporter of the Year" award. He also received Amnesty International UK Media Awards in 1992 for his report "The Other Side of the Hostage Saga", in 1998 for his reports from Algeria and again in 2000 for his articles on
21060-499: The pillars of the peace process... [it] sends a signal that the Arabs are serious about achieving peace." European Union foreign policy leader Javier Solana observed the proceedings and expressed the EU's support for the decision, saying that "[f]ailure to rise to today's challenges will put the Middle East risk of missing the train of human and economic development". He also emphasized that
21222-629: The plan. Support decreased slightly after the Gaza War . However, the majority is still in favor. The Arab Peace Plan has received the full support of Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority , which even took the unprecedented step of placing advertisements in Israeli newspapers on November 20, 2008, to promote it. The Palestinian Authority published full-page notices in Hebrew in four major Israeli daily newspapers, which reproduced
21384-469: The point of view of the victim rather than those in authority. The Times newspaper, in its November 2020 obituary of Fisk, said that he had developed a "visceral dislike of the Israeli government and its allies" following his coverage of the Sabra and Shatila massacre , arguing that this had made Fisk biased and "unable to provide a dispassionate account of events and their context". David Pryce-Jones , writing in The Spectator in 2003, said that Fisk
21546-412: The primary issue in the heart and mind of every person in our Arab Islamic nation is the restoration of legitimate rights in Palestine, Syria and Lebanon.... We believe in taking up arms in self-defence and to deter aggression. But we also believe in peace when it is based on justice and equity, and when it brings an end to conflict. Only within the context of true peace can normal relations flourish between
21708-451: The proposal that was put forth by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. I might not agree with every aspect of the proposal, but it took great courage to put forward something that is as significant as that. I think that there are ideas across the region of how we might pursue peace. George Mitchell , then the United States special envoy to the Middle East, announced in March 2009 that President Barack Obama 's administration intends to "incorporate"
21870-408: The region left a journalistic gap that has not been filled. It is important to appreciate that there are few war correspondents in the world that combine Fisk's reporting fearlessness with his interpretative depth, engaging writing style, and candid exposures of the foibles of the high and mighty." Love in a Time of War , a memoir by Fisk's first wife, Lara Marlowe , was published in 2021. It covers
22032-410: The region may be mutually unintelligible. Some of these dialects can be considered to constitute separate languages which may have "sub-dialects" of their own. When educated Arabs of different dialects engage in conversation (for example, a Moroccan speaking with a Lebanese), many speakers code-switch back and forth between the dialectal and standard varieties of the language, sometimes even within
22194-474: The return of refugees. The initiative refers to United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194 , which emphasizes the return of Palestinian refugees to Israel. In a compromise wording, it states that the League supports any negotiated settlement between Israel and Palestinians and does not mention the term "right of return" . Although the Initiative was adopted unanimously, there was some debate on certain issues. The summit leaders faced stiff opposition from
22356-543: The road to peace", he wrote of Osama bin Laden, then overseeing the construction of a highway in Sudan : "With his high cheekbones, narrow eyes and long brown robe, Mr Bin Laden looks every inch the mountain warrior of mujahedin legend. Chadored children danced in front of him, preachers acknowledged his wisdom" while observing that he was accused of "training for further jihad wars". During one of Fisk's interviews with bin Laden, Fisk noted an attempt by bin Laden to convert him. Bin Laden said: "Mr Robert, one of our brothers had
22518-413: The same day the Initiative was launched. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack and its leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin said that the attack sent "a message to the Arab summit to confirm that the Palestinian people continue to struggle for the land and to defend themselves no matter what measures the enemy takes." The Arab League said that it did not think that the perpetrators planned the bombing to derail
22680-458: The same sentence. The issue of whether Arabic is one language or many languages is politically charged, in the same way it is for the varieties of Chinese , Hindi and Urdu , Serbian and Croatian , Scots and English, etc. In contrast to speakers of Hindi and Urdu who claim they cannot understand each other even when they can, speakers of the varieties of Arabic will claim they can all understand each other even when they cannot. While there
22842-423: The scene and reporting the reality. I know France doesn't have a very clean reputation in American politics at the moment but my goodness, they've got good journalists. You read a translation of Libération , Figaro , Le Monde – they've got it. I work a lot with French – I normally work on my own, but if I work with other reporters, I tend to report with Italians or the French because, my goodness, they get to
23004-458: The sole example of Medieval linguist Abu Hayyan al-Gharnati – who, while a scholar of the Arabic language, was not ethnically Arab – Medieval scholars of the Arabic language made no efforts at studying comparative linguistics, considering all other languages inferior. In modern times, the educated upper classes in the Arab world have taken a nearly opposite view. Yasir Suleiman wrote in 2011 that "studying and knowing English or French in most of
23166-414: The speech, Fisk said: "Partly I think because of the culture of secrecy of the White House, never have we had a White House so secret as this one. Partly because of this culture, I think suspicions are growing in the United States, not just among Berkeley guys with flowers in their hair. ... But there are a lot of things we don't know, a lot of things we're not going to be told. ... Perhaps the [fourth] plane
23328-498: The standardization of these new terms throughout the Arabic-speaking world, and toward the development of Arabic as a world language . This gave rise to what Western scholars call Modern Standard Arabic. From the 1950s, Arabization became a postcolonial nationalist policy in countries such as Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Sudan. Arabic usually refers to Standard Arabic, which Western linguists divide into Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic. It could also refer to any of
23490-450: The subject in 2014, the standfirst summarised his experience "My family was haunted by my father's experience on the Somme and the loss of his friends. Why do we pay homage to the dead but ignore the lessons of their war?" and in 2016 where he said "His example was one of great courage. He fought for his country and then, unafraid, he threw his poppy away. Television celebrities do not have to fight for their country – yet they do not even have
23652-400: The summit. The lack of participation led Australian Broadcasting Corporation reporter Tim Palmer to label the summit "emasculated". The Arab League members unanimously endorsed the peace initiative on March 27. It consists of a comprehensive proposal to end the entire Arab–Israeli conflict. It provides in a relevant part: (a) Complete withdrawal from the occupied Arab territories, including
23814-436: The text of the Initiative in full and added that "Fifty-seven Arab and Islamic countries will establish diplomatic ties and normal relations with Israel in return for a full peace agreement and an end to the occupation." A November–December poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah and the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace in Jerusalem found that only 25% of Israelis saw
23976-501: The towns where the inscriptions were discovered (Dadanitic, Taymanitic, Hismaic, Safaitic). However, most arguments for a single ANA language or language family were based on the shape of the definite article, a prefixed h-. It has been argued that the h- is an archaism and not a shared innovation, and thus unsuitable for language classification, rendering the hypothesis of an ANA language family untenable. Safaitic and Hismaic, previously considered ANA, should be considered Old Arabic due to
24138-406: The unjust blockade imposed on the Palestinian people as soon as possible so that the peace process can move in an atmosphere far from oppression and force." The American and Israel governments had been heavily pushing the Arab states to cut their support for Hamas before the summit began. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon attended the summit, saying "the Arab peace initiative is one of
24300-425: The war front." When he spoke on "Lies, Misreporting, and Catastrophe in the Middle East" at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley on 22 September 2010, he stated: "I think it is the duty of a foreign correspondent to be neutral and unbiased on the side of those who suffer, whoever they may be." He wrote at length on how many contemporary conflicts had their origins, in his view, in lines drawn on maps: "After
24462-418: The way to both to a regional agreement and meaningful bilateral negotiations." "Israel stands with her arms outstretched, and her hands held open to peace with all nations, with all Arab states, with all Arab people." the president declared. "To those still holding a clenched fist I have just one word to say: Enough. Enough war. Enough destruction. Enough hatred. Now is the time for change," said Peres. Israel
24624-450: The words of Israeli journalist Amira Hass : "There is a misconception that journalists can be objective. ... What journalism is really about is to monitor power and the centres of power." In light of his earlier training as a journalist on the Newcastle Evening Chronicle , he said "I had a suspicion that the language we were forced to write as trainee reporters all those years ago had somehow imprisoned us, that we had been schooled to mould
24786-430: The world and ourselves in clichés, that for the most part this would define our lives, destroy our anger and imagination, make us loyal to our betters, to governments, to authority. For some reason, I had become possessed of the belief that the blame for our failure as journalists to report the Middle East with any sense of moral passion or indignation lay in the way that we as journalists were trained." In an interview with
24948-451: The world have classes that teach Arabic as part of their foreign languages , Middle Eastern studies , and religious studies courses. Arabic language schools exist to assist students to learn Arabic outside the academic world. There are many Arabic language schools in the Arab world and other Muslim countries. Because the Quran is written in Arabic and all Islamic terms are in Arabic, millions of Muslims (both Arab and non-Arab) study
25110-449: Was an English writer and journalist. He was critical of United States foreign policy in the Middle East , and the Israeli government's treatment of Palestinians . As an international correspondent , he covered the civil wars in Lebanon , Algeria , and Syria , the Iran–Iraq conflict , the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo , the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan , the Islamic revolution in Iran , Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait , and
25272-449: Was at a crossroads where "either we move towards a real peace or see an escalation in the situation". During the summit, King Abdullah denounced the United States-led occupation of Iraq ; his comments may have been in response to a statement by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asking the Arab world to "begin reaching out to Israel". He also called on the Israeli blockade of Gaza to end, saying that "It has become necessary to end
25434-405: Was educated at Yardley Court , a preparatory school, then at Sutton Valence School and Lancaster University , where he undertook his B.A. in Latin and Linguistics and contributed to the student magazine John O'Gauntlet . He gained a PhD in political science from Trinity College Dublin in 1983; the title of his doctoral thesis was "A Condition of Limited Warfare: Éire 's Neutrality and
25596-429: Was fully re-endorsed by all members but the delegate from Hamas, then- Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh , abstained. In contrast, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas voted in favor. The initiative itself was left unchanged during its re-adoption. Until the eve of the summit, members had refused to consider altering any part of it. Arab League head Amr Moussa stated that the Israel-Palestinian conflict
25758-513: Was guilty of "hysteria and distortion" in his coverage of Middle Eastern topics. In contrast, The Independent , for whom he wrote from 1989, praised him as being "renowned for his courage in questioning official narratives from governments". The BBC's Jeremy Bowen also praised him following his death, and noted the controversy Fisk drew for his "sharp criticism of the US and Israel, and of Western foreign policy". Bowen described himself as an admirer who would miss Fisk's "guts and his appetite for
25920-470: Was hit by a missile, we still don't know". Bill Durodié noted that at one point Osama bin Laden had advised the White House to "read Robert Fisk, rather than, as one might have supposed, the Koran." Reporting from Douma , in April 2018 on the Douma chemical attack , Fisk quoted a Syrian doctor who attributed the victims' breathing problems not to gas but to dust and lack of oxygen after heavy shelling by government forces. Other people he spoke to doubted
26082-422: Was interviewed by Kirsty Young for Desert Island Discs in 2006. His final selections were Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber , Le Morte d'Arthur by Thomas Malory , and a violin. Fisk featured in the 2016 documentary film notes to eternity by New Zealand filmmaker Sarah Cordery, along with Noam Chomsky , Norman Finkelstein and Sara Roy . The film explores their lives and work in relation to
26244-477: Was the greatest journalist of his generation. The fire he lit at The Independent will burn on." For Harry Browne in Jacobin : "Robert Fisk's voice was everywhere, and his ideas were vital in both creating and meeting that Irish urge for explanation." The Irish Times obituary read: "He used to explain his rejection of conventional journalistic detachment by saying: 'If you watch wars, the old ideas of journalism that you have to be neutral and take nobody's side
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