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102-523: The Rafah Border Crossing ( Arabic : معبر رفح , romanized :  Ma`bar Rafaḥ ) or Rafah Crossing Point is the sole crossing point between Egypt and Palestine 's Gaza Strip . It is located on the Egypt–Palestine border . Under a 2007 agreement between Egypt and Israel , Egypt controls the crossing but imports through the Rafah crossing require Israeli approval. The "Rafah Land Port" became

204-503: A 2009 report of Gisha , Israel continued to exercise control over the border through its control of the Palestinian population registry, which determines who is allowed to go through Rafah Crossing. It also had the power to use its right to veto the passage of foreigners, even when belonging to the list of categories of foreigners allowed to cross, and to decide to close the crossing indefinitely. Gisha has blamed Israel for keeping

306-847: A Palestinian part, splitting up families, separated by barbed-wire barriers. On 16 February 2005, the Israeli parliament approved the Israeli disengagement from the Gaza Strip . Israel withdrew from Gaza in September 2005. Egypt continued to exercise control on the Egyptian side of the Gaza–Egypt border , while the Fatah -dominated Palestinian National Authority took over control on the Gazan side of

408-575: 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

510-544: A comprehensive plan to merge employees from West Bank and Gaza Strip. Some Hamas followers voiced annoyance about the PIJ initiative, bypassing Hamas, while Egypt did not regard it a terrorist organization unlike Hamas. However, Egypt still has occasionally allowed supplies to cross into Gaza via the Rafah Crossing, such as diesel fuel for Gaza's power plant in 2017 and gas in 2018. In May 2018, Egyptian authorities opened

612-435: 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

714-1081: 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

816-487: 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

918-690: 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

1020-612: A peace treaty that eventually returned the Sinai, which borders the Gaza Strip, to Egyptian control. As part of that treaty, a 100-meter-wide strip of land known as the Philadelphi Corridor was established as a buffer zone between Gaza and Egypt. In the Peace Treaty, the re-created Gaza–Egypt border was drawn across the city of Rafah . When Israel withdrew from the Sinai in 1982, Rafah was divided into an Egyptian and

1122-594: 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

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1224-462: 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",

1326-482: A separate Palestinian currency. Imports from and exports to third countries, including quantitative restrictions are subject to Israeli supervision and the Protocol gave Israel sole control over the external borders and collection of import taxes and VAT. According to the agreement, Palestinian trade with other countries would continue to be handled through Israeli sea and air ports, or through border crossings between

1428-470: 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

1530-507: 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

1632-507: 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

1734-476: 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

1836-590: 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

1938-559: 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

2040-478: 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

2142-408: 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

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2244-472: 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

2346-608: Is located at the original Rafah crossing on the Salah al-Din Road , the main highway of Gaza from Erez to Rafah. Rafah land port was bombed by Israel in October 2009 allegedly to destroy tunnels. A new "Rafah Crossing Point", also named in Arabic "Al Awda" (The Return), was built south of the town of Rafah. The current Salah al-Din Gate, a commercial border crossing between Gaza and Egypt,

2448-574: 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

2550-855: 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

2652-572: 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

2754-590: 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

2856-413: 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

2958-524: 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

3060-445: 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

3162-702: 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

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3264-469: The Israeli settlements . Pursuant to the Protocol, Israel withholds 25% of these income taxes by default (not from Palestinians employed in settlements). Additionally, 3% of the total revenue is levied as collection and processing fees. Tax clearance is the largest source of Palestinian public income. In 2014, it accounted for 75% of the total revenue. Israel collects taxes on Palestinian imports, and national insurance and income taxes from labor on behalf of

3366-600: The Kerem Shalom border crossing , because Israel threatened to exclude Gaza from the customs union out of concern about the implementation of the Paris Protocol . On the other hand, the Palestinians agreed because they wanted to limit Israeli interference at Rafah and maximize their sovereignty. Diversion via Kerem was meant as a temporary measure but in fact, imports through Rafah were never realized, forcing

3468-568: 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

3570-494: 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

3672-419: 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

3774-768: 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. Protocol on Economic Relations The Protocol, itself signed on 29 April 1994,

3876-454: 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

3978-571: 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

4080-834: 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

4182-542: The Border Crossing. On 7 September 2005, Israel withdrew from Gaza and closed the Rafah crossing. The Philadelphi Accord between Israel and Egypt, based on the principles of the 1979 peace treaty, turned over border control to Egypt, while the supply of arms to the Palestinian Authority was subject to Israeli consent. The agreement specified that 750 Egyptian border guards would be deployed along

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4284-455: The Gazan side for keeping the border crossing closed. On 21 October, the border opened for humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. On 1 November, a limited number of foreign nationals and wounded began being allowed to use the crossing to exit Gaza. The crossing was seized by Israel in 2024 during the Rafah offensive . In reply Egypt closed off the crossing and rejected an Israeli proposal to coordinate

4386-722: The Government of the State of Israel and the P.L.O., representing the Palestinian people". It was incorporated with minor amendations into the Oslo II Accord of September 1995. In the Oslo II Accord, the Paris Protocol is incorporated in Article XXIV. The amendments to the Protocol ( Supplement to the Protocol on Economic Relations ) were annexed as Annex V of the Oslo II Accord and contain only some changes on

4488-891: The Israeli Government and the Head of the EU Mission about Israel, closing the Rafah Crossing Point (RCP) on most days by indirect measures, such as "preventing access by the EU BAM to the RCP through Kerem Shalom". A 2007 Palestinian background paper mentions the EU concern over crises, "most often caused by the continual Israeli closure of the Crossing". On 7 May 2007, the issue of the Israeli closure of Rafah and Kerem as well

4590-412: 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

4692-462: The PA and transfers the results on a monthly basis. This makes the PA vulnerable to unilateral suspension of clearance revenue transfers by Israel. In 2014-2015, the revenue was about $ 160 million per month. As early as 1997, Israel began to unilaterally settle bills unpaid by Palestinians, not the PA itself, including fines and interests. Political reasons for suspension varied from Palestinian violence to

4794-537: The Palestinian Authority and Jordan and Egypt, which at the time were both controlled by Israel. As of 2016, the Rafah Border Crossing is controlled by Egypt, but Egypt has largely supported blockading the Gaza Strip since Hamas 's rise to power in the Battle of Gaza (2007) . A major part of the 1994 Paris Protocol is the tax system, the backbone of the customs union. Israel collects and transfers to

4896-513: The Palestinian Authority the import taxes on goods that were intended for the Palestinian territories. Israel may unilaterally establish and change the taxes imposed on imported goods. If Israel raises its VAT, Palestine has to follow it. Israel transfers the collected tax revenue for goods and services sold in Israel and intended for consumption in the Palestinian territories. Israel also collects income taxes from Palestinians employed in Israel and

4998-400: The Palestinian Authority. Palestine remains without independent gates to the world economy. The Protocol regulates the relationship and interaction between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in six major areas: customs, taxes, labor, agriculture, industry and tourism. Since Hamas’ takeover of the Gaza Strip, and the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip , the Protocol cannot be fully applied to

5100-522: The Palestinians to develop a smuggling tunnels economy . Israel had consistently tried to turn the Kerem Shalom border crossing (which borders Egypt) into a commercial crossing between Gaza and Israel, or as an alternative passenger crossing to Rafah. The Palestinians were concerned that Israel would take control over the Gaza-Egypt border or even replace Rafah and objected. On 26 November 2005,

5202-564: The Presidential Guard to man the Rafah Crossing and deploy along the border. Once the forces were ready, Egypt would then open the crossing to full capacity. Egypt mediated a permanent truce between Israel and Hamas, and Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri said that Egypt hoped that this would lead to the creation of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders. Palestinian factions in Gaza, including Hamas, publicly declared their acceptance of

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5304-690: 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

5406-535: The Rafah Crossing closed through indirect means and Egypt for submitting to Israeli pressure and not cooperate with the Hamas government. Hamas, however was blamed for not allowing the Presidential Guard to apply the AMA agreement. The Palestinian Authority was blamed for its refusal to compromise with Hamas over control of Rafah Crossing. The EU monitoring force was criticized for its submission to Israel's demands for closing

5508-428: The Rafah Crossing under the supervision and in the presence of the PA and the Presidential Guard. Egyptian intelligence and Hamas appeared to agree, but the PA did not respond. Hamas accused Fatah and the PA that they “want to exclude it from political and field landscape by their insisting on the PA monopoly in controlling the crossings and borders”. Hamas had agreed to let the Presidential Guard to take charge, as part of

5610-587: The Rafah crossing, despite intensive international efforts to secure a window of time for the Rafah crossing to open to foreigners who want to exit the Strip. However, the Egyptian government, maintains that it has always kept the Rafah Border Crossing open for humanitarian aid coming in and foreign nationals coming out during the Israel–Hamas war, instead blaming four consecutive Israeli air strikes on

5712-576: 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

5814-499: The Strip. However, Gaza importers still pay Israel customs, VAT and purchase taxes on goods that they import via Israel. The Protocol determines that Israeli currency, the New Israeli Shekel (NIS), is used in the Palestinian territories as a circulating currency which legally serves there as means of payment for all purposes and to be accepted by the Palestinian Authority and by all its institutions, local authorities and banks. The Palestinians are not allowed to independently introduce

5916-468: The agreement was supposed to be operative helped encourage Palestinian negotiators to sign it, to be the first step to make progress. More importantly, Israel made acceptance of the Protocol a condition for Israel's continuing to allow the tens of thousands of Palestinians to work in Israel. Essentially, the Protocol integrated the Palestinian economy into the Israeli one through a customs union , with Israel to control all borders, both its own and those of

6018-440: The border crossing would be opened on a permanent basis. Mahmoud Abbas and Khaled Meshal signed the Cairo agreement on 4 May 2011 and on 28 May, the crossing was re-opened . Most travel restrictions were dropped, though men between the ages of 18 and 40 entering Egypt must apply for visas and others need travel permits. Soon after the revolution , Egypt's foreign minister, Nabil el-Araby, opened discussions with Hamas aimed at easing

6120-441: The border was closed again by Egypt, except for travelers returning home. On 27 June 2009, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh proposed a joint Palestinian, Egyptian and European mechanism to keep the Rafah border crossing working permanently. He said: "We welcome the presence of European inspectors, the Egyptians and the Palestinian Presidential Guard in addition to the presence of the (Hamas) government in Gaza". According to

6222-506: The border, without calling for re-opening. The US was criticized for allowing human rights violations caused by the closure and avoiding pressure on Egypt. The Egyptian government under former President Mubarak had opposed the Hamas administration in Gaza and helped Israel to enforce the blockade. Due to the 2011 Egyptian revolution, Mubarak was forced to step down in February 2011. On 27 April, Fatah and Hamas reached an agreement in Cairo, mediated by Egypt and on 29 April, Egypt announced that

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6324-410: The clearance of revenues and some technical changes on the taxes issue. While the Protocol initially applied to the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area, its jurisdiction was extended to all of the Palestinian territories in the Oslo II Accord. Originally, the Paris Protocol was to remain in force for an interim period of five years. As of 2016, however, the Protocol was still applicable. The limited time

6426-509: 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

6528-530: The crossing monthly. In September 2015, it was circa 3,300, while the Gaza population numbered 1.8 million people. Between 24 October 2014 and September 2015, the crossing had been opened for only 34 days. From November 2005 to July 2007, the Rafah Crossing was jointly controlled by Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, with the European Union monitoring Palestinian compliance on the Gaza side. The Crossing operated daily until June 2006. Israel issued security warnings, thus preventing European monitors from travelling to

6630-472: The crossing on 23 August 2021 following an escalation of cross-border incidents between Israel and Hamas, but partially reopened the crossing three days later, allowing traffic from Egypt to Gaza (but not vice versa). In October 2023 with the start of the 2023 Israel–Hamas war , the crossing was again effectively sealed. Various sources reported that for several weeks, the Egyptian government had refused to allow either Gazans or foreign nationals to exit Gaza via

6732-428: The crossing to vehicles and commodities after monitoring violations by Hamas. In February 2021, Egypt opened the crossing "indefinitely" for the first time in years in what was described as an effort to encourage negotiations between Palestinian factions meeting at the time in Cairo. The crossing was kept open during and after the 11-day Israel-Hamas conflict in May, delivering aid and construction materials. Egypt closed

6834-404: The crossing was closed 76% of the time and after Hamas' takeover of the Gaza Strip it was closed permanently except for infrequent limited openings by Egypt. From June 2010 to January 2011, the monthly average number of exits and entries through Rafah reached 19,000. After May 2011, when Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak was replaced with Mohamed Morsi, the number grew to 40,000 per month. When Morsi

6936-540: The crossing was opened for the first time under the European Union's supervision, while the Israeli army kept a video watch from a nearby base and retained control over the movement of all goods and trade in and out of Gaza. From 2018 onward, goods regularly entered Gaza from Egypt via the Rafah crossing. In October 2022, about 49% of goods entering Gaza entered from Egypt via Rafa, while the other 51% of goods enter Gaza via Israel. About three-quarters of goods imported via Rafah consisted of construction materials, while much of

7038-412: The crossing would be operated and guarded by Hamas policemen. In mid-June 2011 the crossing was closed for several days and after that only a few hundred were allowed to cross each day compared with 'thousands' who applied to cross each day. Egypt reportedly agreed to allow a minimum of 500 people to cross each day. In July 2013, in the aftermath of the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi , the border crossing

7140-463: The crossing, permitting a couple hundred Gazans per day to cross into Egypt. As of July 2019, tens of thousands have reportedly done so, departing to destinations in the Arab world or Turkey , and some seeking refuge in Europe (particularly Belgium and Norway ). In March 2020, Palestinian authorities closed the crossing to limit the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19 to the Gaza Strip. In early November 2020, Egyptian authorities closed

7242-494: The door of the Rafah Crossing. They were beaten back by Egyptian police and gunfire erupted. That same night, Hamas demolished a 200 metres (660 ft) length of the metal border wall with explosives. After the resulting Breach of the Gaza-Egypt border , many thousands of Palestinians, with estimates ranging from 200,000 to 700,000, crossed into Egypt to buy goods. Palestinians were seen purchasing food, fuel, cigarettes, shoes, furniture, car parts, and generators. On 3 February 2008,

7344-652: 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

7446-728: 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

7548-607: 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

7650-510: 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

7752-597: 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

7854-613: 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

7956-604: 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)

8058-420: 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

8160-818: The length of the border, and both Egypt and Israel pledged to work together to stem terrorism, arms smuggling, and other illegal cross-border activities. Under the Agreed Principles for Rafah Crossing , part of the Agreement on Movement and Access (AMA) of 15 November 2005, EUBAM was responsible for monitoring the Border Crossing. The agreement ensured Israel authority to dispute entrance by any person. The Agreed Principles for Rafah stipulate that "Rafah will also be used for export of goods to Egypt". A confidential PLO document reveals that in fact Egypt under President Hosni Mubarak did not allow exports. The Palestinians agreed that all imports of goods are diverted to

8262-883: 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

8364-782: 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

8466-424: 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

8568-549: 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

8670-590: The primary border crossing between Egypt and Gaza, managed by the Israel Airports Authority until Israel dismantled its settlements in Gaza on 11 September 2005 as part of its unilateral disengagement plan . It subsequently became the task of the European Union Border Assistance Mission Rafah (EU BAM Rafah or EUBAM) to monitor the crossing. The Rafah land port , known as the "Salah al Din Gate"

8772-410: 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

8874-546: The region, and Egypt agreed with Israel to shut down the Rafah Crossing. The Fatah-led Palestinian Authority in the West Bank has declared that the Rafah Crossing should remain closed until the control by the Palestinian Presidential Guard is restored. On 22 January 2008, after Israel imposed a total closure on all crossings to the Gaza Strip, a group of Hamas demonstrators attempted to force open

8976-462: The remaining one-quarter was food. During the 2023 Israel–Hamas war , Israel bombed the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing. Egypt subsequently demanded assurances that Israel will not attack aid convoys. After the Israeli disengagement in 2005, the monthly average number of entries and exits through Rafah Crossing reached about 40,000. After the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in June 2006,

9078-425: The reopening of the Rafah border crossing insisting that the crossing should be managed only by Palestinian authorities. Arabic language Arabic (endonym: اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ , romanized :  al-ʿarabiyyah , pronounced [al ʕaraˈbijːa] , or عَرَبِيّ , ʿarabīy , pronounced [ˈʕarabiː] or [ʕaraˈbij] ) is a Central Semitic language of

9180-438: The return of the Presidential Guard and the EU border mission. On 22 January 2015, Egypt closed the border crossing. In March, it declared that it would only open the border crossing if the Palestinian side is staffed by Palestinian Authority employees under the full authority of the Presidential Guard and no Hamas personnel are present. Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ) suggested to Egyptian intelligence that PA and Hamas would open

9282-458: 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

9384-458: 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

9486-563: 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

9588-485: The terminal. The Hamas-led PA Government threatened on 23 June to terminate the Rafah border-crossing agreement if the border would not be reopened. On 25 June 2006, terrorists attacked the Kerem Shalom Crossing Point and captured the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. The Crossing was infrequently reopened after this attack. On 12 February 2007, PLO Negotiatior Saeb Erekat complained in a letter to

9690-501: 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

9792-484: The travel restrictions and improving relations between the two. Even though passenger restrictions were loosened, the shipment into Gaza of goods remains blocked. In the first five hours after the opening, 340 people crossed into Egypt. Under the Mubarak regime, Egypt vehemently opposed using Hamas guards at Rafah and demanded that the crossing point remain closed until Palestinian Authority personnel were deployed, but now,

9894-451: 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

9996-534: Was closed for several days by the Egyptian Army . It was later reopened for four hours each day. After widespread unrest in Egypt and the bloody crackdown on loyalists of ousted President Morsi on 14 August, the border crossing was closed 'indefinitely'. Afterwards, it has been opened for a few days every few months. After the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict , Egypt declared that it was prepared to train forces from

10098-551: Was deposed by the army in July 2013, the Crossing was again almost completely shut down. In August 2014, for the first time since the start of the Gaza blockade in 2007 Egypt allowed the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to bring food through the Rafah crossing. It provided food to feed around 150,000 people for 5 days. In 2014, an average of 8,119 exits and entries of people were recorded at

10200-596: Was first opened in 2018 and is used by trucks. By the Ottoman–British agreement of 1 October 1906, a border between Ottoman-ruled Palestine and British-ruled Egypt , from Taba to Rafah, was agreed upon. From 1948, Gaza was occupied by Egypt. Consequently, a Gaza–Egypt border no longer existed. In the 1967 Six-Day War , Israel conquered both the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, both becoming occupied territories. In 1979, Israel and Egypt signed

10302-810: Was part of the Gaza–Jericho Agreement , which was signed in Paris five days later on 4 May 1994. The Gaza–Jericho Agreement simultaneously established the Palestinian Authority (PA), which is responsible for the Palestinian obligations concerning the Paris Protocol. The Protocol is mentioned in Article XIII of the Gaza–Jericho Agreement and attached to it as Annex IV with the full name "Protocol on Economic Relations between

10404-424: Was raised at a Coordination and Evaluation meeting. The movement of ambulances via Rafah was prohibited. The EU BAM proposed the use of "shuttle" ambulances at the Crossing, requiring two additional transfers of the patients between the ambulances. In June 2007, the Rafah Crossing was closed by the Egyptian authorities after Hamas' takeover of the Gaza Strip . Due to the lack of security the EU monitors pulled out of

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