The French language will replace English as the primary foreign language to be studied in the schools of Israel, it was announced here yesterday at the ground-breaking ceremony for the first French secondary school in Tel Aviv.
English has been an official language of Palestine and of the State of Israel with Hebrew and Arabic ever since the British conquest of the area in 1918. It was dropped as an official language last year, leaving Hebrew and Arabic as the official languages of the country.
The new school is being established here by the Alliance Israelite Universelle in cooperation with the Tel Aviv Municipality. At this school, the French Ambassador, Pierre Gilbert, told the audience at the ground-breaking ceremony, 1,200 pupils “will drink from the rich, French cultural wells.”
Mayor Chaim Levanon, a speaker at the ceremonies, spoke warmly of French-Israel relationships, declaring French-Israel friendship did not start with the Sinai operation last year but many years ago when the Alliance established the first agricultural school at Mikve Israel and public schools in other Jewish centers in Palestine.
The new school is being built on the northern bank of the Yarkon River and is the first school set for that newly developed area. The school is near the proposed site of Tel Aviv’s University City.
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