“Our land speaks Arabic..” these words that have been sung by generation after generation, and written by the Egyptian Syed Makkawi, approximate the title chosen by ARDD this year; To celebrate the International Day of the Arabic Language, which falls on December 18 every year.
Over the years, ARDD has marked this day by holding seminars and events including key speakers such as Mustafa Jarrar, Professor of Computer Science at Birzeit University, and the Lebanese thinker Ramzi Baalbaki, or by releasing videos by youth, as this year, reaffirming that the “the Arabic language is the basis of the Arab Renaissance.
This year’s video is entitled “Land is inherited as is the language”, a poetic line from the poem “The Tragedy of Narcissus” by the late Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish.
Considering that the Arabic language is the origin of its nation’s civilization, spoken by more than half a billion people around the world, ARDD urged, through the video clip, created Al Nahda Youth Network, and implemented by the Jordanian artist, Zuhair Al-Nubani, the young women and men, to cherish their Arabic language, which is the basis of renewal and liberation from stagnation and chronic crises that are threatening the Arab world.
