Following Adalah's Petition: Tel Aviv District Court Orders Municipality of Led to Register Arab Child in Jewish School

On 12 September 2005, the Municipality of Led (Lod) agreed to register an 8-year-old Arab child in the Jewish elementary school “Zabulun Hamer,” in response to an order issued by the Tel Aviv District Court to the Municipality on 4 September 2005 to register the child at the school as quickly as possible. The ruling was delivered after a hearing on a petition submitted by Adalah on 23 August 2005 on behalf of the child and his parents against the Municipality and the Ministry of Education (MOE), following their refusal to register the child at the school in Led, a mixed city close to Tel Aviv, on the grounds that he is Arab. Adalah Attorney Abeer Baker is representing the family.

The MOE changed its original position after the filing of the petition, and announced its agreement to register the child in the Jewish school. However, the Municipality of Led not only stuck to its decision to refuse his registration, but also added false claims, going so far as to dispute the family's actual residency in Led.

During the hearing, the Court stated that the Municipality was continuing to strive to find any pretext upon which to justify its decision, in an attempt to conceal the real reasons behind its refusal to register the child: his national belonging and the Municipality's unwillingness to enroll Arab children in the Zabulun Hamer School.

After the hearing, the Court issued an order obliging the Municipality of Led to register the child in the school as quickly as possible, pending the delivery its final decision on the petition. In the order, the District Court Judge stated that there are grounds for accepting the petition, and that the difficult question in his view is “why the Municipality insisted on preserving the Zabulun Hamer School as a school to serve Jews only.”

As Adalah emphasized in the petition, the Led Municipality and the MOE stated that among the reasons for denying the child's registration at the Jewish school were: the safeguarding of his interests, since the school is “located in a Jewish area, all of its students are Jewish, and the educational program at his current school is suitable for Arab students”; and the fear that the child will not be able to acclimatize to the new environment and fit in with the other school students. In their response to Adalah's inquiries, the Municipality and the MOE thus claimed that it is for the child's benefit that he does not attend the school, which is situated close to his home, and that it would be preferable for him to enroll in an Arab or mixed school, even if such a school were located far from his home.

Adalah argued in the petition that the position of the Led Municipality and the MOE amounts to discrimination on the basis of national belonging. With these claims, it appears that the Led Municipality and the MOE are attempting to determine a new policy of "ethnic segregation" within the education system. This policy contradicts all constitutional and democratic principles as well as international human rights covenants, which protect the rights of national minorities. International human rights law, for example, grants the right to national minorities to pursue their own culture and use their own language, as a part of their cultural freedom, and at the same time prohibits states from discriminating against individuals from a minority in the exercise of their rights to enroll in official institutions of the state, such as schools, particularly on the basis of their national belonging.

Adalah also explained the problem faced by the parents of students in mixed cities, such as Led, which stems from the state's gross neglect of Arab schools in these towns, leading to deterioration in the conditions in these schools and a fall in standards. This decline has in turn obliged parents of many Arab students to move their children to Jewish schools, out of concern for their educational attainment, health and futures. The state is both disregarding the poor conditions in Arab schools and discriminatorily preventing Arab pupils from registering in Jewish schools.

Adalah also argued in the petition that the right of a parent to select a suitable place for the education of his or her child is a constitutional right, which the Supreme Court of Israel has supported in numerous rulings. National courts in many other countries have likewise decided that the state cannot violate this right and that state authority to interfere with the personal autonomy of parents is restricted in this regard, as parents are most able to determine where the best interests of their child lie.

The refusal to register this child at the Zabulun Hamer School represents a grave violation of the principle of non-discrimination, and the rights to equality, dignity and education, as well as the right to enroll in a school near to the home of a child, as guaranteed by law, argued Adalah.

On 13 September 2005, in response to the Municipality of Led's agreement to register the child, Adalah submitted a motion to withdraw the petition and to request that the Court order the respondents to pay legal expenses to Adalah.

Admin. Petition 2293/05, Hassnein et. al. v. The Municipality of Led and the Ministry of Education (Tel Aviv District Court) (case pending).