Compelling Ministry of Education and National Electricity Company to Connect Arab Bedouin Schools in the Naqab (Negev) to National Electricity Network
This month, Adalah learned that the Electricity Company has begun to connect the Al-Mustakbal and Al-Aa'sam B schools in the Arab Bedouin villages of Abu Talul and the Al-Amal school in the village of Khirbat al-Watan as well as other schools in the unrecognized villages in the Naqab (Negev) to the national electricity network.
More than 23,000 Arab Bedouin students, citizens of Israel living in the unrecognized villages in the Naqab, have been studying in schools which are not connected to the national electricity network. They are the only schools in Israel that are not connected to the electricity network. These schools operate solely on generators, which work for a maximum of seven hours a day and then the power supply is cut completely.
This important move comes following a petition submitted by Adalah to the Israeli Supreme Court on 1 July 2009. The petition demanded that the court issue an order to the Ministry of Education and the Electricity Company to provide electricity to the schools via the national electricity network. Adalah Attorney Morad El-Sana submitted the petition on behalf of students and the heads of the parents' committees of the two schools as well as the Regional Council for the Unrecognized Villages in the Naqab, the Follow-up Committee for Arab Education and the Association of Forty.
On 9 November 2009, the state submitted a response on behalf of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of the Interior and committed to connecting all the schools in the Arab Bedouin unrecognized villages to the national electricity network, in lieu of the power generators that currently provide electricity to the schools.
To seek to enforce the commitment, at a Supreme Court hearing held on the case on 25 November 2009, Adalah Attorney Sawsan Zaher asked the court to keep the petition pending until the ministries prepare a plan with a specific and clear timetable for implementation. From field information recently received by Adalah, it appears that the Electricity Company has already begun to connect the schools.
In addition to this important achievement, Adalah succeeded in another petition before the Supreme Court to obtain a commitment by the state in December 2008 to connect all the schools and service centers in the Arab Bedouin unrecognized villages in the Naqab with safe and paved roads. Adalah Attorney Morad El-Sana filed this petition on 20 November 2008 on behalf of the parents' committees of the schools in the village of Al-Sayed, the Regional Council for the Unrecognized Villages, the Association of Forty and the Follow-up Committee for Arab Education to compel the authorities to open a safe road to Al-Sayed Elementary School.
The petition emphasized that the poor road conditions had led to many horrendous road accidents, including the deaths of four children. The last of these incidents was on 5 March 2008, which claimed the life of Abed Adnan Al-Sayed. The child was on his way home from school and because of stagnant water in the road he had to walk on dirt mounds adjacent to the road. While walking, the child slipped into the road, was run over by a bus and died instantly.
Case citation:
Electricity in schools:
HCJ 5475/09, Aiob Abu Sabelah, et al. v. Ministry of Education, et al.
Roads to schools:
HCJ 9817/08, Naim Al-Sayyid, et al. v. Ministry of Education, et al.
