Adalah Petitions Supreme Court to Compel Connection of Two Arab Bedouin Schools in the Naqab (Negev) to the National Electricity Network

On 1 July 2009, Adalah submitted a petition to the Supreme Court of Israel demanding an order to the Ministry of Education and the electricity company to connect the Al-Mustakbal and Al-Aa'sam B elementary and secondary schools in the Arab Bedouin unrecognized village of Abu Taloul in the Naqab (Negev) to the national electricity network. The petition was filed by Adalah Attorney Morad El-Sana on behalf of students, parents and NGOs including the Regional Council for the Unrecognized Villages in the Naqab, the Follow-up Committee for Arab Education, the Association of Forty, and Adalah.

More than 23,000 Arab Bedouin students, citizens of Israel living in the unrecognized villages in the Naqab, study 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.

The generators' ability to produce electricity is very limited and is insufficient to meet the needs of the schools. The schools' administration is forced to reduce electricity consumption to the bare essentials of lighting and the operation of small appliances. In addition, the existence of the generator and fuel depositories next to the schools causes a real danger to the health and lives of the students and the teachers.

The generators do not allow for the operation of air conditioners or heaters and thus, the students endure the intense desert heat in the summer and bitter cold in winter. Often the school administrators cut the school day short and send the students home due to the oppressive heat.

This temporary electricity cannot maintain the operation of computers, lab equipment, protective equipment for chemical and biological materials in labs, or refrigerators, which need a strong and continuous electrical current. Thus these subjects are not covered in school.

In the petition, Attorney El-Sana argued that failing to connect the schools to the electricity network, the weak electrical current provided by the generators and its limited availability, the loss of school days and the failure to teach subjects that need computers and laboratories are a blatant violation of the students' right to education. Attorney El-Sana added that as the students live in unrecognized villages that also lack electricity and other basic services, their only hope of discovering the world of computers and technology is in school.

Schools in the unrecognized villages were never connected to the electricity network however, in 1999 the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the state authorities to connect the schools following a petition submitted by the Tel Aviv University Legal Clinic on behalf of Dr. Awad Abu Freih from the Naqab Educational Forum. As an interim measure, the Supreme Court ruled that the state provide generators temporarily in places that are difficult to connect, until a solution is found. However, this interim measure has continued for more than 10 years.

Attorney El-Sana argued that there is no technical impediment to connecting the schools to the electricity network, as it is in fact located less than 250 meters away from the two schools. Therefore, the cost of connecting the schools is insignificant. According to an inspection conducted by an expert engineer, the opinion of which was annexed to the petition, the cost of operating the generators in the 23 schools mentioned is NIS 17 million (around US $4.25 million) per year more than the cost of connecting them to the national electricity network, besides the difference in quality between the two sources.

Case citation: HCJ 5475/09, Aiob Abu Sabelah, et al. v. Ministry of Education, et al. (case pending)