Following Adalah's Urgent Intervention, Ramleh Municipality Reconnects Arab School in the Town to the Internet after it was Cut Off in Response to School Principal's Email Objecting to School Budget Cuts
Following an urgent letter by Adalah, on 16 June 2011 the Municipality of Ramleh (Ramla) reconnected the Arab Al-Omariyah Elementary School to the internet after it had been cut off for several days. The Municipality disconnected the school from the internet because of an email sent by the school's Principal to the Mayor of Ramleh objecting to reductions in the school's budget. Internet access was disconnected a week after the Mayor, Yoel Levi, sent an email to the school's Principal, Mr. Imad al-Zabaraqah, threatening that the Mayor would order the school to be cut off from the municipality's internet system if the Principal sent another email to the Municipality.
As part of the school's daily work, the school administration continued sending emails to the Municipality regarding matters pertaining to the school and its students. On the morning of Monday, 14 June 2011, the school administration discovered that the school had been cut off from the internet without prior notification. In a telephone conversation with the Municipality, the school's Principal was informed that the school had been disconnected from the internet by personal order of the Mayor.
Adalah sent an urgent letter to the Mayor of Ramleh and the Director of the Central District of the Ministry of Education, Dr. Soly Natan, on 15 June demanding that the school be reconnected to the internet immediately.
Adalah Attorney Rami Jubran stated in his letter that the shutdown in school internet access grossly interfered with the conduct of daily work at the school and that all educational programs that run on the internet had been suspended.
As Adalah explained, the school instructs 600 male and female students, Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel, and houses 120 computers that are used for educational purposes, administrative matters, and managing school finances. Each week 42 classes are held in computer science and the internet. Various educational sites are used to serve students. The internet is also used to prepare homework, for teaching scientific research, to teach use of electronic libraries, to create tests, update test results, and to contact external institutions involved the work of the school.
Attorney Jubran emphasized that the disconnection of the school from the internet was tantamount to the collective punishment of the students, teachers, and school administrators. The internet is an educational resource and not a gift from the Mayor. Cutting off the school from the internet when the Municipality provides internet service to the rest of the schools in the city constitutes a violation of the students' rights to education and equality with other children of their age, Adalah argued.
