In response to a petition, the Tel Aviv District Court issued a temporary injunction obligating the Ramle municipality to continue providing transportation for students residing in the Dahmash neighborhood to their place of education. The petition was submitted on behalf of a number of schoolchildren who are residents of the neighborhood, are devoid of legal status, and on behalf of whom the local authorities are refusing to honor their responsibility to provide them with transportation
In response to a request by ACRI and The Karamah Organization for Human Rights, the Tel Aviv District Court, in its capacity as an Administrative Court, issued a temporary injunction obligating the Ramle municipality to continue providing a school bus for the residents of the neighborhood of Dahmash (Neve Atid), that is adjacent to the city of Ramle, until the continued hearing of the petition that was submitted by two human rights organizations. The petition, which is directed against the Ramle municipality, the regional municipality of Emek Lod, and the Ministry of Education, was submitted on behalf of 48 students who are residents of the neighborhood, of which 47 study at a school located in the city of Ramle, and a single student who studies in a special education school in Rishon-le-Zion, and representatives of the neighborhood committee, to demand the renewal of the transport service for the students to school that was stopped suddenly during the month of September with almost no prior warning. The petition was submitted by ACRI Attorney Auni Banna, and Durgham Saif from the Karamah organization for human rights – promoting social, economic, and cultural rights in the Arab community.
The students, who are residents of the Dahmash neighborhood are protected by the Compulsory Education Law and are unquestionably entitled to transportation services to travel to and from their place of education. For approximately 15 years, and up until the current school year, the city of Ramle has provided the students with this transportation service as residents of an adjacent neighborhood to the city; the students are also registered in the Population Registrar as residents of it. This service was cancelled during last September shortly after the opening of the current school year, with the claim that the Ramle municipality is not obligated to provide this service because the students are not under their municipal jurisdiction. However, the Emek Lod regional council, within whose municipal area the neighborhood is geographically located, also claims that the students are not officially registered as residents and that the council is therefore not obligated to supply them with transportation to school. As a result, and in the absence of any other public transportation, these students and children in the lower grades of the elementary school, are forced to walk five kilometers to and from school every day via dangerous roads and dirt tracks with heavy bags on their back. In order to reach school on time, the students have to leave their homes by 6:30 in the morning, and only return, exhausted, at 16:00. The Ministry of Education’s position, as stated by the State Attorney’s office, is that the Ramle municipality must continue providing the service temporarily until a permanent arrangement can be reached, which it has agreed to, albeit reluctantly.
Attorneys Banna and Saif note in the petition that the Dahmash neighborhood, in which some 1,000 Arab residents who are Israel citizens reside, are devoid of any legal status. The neighborhood residents who have been fighting long and hard for recognition as a separate community, or for official annexation to an existing municipality, are trapped in an absurd situation: on the one hand they were “circumvented” in the official outline plan for Ramle, thereby excluding them from Ramle’s municipal jurisdiction, and on the other hand, even the neighboring council of Emek Lod does not recognize them as official residents, and relates to them as “trespassers”, despite the fact that the neighborhood has existed for dozens of years, and some of the houses date back to the establishment of the state. In fact, the attorneys emphasize, the two local authorities in the area continue to ignore the existence of the neighborhood, both from a planning perspective and from the perspective of the provision of municipal services, even though the residents continue to use the Ramle municipal infrastructure to access public services.
The petitioning organizations further emphasize that the student’s right to transportation to school is clearly stated in the text of the municipal regulations. With regard to the students with special needs, who study in special education frameworks, like one of the present petitioners, their right to transportation services is protected by law and is included in the educational services to which the students are entitled. The authorities’ shirking of their responsibility to provide transportation to the students who reside in the neighborhood, the petition states, violates their right to, and access to education, a right that is based on statutory legislation and judicial ruling.
The petition also emphasizes that the “sudden decision” to stop the transportation service in the middle of the school year with no prior warning, and with no commitment to an alternative arrangement, contravenes their obligation, as a public body, to act in a fair and just way. The nature and the timing of the decision violates the justifiable expectations of the students to be supplied with transportation throughout the entire school year, as was the case at the beginning of the year and throughout previous years. The petition further states that there is no justification for placing the students in a situation in which a dispute over municipal jurisdiction results in the violation of their basic and undisputed right to education and transportation to their place of education.
last updated : 27/11/05
