Tel-Aviv Administrative Court Justice, Kobi Vardy, instructed the Ramle municipality to permit the registration of the children from the neighborhood of Dahmash to kindergartens and schools located within its jurisdictional area for the upcoming school year. The decision was delivered in an interim injunction that will remain valid until a final verdict is reached on the petition that was submitted on the issue by ACRI Attorney Auni Banna, on behalf of ACRI and the Karamah Organization. The interim injunction that was issued by the justice in response to a request by the petitioning organizations, states that the purpose of the injunction is to maintain the status quo, whereby the children residing in the neighborhood whose status is contested between local authorities, will continue receiving educational services from the city of Ramle as has been the case for the last 10-15 years, and which the municipality is now trying to change. The fact that the municipality is preventing the children from registering, Justice Vardi states, will bring about a situation in which brothers and sisters and other relatives of various ages, who are all residents of the neighborhood, will be forced to study in different cities, something that will result in severe logistical and familial difficulties. The decision underlines the previous decision of the court, which was also in response to the petition submitted by ACRI and the Karamah organization, and which obligated the municipality of Ramle to continue providing transport services to the neighborhood`s children who study within its jurisdictional area.
The petition, which was submitted on behalf of 20 children who reside in the Dahmash neighborhood that borders the city of Ramle, and in the name of members of the neighborhood committee, was directed against the Ramle Municipality, The Ministry of Education, and the District Council of Emek Lod. The petitioning organizations, in full cooperation with the Shatil organization that operates a “Mixed Cities Project” and which monitors the problems encountered by the cities’‘ Arab population, demands that the Ramle municipality allow the neighborhood children to register at its educational institutions.
The petition further claims that the decision taken by the Ramle municipality, not to register the aforementioned children, was taken just before the beginning of the registration period with no prior warning for the parents or the Ministry of Education, and therefore violates the right of the children to education and leaves them with no viable educational framework for the upcoming school year.
The Ramle municipality claimed in response that the Dahmash neighborhood, which is devoid of any legal status, is not located within its jurisdictional area but is within the territorial area of Emek Lod, and that it is therefore not obligated to provide the area`s’‘ residents with any educational services. However, the Emek Lod District Council also claims that the students are not officially registered as residents of Emek Lod, which, they state, also exempts them from providing the students with an educational framework. With regard to these claims Justice Vardi stated in the text of the interim injunction that within the jurisdictional area of Emek Lod there are no Arab educational facilities, and thus – in accordance with the law – the students must be provided with educational services from an educational institution that is in the closest possible proximity to them, in Ramle. The question of municipal responsibility for the residents of the neighborhood, which includes their education and the resultant financial burdens, and which are currently under dispute by the two local authorities, he emphasizes, must not detract from the children’‘s right to education, and thus the court will defend this right.
The Dahmash neighborhood is comprised of some 1000 residents, and adjoins the jurisdictional area of the Ramle municipality. When the parents of these children tried to register them for first grade in the city’‘s educational institutions, they were told that they could not do so because they are not residents of Ramle. In order to ensure the children’‘s right to education in the upcoming school year, the parents appealed to the Emek Lod District Council but were also refused services there. This dispute between the two local authorities as to which one is responsible for providing these educational services, only became apparent at the beginning of the current school year when the Ramle municipality suddenly stopped the transport service it provided for the children to reach their school in the city. This decision was the subject of a petition submitted by ACRI and the Karamah organization that is still pending. However, in response to the petition the Tel-Aviv Administrative Court issued an interim injunction that obligated the Ramle municipality to continue providing the service for the children until its resolution.
last updated : 31/05/06
