JERUSALEM – November 6, 2007 – In response to a petition submitted to the Jerusalem Administrative Court by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) on behalf of 33 East Jerusalem children left out of the public school system, the Jerusalem Municipality has integrated 26 of them into public classrooms. For two months, these children, aged 6 to 16, did not attend classes because the Municipality failed to find them seats in public schools. Another seven children listed on the petition were forced to enroll in private schools.
The Municipality made these arrangements only days before today’‘s scheduled court hearing. It also agreed to fund remedial courses for the children to catch up on missed lessons, as ACRI Attorney Tali Nir demanded in the petition, which was submitted on September 10, 2007.
ACRI welcomes the Municipality’‘s actions, but calls on the Education Ministry and the Jerusalem Municipality to make improving the East Jerusalem public school system a priority at the policy level. ACRI should not have to submit a petition every year to force the Municipality to recognize its legal obligation to provide classroom space for every school-aged child living within its municipal boundaries. Attorney Nir submitted a similar petition in 2006, on behalf of three East Jerusalem children who were excluded from the public school system.
ACRI’‘s petition highlights the Education Ministry and Jerusalem Municipality’‘s neglect of public schools in East Jerusalem. Today, there is a shortage of more than 1,500 classrooms in East Jerusalem, and students learn in overcrowded and deplorable conditions: in converted bathrooms, kitchens, and rented apartments. As a result, many children are forced to pay for private education, or attend schools funded by private authorities, even though the state is obligated to provide all children aged 5-18 with a seat in the city’‘s public schools. ACRI considers this neglect a severe violation of these children’‘s basic right to education and Israel’‘s Compulsory Education law.
