Adalah: Lack of a Safe Road Leading to Schools in Unrecognized Arab Bedouin Village of Al-Sayyid in the Naqab Violates Basic Right to Education

On 15 April 2008, Adalah sent a pre-petition to the Attorney General demanding that he compel the Abu Basma Regional Council and the Ministry of Education (MOE) to pave a safe road to elementary schools in the unrecognized village of Al-Sayyid in the Naqab (Negev). The pre-petition was sent by Adalah Attorney Nabeel Dakwar on behalf of the schools’ parents committees.

A narrow dirt path currently leads to the schools and poses a danger to the children who study there as well as the teachers who use it. On 5 March 2008, a bus ran over and killed a child named Abd Al-Naim Al-Sayyid while he was walking at the side of the road from the Al-Sayyid B School towards his home in the village.

Close to 1,500 children study at elementary schools in the village, who along with their teachers are forced to walk or travel on the main road between Beer el-Sabe (Beer Sheva) and Arrad (Route 31) in order to reach their schools.

Students and teachers are often absent from school due to the difficulties involved in traveling, especially during the winter and when it rains. Al-Sayyid is an Arab Bedouin village located within the jurisdictional borders of the Abu Basma Regional Council and is currently undergoing a planning process.

In the pre-petition, Attorney Dakwar emphasized that maintaining the status quo and not paving a safe road, which is dictated by law, will violate the rights of the children to education and make it difficult for them to attend their schools. The local authorities and the MOE are obliged to guarantee the basic right to education and to ensure the safety of children and prevent them from being exposed to dangers.

Adalah argued that it is the duty of the local authorities and the MOE to work actively and employ all available means to ensure the right to education and safeguard the lives and wellbeing of the children.