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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element" dir="ltr"> <font
size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/israel-cuts-school-buses-bedouin-children">https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/israel-cuts-school-buses-bedouin-children</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Israel cuts school buses for Bedouin
children</h1>
<p class="node__submitted">
<span class="field field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/tamara-nassar">Tamara
Nassar</a></span> <span class="field field-blog">-</span>
<span class="field field-publication-date"><span
class="date-display-single"
content="2020-01-21T18:34:44+00:00">21 January 2020</span></span>
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<figure id="file-88306"><source media="(min-width:
72rem)"><figcaption><small><span></span></small></figcaption></figure>
<p>Thousands of Palestinian Bedouin preschoolers haven’t
been in class for days after Israeli authorities
halted their only means of getting to school.</p>
<p>The Neve Midbar Regional Council <a
href="https://www.adalah.org/uploads/uploads/Nave_midbar_bus_halt120120.pdf">announced</a>
on 12 January that buses would stop serving 20
villages in the southern Naqab (Negev) region the next
day without prior warning.</p>
<p>As a result, some 2,200 Bedouin children had not been
to school in over three days, <a
href="https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/9891">according</a>
to <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/adalah">Adalah</a>,
a legal advocacy group for Palestinians in Israel.</p>
<p>It is notable that 16 of the affected villages are
“unrecognized,” including Bir al-Hammam, al-Zarnouq,
Abda and Rahma, among others.</p>
<p>Israel virtually bars <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/unrecognized-villages">unrecognized
villages</a> in the Naqab from building new
structures.</p>
<h2>No access to schools</h2>
<p>Israel has forcibly displaced Bedouins residing in
those villages <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/how-israel-robs-palestinians-citizenship/21751">multiple
times</a> since its establishment in 1948.</p>
<p>In addition to barring development, Israel denies
Bedouin communities essential services like adequate
water and electricity.</p>
<p>Thousands of Bedouins have had their citizenship
revoked.</p>
<p>The Israeli government is still intent on expelling
Bedouins from the unrecognized Naqab village of <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/umm-al-hiran">Umm
al-Hiran</a> in order to build a Jewish-only
settlement in its place.</p>
<p>Last April, Israel said it would build an elementary
school in the village of Rahma after 13 years of local
struggle.</p>
<p>Even then, the school will be a “temporary campus
made up of mobile homes,” <a
href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israel-to-let-unrecognized-bedouin-village-have-school-after-years-of-civil-struggle-1.7683227">according</a>
to Israeli daily <em>Haaretz</em>.</p>
<h2>Right to education</h2>
<p>Israeli law mandates education for children aged 3 to
15.</p>
<p>Yet a recent report by Israel’s parliament, the
Knesset, says that nearly 5,000 Bedouin children
between the ages of 3 and 5 did not attend school in
the 2017-2018 academic years.</p>
<p>Since Bedouin residents of unrecognized villages are
barred from building, their children are forced to
travel to schools far away.</p>
<p>Children in Rahma have had to commute 26 kilometers
to the villages of Wadi al-Naam and Qasr al-Sir to
attend elementary school.</p>
<p>The decision to halt bus services hinders children’s
right to an “accessible, adequate, safe and decent
education,” Adalah <a
href="https://www.adalah.org/uploads/uploads/Nave_midbar_letter_140120.pdf">said</a>
in a letter to Israel’s education ministry and Neve
Midbar Regional Council.</p>
<p>Adalah attorney Aiah Haj Odeh wrote the letter on
behalf of the children’s parents and the Regional
Council for Unrecognized Villages in the Negev, a
grassroots committee <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/why-palestinians-should-unite-support-naqab-protests/14255">established</a>
in 1997.</p>
<p>Adalah is demanding that Israel’s education ministry
immediately renew funding for the school buses.</p>
<h2>No running water in school</h2>
<p>The rights of school children are also being violated
elsewhere in the Naqab.</p>
<p>Some 500 students of the Tel Arad School have had <a
href="https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Israel-2020-500-hundred-school-students-not-connected-to-running-water-614543">no
access</a> to running water recently.</p>
<p>The education ministry and the al-Kasum regional
council, where the school is located, said they would
resolve the issue. But they have yet to do so,
according to parents.</p>
<p>Parents decided to go on strike and not send their
children to school until the issue is resolved.</p>
<p>One parent ran a water pipe from his own house to the
school, but this was not a sustainable solution.</p>
<p>“The responsibility is of the state, and not of the
parents to make sure there will be running water for
our children,” <a
href="https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Israel-2020-500-hundred-school-students-not-connected-to-running-water-614543">said</a>
Ali Nabari, the head of the parent association.</p>
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