On 2 July 2006, the Municipality of Ness Ziona agreed to provide bus transportation for six Arab children living in the village of Ness Ziona and attend an Arab school in Ramle. According to an agreement reached by Adalah with the Municipality of Ness Ziona and the Ministry of Education (MOE), the Municipality will cover the costs of the pupils’ transportation starting from the beginning of the coming school year. The agreement was signed following a petition submitted by Adalah to the Tel Aviv District Court against the MOE and the Municipality of Ness Ziona on 24 January 2006, which challenged the cancellation of bus transportation for the six Arab children to the Al-Jawarish School in Ramle.

On 5 July 2006, the Tel Aviv District Court gave the agreement the validity of a court ruling. The agreement therefore legally binds the Municipality and the MOE to provide transportation for the pupils from Ness Ziona to Ramle. The court also ordered the respondents to pay legal expenses in the sum of NIS 4,630.

Transportation for the children was stopped in September 2005, at the beginning of the 2004-2005 school year, without providing prior notification to their families. The petition was filed by Adalah Attorney Morad El-Sana in Adalah’s own name and on behalf of the six children and their parents from the Abu Obeid family, who have lived in Ness Ziona since 1960.

The Al-Jawarish School is located 12 kilometers away from the children’s homes. The Municipality of Ness Ziona had been providing transportation for the pupils for years before the recent decision to cancel it, claiming that the children’s families do not have addresses in the town of Ness Ziona itself. The children’s families have been forced to drive them to school or leave them at home when they were unable to find a way to take them.

In the petition, Adalah demanded that the MOE and Municipality recommence the transportation of the children to their school, since access to school is a fundamental part of the basic right to education guaranteed by the Compulsory Education Law – 1949. The MOE’s general administrative regulations also protect this right, and the Municipality is obliged to organize transportation for those living within its jurisdiction, as do the families of the children. Therefore, the failure of the responsible authorities to provide transportation for the children constitutes a violation of the rule of law. As Adalah emphasized in the petition, in addition to placing an economic burden on their parents, “the discontinuation of transportation of the pupils to their school in Ramle represents a violation of their basic right to education, which in turn leads to their dropping out of the education system.”

At the first hearing on the petition held on 10 April 2006, the Tel Aviv District Court gave its initial recognition of the rights of the children, as stated in Adalah’s petition, and reminded the Municipality of Ness Ziona and the MOE of their responsibility to provide transportation for the pupils and to cover the costs of the transportation.

Administrative Appeal No. 1104/06,Farhan Abu Obeid, et. al. v. The Municipality of Ness Ziona and The Ministry of Education (Tel Aviv District Court)