500 Bedouin school students have no running water

Hundreds of kids study in a building that has no running water.

By YASSER OKBI/MAARIV

JANUARY 18, 2020 18:24

A BEDOUIN woman displays some of her wares (photo credit: GIL ZOHAR) — A BEDOUIN woman displays some of her wares

(photo credit: GIL ZOHAR)

A total of 500 students from kindergarten to 9th grade who study in the Tel Arad School in the Negev currently have no running water.

The parents of the students decided to strike and not send their kids to school in the beginning of the school year as they were promised by both the Ministry of Education and by the El- Kassum Regional Council that the situation would be taken care of after one of the parents said he is willing to pass a water pipe from his home to the school. However, the situation is still not resolved.

The chairman of the parent’s association Ali Nabari told Maariv: “We contacted the Ministry of Education and the regional council who give services to the unrecognized villages in the Negev. It’s simple, but one person transferred us to the second and in the latest conversation I had with the director of the education department, he transferred us to the Bedouin Authority. We feel like orphans. They use us as a bargaining chip between the ministry and the regional council. They brought to a school strike of almost a month since the beginning of the school year. The parent who volunteered to build a water pipe of 800 meters said that in his own house there isn't running water because of the pressure and that's why he disconnected the water. He just did us a favor, and they should thank him for that. The responsibility is of the state, and not of the parents to make sure there will be running water for our children.”

Yair Maayan, the CEO of the Authority for the Development and Settlement of the Bedouins said in a comment: “I'm hearing about it for the first time. The place is connected to water, and if there is a malfunction it should be fixed. It’s all under the responsibility of the Regional Council.”

Salameh al-Atrash, the head of the El- Kassum Regional Council, said in a comment, “There is water in the school.”

The Ministry of Education declined to comment.