Bedouin Schools Strike to Protest Death of Child in School Bus Accident

November 26, 2007

Ten schools representing 9,000 students in unrecognized Bedouin villages stayed shut last Thursday to protest the killing of eight-year-old Iman Abu Asa and to express solidarity with the family after she was run over by a school bus on November 11. Last year, eleven-year-old Saliman Al Atrash was killed by two school busses squeezing by each other on a narrow road.

Last year, SHATIL’s Umbrella Forum for Bedouin Education in the Negev, which organized the strike, convinced the High Court of Justice to demand new and safer roads to schools in the Negev’s unrecognized villages. While cosmetic changes were made, Forum coordinator Dr. Awad Abu Freih says, “nothing significant has changed.”

“Our children need to know that when they leave home for school in the morning, they will return home safely,” said Abu Freih. “How many more children must die before the government fulfills its responsibility?”

Ha’aretz published an op-ed piece by Dr. Abu Freih on November 20, Universal Children’s Day, in which he lamented the lack of educational and recreational facilities for Bedouin children. He wrote: “This is a moment of soul searching, even of shame. On Universal Children’s Day, our reality is different. Between the waves of verbiage, our children are the true measure. For all the bleeding hearts and for those who demand equality, our children are the reality test. Our children are the mirror.”