"We, the children of the Train neighborhood in Ramle demand that our rights be equal to those of Jewish children in this city and the world. We dream that our lives will be safe in our neighborhood… What are you waiting for? Till another toddler is killed?" [Children's petition to Mayor of Ramle, Yoel Lavie]

Three unexpected visitors showed up recently at SHATIL's Mixed Cities Ramle office. Their average age was 11 – or maybe 12. Mixed Cities Director, Buthayna Dabit, thought the young faces looked familiar and recalled their active participation a few years back in one of the project's Build-a-Playground Volunteer Workdays in their unrecognized Railway neighborhood in Ramle. They had also been filmed and interviewed on another occasion while waiting an hour and a half for school transport.

3 boys who wrote letter to Ramla mayor - July 07

This time, they had come with letters in hand to Ramle Mayor Yoel Lavie protesting the dangerous conditions that they and their younger siblings face daily in trying to go to and from the neighborhood – and in simply living there. The neighborhood, which lacks basic infrastructure, is hemmed in by an express railway route and a major motorway. There are no safe crossing points. Several residents, including children, have been killed. Added to this is pollution from the neighboring industrial zone, sewage, snakes, maggots, mosquitoes, stray dogs, etc., which turn outdoor play into a fearful experience and health hazard.

With the support of the SHATIL project staff, the children amalgamated their letters into one petition and collected signatures from their neighborhood peers. The petition offered constructive suggestions to the Mayor for a number of modest improvements, such as the safe placement of a school bus stop and the neighborhood's playground equipment; a safety barrier separating the railroad and the motorway from the neighborhood; a normal sewage system and professional clean-up of the available open space.

From where had their inspiration come? These highly motivated and responsible children had observed that a number of women in the neighborhood were participating in a SHATIL-operated personal empowerment program, one component of which was a Hebrew language class that helped to increase their capacity to function independently beyond the four walls of their homes. The women had, in fact, recently composed their own petition to the mayor demanding appropriate services for the neighborhood or safe access to such services – a health clinic, a kindergarten, public transport and, in particular, a safe school transport collection point and safe passage in and out of the neighborhood for pedestrians, wheelchairs and strollers. They requested garbage cans, refuse collection and an environment that did not attract drug addicts or rabid dogs.

The three children had one more request – this time of SHATIL staff – could they too have Hebrew lessons, or maybe English, or any other enrichment activity?

SHATIL's Mixed Cities advocacy consultant, Shlomit Asheri, asked the Knesset Committee for Children's Rights to hold a discussion on the issues these petitions have raised, while media consultant Ayelet Danon has alerted the press. Nobody will do a better job of representing the children of Ramle's Railway neighborhood and demanding their rights than these three young people: Hamed and Ahmed Almugrabi and Karim Abu Ktifan.