Adalah Demands that Bedouin School in Unrecognized Village Be Connected to Electricity Grid

28 September 2017

At present the schools in the Negev Bedouin village of Wadi al-Na’am are powered by polluting diesel generators. They frequently break down and endanger the health of the 3,000 children attending the village’s schools due to the noxious fumes they emit. NIF grantee Adalah has written to the Ministry of Education demanding that the schools be connected to the country’s electricity grid.

“The generators also produce noise, which disturbs classes,” wrote Adalah Attorney Sawsan Zaher. “In many cases during power outages caused by generator failures, principals are forced to cancel school entirely – particularly during periods of heavy heat and cold winter temperatures. During these conditions, it is impossible to hold classes and conditions are intolerable for students and educational staff alike.”

Electricity lines already run through the village so that the Israel Electric Corporation can serve a nearby chemicals factory.

Adalah’s work here builds on precedents they helped to establish. In 2009, following a High Court petition by Adalah, two schools in the Negev Bedouin village of Abu Tulul were connected to the electricity grid. In 2015, after a similar petition to the High Court, schools in five Bedouin villages were connected to the electricity grid.

Photo via Flickr