Bedouin boy with CP refused entry to Jewish school in Israel

From The Media Line:

A Palestinian human rights and advocacy group is planning to take the Israeli Ministry of Education to court over the case of a Arab child with mental and developmental disability refused entry to Jewish schools because he is Bedouin.

The news comes days after an Arab couple whose daughter was expelled from an Israeli day care facility filed suit against a Jewish mother they claim used racial incitement to convince other parents and the day care that their child should not be allowed to attend the day care.

Musa Abu Kaf (pictured) is an 8-year old Bedouin Israeli with cerebral palsy (CP), a series of motor conditions that cause a number of physical and developmental disabilities.

Musa and his father Jabalin live in a village called Abu Kaf, their namesake, which is unrecognized by Israel.

For over a year Jabalin has attempted to enroll his son in a Jewish school in the nearby city of Be'er Sheva which has special classes for children with CP.

"I was told that there is not an environment amenable to the acceptance of Bedouin children," Jabalin told The Media Line.

Jabalin claims his son is not provided with adequate care at the local school.

"His understanding and needs are different," Jabalin said. "He needs specific therapies, medical assistance and special education. The principal is trying to help but they don't have the tools to support for a kid like this, and for an entire year he has suffered."

Jabalin has since turned to Adalah, The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, and sent a series of formal complaints to the Ministry of Education.

"There are a lot of schools in Beer Sheva schools that can handle a kid with CP," Jabalin said. "I explained to the educational officials that I am close to Be'er Sheva and I have the right to request that my child be given an education."

"He's a lovely kid," Jabalin continued. "He loves learning and computers, he is friends with everyone, speaks Hebrew well and fits a Israeli mentality."

"They keep telling me they will find a solution but it is always delayed," Jabalin added. "Anyone who is not Jewish gets nothing."

The Ministry of Education has indicated its intention to set up a CP class in the Abu Kaf village, and has until Wednesday to notify the family of arrangements for the coming school year.

"We place students in schools according to their geographic region," Yifat Livner, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Education told The Media Line. "This applies both to Jewish students and Bedouin students. We'd have a zoo if we were to let parents send their children wherever they like."

However Suhad Bishara, an lawyer with Adalah, says that such cases are common.

It does happen often but in many cases it is resolved after sending a letter to the municipality," Bishara told the Media Line. "It's the parent's right in Israeli law

Sawsan Zaher, the Adalah lawyer representing the family, told The Media Line the organization is preparing to take the Ministry to court.

"They claim they will open a class for CP kids in Abu Kaf," Zaher said. "But they have delayed the decision for over a year and our attempts to register him in a Jewish school in Be'er Sheva have failed. If such a class will not be opened then we are going to court."

"This is a child with a very severe mental disability living in an unrecognized village," she continued. "He clearly has special needs, yet he is not being allowed into a school that can provide for special needs children."

Musa Abu Kaf's case follows the news late last week that Maysa and Shua’a Zuabi, an Arab Israeli couple who's daughter was expelled from a day care, plan to sue a Jewish mother they accuse of racial incitement.

Maysa and Shua’a Zuabi, residents of Sulam village in northern Israel, took their one-year-old daughter Dana to a daycare in the nearby Jewish community of Merhavia last December after the day care's owner Ivon Grinwald told them of a vacant space.

Grinwald removed the girl on her first day, however, after six parents threatened to remove their children if Dana was not removed.

The Zuabi family accuses Neta Kadshai, one of the six Jewish parents, of leading the charge against their daughter because she was Arab. The Zuabis filed suit against the mother last week to the tune of $80,000, accusing her of racial incitement.

"We felt that what happened was outrageous and filled our hearts with shame," said Dori Caspi, an attorney who took on the Zuabis case pro bono. "We usually do medical malpractice but once we heard about this incident we agreed to take on the case."

"Jews and Israelis should act against racism," Caspi said. "To humiliate a person based on race, religion, sex, sexual orientation or place of residence is illegal, and I believe it's a strong, justified and necessary case for the health and future of Israeli society."

The first case of its kind in Israel, Caspi said while the day care director had acted improperly, the parents who led the charge against the Zuabi's daughter were most at fault.

"Saying 'I don't want this Arab girl' is humiliating both to the child and the parents," Caspi said. "I didn't want to sue the day care director because her moral fault was not as extreme as the parents."

While a number of Israeli laws protect citizens against such discrimination, Caspi will need to prove that the Jewish mother said what the Zuabi's accuse her of saying.

"We have the legal tools to win this case," Caspi said. "Israeli libel law is on our side and we have the ability to prove what was said by the mother."

Rights advocates say 8-year-old Musa Abu Kaf and one year old Dana Zuabi are not isolated cases.

This is a formal policy, we have two different education systems," said Ronnen Ben-Arie, Director of Alternative Voice in the Galilee, an Arab and Jewish organization working against what they perceive to be an unequal relationship between the Arab and Jewish populations in Israel's Galilee region. "Israeli policy explicitly attempts to separate Jews and Arabs in all aspects of life, from where people live to where they go to school. It's very hard to cross these lines."

Ben-Arie argued that the only exception to the rule was cases in which Jewish schools were short of students.

"The Jewish education system is not very willing to accept Arab kids unless they have some special local interest like they don't have enough students," he said. "Indeed in this case probably the main reason that the day care director wanted to accept this Arab girl was simply that she needs more kids."

"But the social environment is going the other way," Ben-Arie continued. "First, the principal of a school will usually oppose letting in an Arab child. Then, even if the principal of a school decides to take an Arab kid, the parents will oppose them. Then, after all that if the Arab child actually gets into the school, it will be very hard for them and their parents, because of the social environment against them."

"If the Israeli government wanted to promote joint life, joint citizenship and joint educational opportunities then there shouldn't be separate systems," Ben-Arie added. "If from day one a state places a student in a separate education system, then of course the two populations are going to grow up as two essentially separate bodies of citizens."

But while many rights advocates agree with Ben-Arie's critique of discrimination, many Palestinian Israelis support the principle of separation.

"It is a separated system, not a segregated system, with the consent of the Arab leadership so that Arab students can learn their own language and culture," Adalah lawyer Sawsan Zaher explained. "The problem is that beyond Arabs teaching in their own language, because of a big problem with the supervision of Arab schools by the Education Ministry, they don't learn much about their own culture."

Zaher says Arab Israelis are usually interested in Jewish schools due to differences in the quality of the education offered locally, or due to geographic convenience.

"Generally the educational level in Jewish schools is much better or in some cases a Jewish school is the only nearby option," Zaher explains. " But when Arab parents try to register their kids in Jewish school they are faced with a rejection by the principal of the school or the educational authority of the local council."

"There is clearly a systematic policy to prohibit or deny the application of Arab parents from registering in Jewish schools," she continues. "But it's a silent policy: First we are told that there is a policy against it but then when we try to legally challenge it we are told that there is no written policy and they try to come up with lots of excuses as to why the student is not allowed."