With only two weeks before school starts, and despite opposition from a Justice Ministry official, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu approved 23 new classrooms in Judea and Samaria.
Both the Yesha Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria and MK Zevulun Orlev, the Chairman of the Knesset Education Committee, congratulated the Prime Minister on his initiative in solving a problem that threatened the opening of the school year throughout Judea and Samaria.
The issue was that the Obama-pressured freeze on Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria – set to end six weeks from now – appeared to prevent the deployment of the 153 new classrooms, in the form of mobile structures (caravans), that the Education Ministry had ordered for Judea and Samaria.
After a protracted struggle and endless meetings, a solution was found for 130 of them. Only last-minute objections by Deputy Attorney General Malkiel (Mike) Blass blocked the last 23 – threatening to prevent some 500 schoolchildren from nine different towns from taking part in the upcoming school year.
Finally, in an emergency meeting called on Sunday afternoon, just hours after the Education Committee convened and demanded a solution to the problem, Prime Minister Netanyahu overrode Blass’ objections and ordered the caravans to be placed where they were needed.
The decision affects children in Elon Moreh, Itamar, Emanuel, Adam, Talmon, Neriah, Ofra, Eli and Hevron.
“We congratulate the Prime Minister,” the Council statement reads, “who proved that when the desire is there, it can be done. The matter was never a legal one, but rather a political one. All that was needed was a governmental decision. It’s too bad that we had to wait until just two weeks before school starts to stop politicking on the backs of the children.”
Chairman Orlev said, “I am happy that common sense has won out, and I welcome the finding of a solution for which we in the Education Committee have struggled these many months.” He had previously said that adhering to the strict letter of the construction freeze was preventing the fulfillment of a law that often takes precedence over other laws – namely, the Compulsory Education Law. In addition, he said, loopholes could be found to deal with the freeze, unlike regarding the Education Law.
MKs Michael Ben-Ari and Aryeh Eldad had offered their Knesset offices for classroom space, in the event that the children would actually have no other place to study.
Ironically, the freeze is set to expire in only six weeks’ time, and Netanyahu has vowed not to extend it.