The Committee on Children's Rights, chaired by MK Michal Shir from the New Hope party, held a special discussion on the living conditions of children in the settlements of the 'young settlements,' initiated by the chairman of the Eretz Israel lobby, MK Orit Struck from the Religious Zionism party.
During the debate, Knesset members and participants heard shocking testimonies from children from the young settlement. In the discussion, the fact that zoom classes had crashed several times was raised, due to the poor Internet infrastructure in the localities.
Reut Baidglin, 17, who lives in Asa'el, said at the hearing: "We have more than 150 students in the community who need better learning conditions. To create a learning environment you need infrastructure and there are none. When we get home you are waiting for a hot shower and there is no such thing. We have no place to sit to play with friends and we are forced to sit on the road. Some people are unaware of this situation. Awareness needs to be raised. We got used to things being this way. It doesn't have to be like this."
Reut added: "I prefer to stay at school and take a shower there and only afterward go home. In order for there to be a hot shower in the house, you have to boil water and sometimes you do not shower that night because it is simply impossible."
13-year-old Noa Namir from Gilad Farms, who came up for discussion after the zoom crashed due to the poor Internet infrastructure, told the participants: "Children have become accustomed to getting into the car in the winter to keep warm. We got used to turning on only one appliance, if you turn on a toaster then there is no air conditioning."
Ruth Segal from Givat Arnon, 77, who also suffered from the fall of the Internet during the hearing, said that she was born on a hill and that "transportation and roads were always broken. Transportation to school is only possible in the morning and back. You can't get to extracurricular classes."
Atara Cohen, one of the leaders of the Young Settlement Forum, said in a strangled voice told of a child born with a brain injury in one of the localities: "This child cannot walk. His parents built him a special facility so he could walk. He can not walk the roads and sidewalks they live on. The reality is that a girl returning from Bnei Akiva comes home to shower and in the middle the water runs out. Her parents need to run to heat up water so she can finish showering and keep from freezing.
MK Orit Struck, said at the hearing: "This hearing shines an illuminating ray of light in the dark when in a parallel room there is an inverted discussion about the whitewashing tens of thousands of illegal homes just because they are for Arabs. We see Bedouin settlement regulated- 70,000 homes will be whitewashed just because they are for Arabs and these families who are estimated to have 12,000 children will be left without a solution."
MK Ali Salalah of Meretz surprisingly came to the committee and, unlike his faction members, expressed a humanitarian stance and said: "A child should have all the rights he deserves without politics."
The head of the Benjamin Council, Yisrael Gantz, said at the hearing: "In the Benjamin Region there are children who are connected to respirators and when there is a power outage they can simply die. You do not need committees to provide electricity and water. There are things that should be done fore humanitarian reasons. The children deserve to live."
The chairman of the Committee of Children's Rights, MK Michal Shir, summed up the discussion and said: "The 12,000 children of the young settlements have rights and obligations, the right and obligation to matriculate and serve in the army and to be good citizens. In the absence of rights for the 12,000 natives of the young settlement, the committee will not give up until they receive the rights to which they are entitled by law. The committee states that the non-regulation of living conditions and infrastructure in the localities constitutes the abandonment of the residents and the 12,000 children living in the localities. The committee determines that a child is a child - regardless of his area of residence or origin. The state must provide adequate living conditions. "