Shomron Regional Council head Gershon Mesika accuses Defense Minister Ehud Barak of breaking the law mandating free education to Israel’s children.
In a letter to State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss, Mesika writes that Barak – as overall head of the Civil Administration that governs Judea and Samaria (Yesha) – has granted permission to build only 28 classrooms and kindergartens for the Jewish towns in Yesha for next year. This, despite the fact that the Ministry of Education has approved, based on criteria rooted in Israeli law, the need for 116 classrooms.
Mesika: Barak is violating Compulsory Education Law by preventing classroom construction.
Defense Ministry legal counsel Achaz Ben-Ari told the Knesset Finance Committee this week that as far as the Defense Ministry is concerned, “the construction freeze [on Jewish building in Yesha] applies also to kindergartens, schools and educational institutions.”
“Barak, using the Civil Administration, is preventing the construction of 88 classrooms,” Mesika wrote to the Comptroller. “This means that 78% of the needs recognized by the Ministry of Education for 2010-11 will not be met, and thousands of students will not be able to study, despite the Compulsory Education Law, in suitable conditions – and many will not even be able to begin the school year at all.”
Barak is blatantly violating the Cabinet decision and the Prime Minister’s declarations regarding the freeze, Mesika wrote, “which indicated clearly that the freeze does not apply to public construction, and certainly not to schools.”
“Barak is thus purposely transgressing the Compulsory Education Law in preventing the Education Ministry and local councils from fulfilling their obligations to ensure that all pupils have classrooms. This is also a violation of their civil rights.”
Mesika notes that Barak is “trampling the children’s rights out of political considerations – for even the regrettable freeze decision itself states that it does not apply to schools. Have we become like Sodom and Gomorra? … I ask you [Mr. Comptroller], to please investigate this grave behavior and political machinations by the Defense Minister at the expense of the children.”
Mesika sent copies of his letter to Education Committee Chairman MK Zevulun Orlev, Children’s Welfare Committee Chairman MK Danny Danon, and coalition whip and Yesha Subcommittee Chairman MK Ze’ev Elkin.
The grassroots Shomron Residents Council, on the other hand, places the blame on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, “who is exclusively responsible for the mistreatment of the children of Judea and Samaria. The Prime Minister must stop hiding behind the Defense Minister, and call off at once the freeze decrees, the persecution, and the strangling of Yesha life.”