| HOTLINE vs. Jerusalem Municipality - “Free Public Education to Unregistered Palestinian Children in Jerusalem”: The municipality has been conditioning public education for unregistered Palestinian children in Jerusalem upon payment of a special fee (NIS 350), based on the stand that these children are not citizens or permanent residents of Israel, and therefore are not eligible to free education. In mid-September 1994, HOTLINE achieved what seemed at first to be a major success by means of a petition to the High Court: the Jerusalem municipality agreed to accept unregistered Jerusalem children under the same conditions as resident children, and the demand for special fees was revoked. The municipality however, insisted that eligibility would be checked in every individual case. Since the public education system in East Jerusalem does not even offer places to all registered children, the result was clear: unregistered children would again be rejected, based on the argument that the schools are full and that registered children have priority. Therefore HOTLINE refused to compromise, and will continue its efforts until the municipality takes upon itself the responsibility to actually provide free public education to all the children living in Israel and East Jerusalem. |
