20,000 children without a framework – this is not a glitch, it is policy

The fact that some 20,000 Bedouin students in the Negev may be left without an educational framework is not a technical failure or an accidental budgetary delay. It is a stark expression of an ongoing policy of civil discrimination and communal exclusion.

When the Ministry of Education budgets only a portion of the necessary amount – until December only – and leaves local authorities facing a broken trough, the message is clear: There are citizens whose rights are conditional, temporary, and subject to negotiation. This is not what equal citizenship looks like.

The unrecognized villages in the Negev are not a “problem,” and the Bedouin citizens are not subjects. They are citizens of the state, entitled to a continuous, full, and respectful education – just like every boy and girl in the country. The lack of budget, along with house demolitions, village evacuations, and violent treatment by the authorities, create a reality of graduated citizenship – a reality that is incompatible with democracy.

The All Citizens Party demands full responsibility from the Israeli government and the Ministry of Education: immediate, stable, and long-term budgeting for the education system in Bedouin villages, and an end to the policy of neglect and collective punishment.

A country that abandons the education of its children – abandons its future.

Dr. Warda Sada, "Al its citizens party Cochair