Published: 5 June 2020
Last updated: 4 March 2024
THE PETAH TIKVA municipality is refusing to register children of asylum seekers in the city’s schools and preschools, in defiance of a court ruling from last year and the Education Ministry’s demands.
Around 130 parents from the city’s asylum seeker community have complained to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, saying their children haven’t been registered even though they started the process in January and have submitted all required documents.
The city also refused to register the children last year, capitulating only after the Central District Court ordered it to do so. The court later found the municipality in contempt because it didn’t comply with the ruling’s timetable.
Last week, ACRI demanded that the city register the children. “The sorry history of registering children of asylum seekers and migrants in Petah Tikva and the severe harm done to them, alongside the regrettable fact that this year as well, registration problems are already evident, indicates that the city once again plans to break the law,” it wrote.
FULL STORY Israeli city won’t enrol children of asylum seekers in schools, flouting court ruling again (Haaretz)
Photo: Asylum seekers protest the city's refusal to allow their children to enrol in school, Petah Tikva, July 9, 2019 (Tomer Appelbaum)
