Last update - 02:41 23/07/2007
Despite ruling, no money for Sderot reinforcement
By Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Staff , By Mijal Grinberg
The government has yet to allocate a shekel to reinforce classrooms in communities near the Gaza Strip, despite the High Court of Justice's ruling two months ago that all such classrooms must be reinforced.
Meanwhile, a female college student sustained light wounds to her hand yesterday when a Qassam rocket fired from Gaza hit the entrance to Sapir College, located near the Negev town of Sderot. Several minutes later, another rocket landed near a school in Sderot, causing damage to property, but no injuries. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the rocket fire.
The High Court ruling, issued in response to a petition by the Sderot parents' committee, found that the protective system approved by the government, under which each school would have one reinforced room to which students could run in the event of a rocket attack, was insufficient, as many students would not be able to reach the protected areas in the 15 seconds that elapse between the sounding of a warning siren and the rocket's landing. It therefore ordered the state to reinforce all classrooms within rocket range of Gaza by September 1, when the new school year begins.
However, the government refused to accept this decision, arguing both that it is physically impossible to reinforce all classrooms by that date - it says that this would take at least until September 2008 - and that the proposed solution is unreasonably expensive: Reinforcing all 340 of the classrooms in question would cost an estimated NIS 400 million. It therefore asked the court to rehear the case with an expanded bench, and meanwhile, it refused to allocate any money for project.
At the end of last week, the court rejected the government's request for a rehearing. However, there is still no sign of the money being forthcoming.
With no secure classrooms in sight, Gaza-area parents do not know where they will be sending their children in another five weeks. The Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council has prepared a plan to have elementary school children study at nearby Kibbutz Ruhama, which is outside the Qassams' current range, until the classrooms have been reinforced, while high school students would be spread out among the reinforced rooms in both their own and the elementary schools. The Sderot municipality has also prepared plans for students to study in locations outside the Qassams' range. However, there is as yet no government funding for these programs, either: The local authorities have submitted funding requests to various government ministries, but have not yet received any positive responses.