Parents of Bedouin students protest over road safety

Some 1,750 students in two schools in the unrecognized Bedouin village of Al-Atrash did not go to school Tuesday, to protest poor safety measures for children traveling to school.

The parents' association went on strike indefinitely following an accident Monday near the Negev community in which nine-year-old Salman al-Atrash was killed while riding a school bus.

The parents are suing the state to pave a road to the school, attended by pupils from several unrecognized villages in the south.

The route to the school in Al-Atrash follows a narrow dirt road, which parents say is dangerous.

MK Taleb a-Sana (United Arab List) said that since the beginning of the school year in September, three children have been killed while traveling to or from school in the Negev.

On Monday, the driver of the bus noticed a minibus approaching in the opposite direction and stopped to let it pass.

Al-Atrash stuck his head between the bars of the window and was decapitated.

The parents' association is protesting the postponement of their request for the road to be paved.

The Arab Educational Forum of the Negev said the National Planning and Construction Council approved a plan for such a project, but it has not been implemented.

Ibrahim Al-Atrash, chairman of the association, said that before the start of the school year he had sent several letters to government ministries warning of the dangers of using the unpaved road.

The Arab Educational Forum said it had also raised the issue in a strongly-worded letter, predicting that "no bus that uses the road will reach its destination safely."

On Monday, a-Sanaa asked Education Minister Yuli Tamir (Labor) to establish an independent commission of inquiry on the circumstances of Al-Atrash's death.

"The students are in dangerous circumstances...The buses are old and don't have seatbelts. We need to examine the source of the matter," he said.

Education Ministry Director-General Shmuel Abuav ordered the establishment of a committee to look into the circumstances of the incident, and for safety procedures on school buses to be reexamined.

The Education Ministry said additional psychologists would be placed at the school.

	The scene of the accident Monday in Al-Atrash. (Alberto Denkberg)