Ministry backtracks on keeping East Jerusalem school near polluting metal processing plant

The Education Ministry now objects to the continued operation of the Ras Hamis school near a pollution-emitting factory in East Jerusalem, it informed the Supreme Court in an about-face earlier this week.

Two months ago, the Jerusalem District Court rejected a suit demanding that the ministry relocate Ras Hamis, which is situated next to a metal processing plant whose chimneys emit various toxic gases. The suit was filed by parents of children who attend the school, and an expert opinion filed on the parents' behalf had argued that the 700 pupils had a greater than average chance of catching certain diseases as a result of the pollution.

The parents, together with the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and the Israel Union for Environmental Defense (Adam, Teva V'Din), then appealed to the Supreme Court.

The ministry's response to the appeal was an about-face from its previous position: Previously, it had backed the municipality's decision to keep the school next to the factory. Its reply stated that after additional consultations with the health and environmental protection ministries, it decided to accept the parents' demand to relocate the school, and therefore asked the Supreme Court to overturn the lower court's decision.

Attorney Tali Nir of ACRI welcomed the ministry's "sobering up," but said she "wonders why it took the ministry an entire year and a lengthy legal process to reach the obvious conclusion that small children cannot study next to a polluting metal plant."

Attorney Amit Bracha of the IUED said "the government's stance bolsters our position that the decision to locate a school in a polluted industrial area is a scandalous one that causes daily injury to the health of hundreds of pupils."

The municipality told Haaretz it would offer its response in court.