On August 14, 2022, ACRI and the Union of Parents of East Jerusalem Students petitioned the Court of Administrative Affairs, demanding that the Jerusalem Municipality be required to repair severe shortcomings in the safety standards around educational institutions in the eastern neighborhoods of the city before the start of the school year.
An ACRI investigation carried out in the vicinity of multiple educational institutions in 12 neighborhoods of East Jerusalem revealed troubling findings: in the vast majority of the schools examined, no road signs have been erected limiting the traffic speed to 30 kilometers per hour, nor is there a pedestrian sign (children crossing); in the vast majority of them, no speed bumps were paved for vehicles, and no crosswalks were painted; only in a small portion of them was there an area for picking up and dropping off students via public transportation and private vehicles; and only in some was there a guardrail installed separating the school from the street. Recurrent appeals on behalf of ACRI and the parents have been met with complete disregard by the municipality.
The petition claims that the municipality may not disregard its legally imposed obligation to establish special traffic regulations near schools. The municipality’s neglect to fulfill its duties is extremely unreasonable, demonstrating significant disregard for the lives and physical well-being of tens of thousands of students and their rights to health, dignity, and equality. The petition further claimed that were these educational institutions located in the western part of the city, it is safe to assume that the municipality would have been quick to comply and correct these defects, and that its conduct around this issue relates to the systematic neglect and ongoing discrimination of East Jerusalem neighborhoods and residents.