The exhibition curated by Amos Gitai Sharon Yabu Ayalon and Nitzan Set shows the building of the Bedouin Khan Al-Ahmar school in the Maale Adumim area, and touches on the architectural dimension of the school’s design based on its construction with recycled tires and compacted earth. The school, located in a border area, was designed by the Italian organization VENTO DI TERRA, which works for human rights and for the quality of the environment. The construction method that characterizes the organization is becoming more and more accepted in the world for the creation of small, quick-to-build, and ecological buildings that use recycled tires covered with compacted soil. שמירת התרגום The thickness of the walls, the structure of the tire and the coating materials produce a thermal mass suitable for the heat conditions of the desert and enables studying in comfortable conditions. The roofs of the buildings were covered with solar panels, they provide the electricity for the entire complex. It is a relatively fast construction and thus an advantage for border and emission areas where the required solution is immediate. The school consists of three simple rectangular buildings, arranged around an inner courtyard. It is a pleasant learning environment which at the same time blends into the natural environment and creates a learning complex on a human scale.

The exhibition will present photos and video clips taken by director Amos Gitai at the school as it is today, along with documentation of the school’s construction process, architectural drawings and a description of the construction method. In addition to this, especially for the sake of the exhibition, an educational work process was carried out that focused on ecological construction and human rights, with a group of students the same age as the Bedouin students, from the Zikrhon Yosef elementary school in Haifa. Under the guidance of the curator, the Haifa students built a 1:50 scale model of the Bedouin school and in the process learned architectural concepts and the ecological construction method using tires. The exhibition is being held thanks to cooperation with the Italian organization VENTO DI TERRA ONG, which operates in border areas around the world and in cooperation with the organization of rabbis for human rights.

The school was built in June 2009, and it is intended for the children of the Hagholin Bedouin community. Until its opening, children from the area had to travel to distant educational institutions with high costs and which involved risking their safety. The school has had a demolition order since its establishment, according to the Civil Administration due to a plan to widen the main road next to it. From 2009 until today, the settlements of Kfar Adumim, Alon and Nofi Perat, repeatedly petition the High Court and demand that the demolition orders issued to it be implemented.

The remaining Bedouins in the Maale Adumim area today number close to 3,000 people, about half of whom are children. They live in tents and shacks in more than 20 concentrations along the Jerusalem-Jericho road and in the nearby Mount Adumim. Most of the communities belong to the Bnei Jahalin and although they have existed in this area for decades, their living conditions are extremely difficult: they suffer from a severe lack of health, education and welfare services and the lack of physical infrastructure – electricity, sewage and roads. Only about half of the communities are connected to the water network. The Bedouin communities try to maintain their traditional way of life, based on sheep herding, but their access to grazing lands and markets is becoming more and more limited over the years. The Civil Administration refuses to prepare outline plans for them in their living areas, thereby preventing them from building legally.

The repeated petitions of the Civil Administration and the residents of the settlements to destroy the school building were rejected by the High Court of Justice, which supports the state’s intention to solve the housing problems of the Bedouin within the framework of the “Ramat Noaima” outline plan, and until this is settled, wants to leave the school intact. However, the proposed outline plan is not acceptable to the Bedouin residents who prefer to reach a planning regulation of their residential complex in its current location. At this stage the plan was rejected by the authorities, but the community representatives asked the court to reject the petition, stressing that “it must be remembered that these are children, who study in school, and whose transfer to another educational setting, far from their place of residence, is not desirable”, and that “extreme sensitivity is required before implementing the demolition orders in view of the consequences such action has on the minors”.