Haaretz: Court nixes petition to connect power for young cancer patient
By Haaretz Service, 11/29/05

The High Court of Justice has rejected a petition asking the state to connect an unrecognized Bedouin village in the Negev desert to the electricity grid, to allow a toddler who suffers from cancer to receive treatments at home.

The petition to connect the village to the electricity grid was filed by the family together with Physicians for Human Rights and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.

"One cannot ignore the fact that it was the petitioners' decision to settle in an unrecognized village, knowing that as a result they would be unable to have the most basic facilities," justice Edmond Levy wrote in his ruling, co-signed by High Court President Aharon Barak.

The three-year-old girl has undergone three operations and is currently receiving chemotherapy treatment. Her immune system has been critically weakened, and as result she needs to take drugs that must be kept in refrigeration.

The toddler's family uses an electricity generator belonging to a neighboring family. The maintenance costs of the generator reach 6,000 NIS a month, which the family is unable to pay.

There are some 40 villages in the Negev that have not been recognized by the state and are therefore denied the most basic infrastructure, including electricity, water and sewage systems.

In court, the state argued that the village could not be connected to the electricity grid because of its unrecognized status. The state prosecution admitted, however, that the state is obliged by law to provide health service, and said it had offered the family to move to a nearby recognized community or to keep the drugs in a nearby medical center.