Israeli college in Ariel settlement accorded university status

The college in Ariel, the West Bank's largest Jewish settlement A college in an Israeli settlement has been accorded university status in a first for the occupied West Bank, Israeli media reported. Members of the "Council for Higher Education in Judea and Samaria" -- the West Bank -- a group close to Jewish settlers, voted by 11 to two to recognise the college of higher education at the Ariel settlement as a university.
Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who heads the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party, in a statement welcomed the decision, saying it would "allow the reinforcement of settlements" in the West Bank.
His party had made such a change in status a condition of his joining Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition, the statement recalled.
But Israel's Council for Higher Education, which regulates the seven universities in the Jewish state, opposed the move, calling it "political."
Professor Amos Altshuler, head of the "Council for Higher Education in Judea and Samaria," told public radio: "The law obliges us to ask the advice of the Council for Higher Education, but we are not obliged to follow it."
Two ministers in Netanyahu's rightwing Likud party -- Gideon Saar (education) and Yuval Steinitz (finance) -- had expressed their support for the move.
But leftists, Arab Israelis and several universities oppose it, citing the risk of an international boycott targeting other Israeli universities.
Israel has faced several academic boycotts over its continued occupation of the West Bank.
Set up in 1982 as an annex to Bar Ilan University, Ariel has 21,000 students in four faculties (medicine, engineering, natural sciences and social sciences) and also has at its disposal architecture and telecommunications facilities.
On January 20, 2010, Defence Minister Ehud Barak decided to push ahead with plans to transform the Ariel college into a university after a decision to do so that was initially taken five years previously had been frozen.
Full recognition as a university would entitle the Ariel facility to significant additional funding and the ability to grant advanced degrees.