JERUSALEM, 3 May 2005 — The Israeli government sought yesterday to strengthen its hold on the West Bank by approving the establishment of the first university within a Jewish settlement, deep inside the occupied territory.
Thirteen ministers backed the proposal to upgrade the status of the College of Judea and Samaria in Ariel while seven voted against the proposal at the weekly Cabinet meeting, an Education Ministry spokeswoman said.
Ariel, which is home to around 17,000 settlers, lies some 20 kilometers to the east of the internationally recognized border between Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory.
“This is in keeping with government policy, which views strengthening the settlement blocs as being among its goals,” Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said at the meeting.
“Converting the college into a university is in keeping with government policy.” Although the immediate impact of the upgrade is largely symbolic, it was hailed by the mayor of Ariel as the successful culmination of a lengthy campaign.
“We have been working toward this decision for the last eight years. This is a very significant decision by the Israeli government,” Ron Nachman told AFP.
The mayor insisted he did not believe “that the college received this recognition for political purposes” but rather as a result of its research work.
The decision, however, is bound to have political ramifications, with the college being upgraded in an area where the Israeli government is obliged to freeze all construction work under the internationally-drafted road map peace plan.
Ariel is a particular sensitive area as it lies so deep inside the West Bank and the government has so far had to hold off on plans to bring the settlement inside the route of its controversial separation barrier in the territory.
Dror Etkes, a leader of the anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now, said the move was another sign of the government’s determination to create facts on the ground and thus make it harder for Israel to leave the area.
“This shows very clearly that the Sharon government is trying to do everything possible to annex the Ariel block,” he told AFP.
The upgrade follows the imposition last month of a British academic boycott of Bar Ilan university, close to Tel Aviv, over its involvement with the College of Judea and Samaria, although Education Ministry officials denied there was any connection with yesterday’s decision.
The Israeli government had initially responded to the boycott vote by the Association of University Teachers, Britain’s largest university teachers union, by denouncing it as a “biased and iniquitous decision”.
A spokeswoman for the Education Ministry said the change in status did not mean that the college in Ariel would receive any extra funding in the short-term.
“The minister will not ask for any more money for five years,” the spokeswoman said. “Everything will stay the same.” The decision to upgrade the Ariel institution, which educates more than 6,000 students, was taken at the same time that ministers agreed to combine a number of colleges in northern Israel to create a university in the Galilee region.
