AL QUDS, May 4: Israel’s decision to establish a university at a Jewish settlement deep inside the West Bank has sparked sharp criticism from Israeli academics, with many warning it will drain much-needed funds from existing universities and some even calling for a boycott. The cabinet voted on Monday to upgrade the status of the College of Judea and Samaria in Ariel, in a move Prime Minister Ariel Sharon made clear was aimed at strengthening the status of settlement blocs in occupied territory.

The response among Israel’s academic community has been one of unanimous concern. Shlomo Sand, a history lecturer at Tel Aviv University, slammed the move as a clear bid to entrench Israel’s position in occupied Palestinian territories.

“Ariel’s university must be considered an illegal outpost because it is located in occupied territory that has not been annexed to Israel,” he wrote in an editorial in the Haaretz daily.

It would also see the establishment of a higher education institute deep in the West Bank which would be closed to the majority population in the area — the Palestinians.

“The college welcomes Israeli students some of whom are from the Arab minority, but not the Palestinians because they are not allowed to enter the town,” a college spokesman told AFP.

“This university will not be for the Arab people — it won’t make the Palestinian people more liberated or educated,” Sand told AFP. “It is not a university that serves the people living around it, it does the opposite.” Most observers have no doubt the move was politically motivated in direct response to a decision by Britain’s largest lecturers’ union to blacklist two Israeli universities.—AFP