The head of the Weizmann Institute has announced, in a meeting of university heads, that the institute he heads will boycott the Ariel University Center if it gets full university status. Researchers from the Weizmann center will not cooperate with those in Ariel, he said.

A committee is expected to recommend next week that the school in Ariel get full university status. The possibility has been controversial on the political left due to Ariel’s location in Samaria (Shomron) east of the 1948 armistice line.