Defense Minister Ehud Barak went on the defensive against Knesset Members in his own party Monday, after some of them criticized his decision to upgrade the status of Judea and Samaria College in Ariel to a university center.
“Ariel is one of the four settlement blocs that, according to the Labor party's position, will stay inside Israel's territory in any permanent accord,” he said at the weekly Labor faction meeting. “The change in Ariel College's status to that of a University Center does not affect the college's legal standing one bit,” Barak assured his colleagues.
"Following the inaccurate reports about the university's supposed new status, which was accompanied by irresponsible statements by Israeli public officials, the impression was created that Israel has created a university in the territories [Judea and Samaria],” Barak said.
"The change in Ariel College's status into a University Center is part of the coalition agreements that we must uphold,” he told his colleagues in the Labor party. “And yet, the change in the name, to a 'university center,' does not give it university status – not even in budgetary terms.”
Barak did not mention the fact that the institution is due to be reviewed in two years, and at that time will be upgraded to full university status, if things go as planned.
Yechimovich Lauds Honesty
MK Shelly Yechimovich, for a change, defended Barak. “11,000 students study at this university, and the vast majority of them do not reside in the territories,” she noted during the course of the meeting. “In addition, there are many Arab students who study there. I think there is much honesty in the decision [to approve the upgrade in status] and it is quite reasonable.”
Barak's decision to sign, as Defense Minister, the papers that upgrade the institution's status drew much fire from the left-wing. Meretz party chief MK Chaim Oron called it a sign of Barak's “ideological and moral bankruptcy” and said it would “hasten the trends of isolating Israel and its academic world in the international community.”