J Street expresses profound concern over yesterday’s recommendation by the Judea and Samaria Council for Higher Education to upgrade the status of Ariel College to a university.
Tellingly, the presidents of all seven of Israel’s universities oppose such a move and have expressed concern that it would “seriously harm and fragment Israeli higher education.” So, too, did Israel’s Council for Higher Education, which objected to setting up a university in a West Bank settlement and refused to oversee such a move.
The effort to upgrade the college’s status is not about enhancing Israeli education. It is but the latest in a spate of efforts by pro-settlement forces, most notably the Levy Committee, to put an end to chances for a two-state solution.
J Street opposes this and other efforts that jeopardize Israel’s Jewish and democratic future.
We call on Israel Defense Forces’ central commander in the West Bank, Maj.-Gen. Nitzan Alon, to reject the Council’s recommendation, and to side instead with those Israelis – like the heads of all the other Universities in Israel – who recognize that Israel’s future rests on achieving a two–state solution.