Ministers approve bill to apply Israel law to settlement-based academic institutions

An Israeli ministerial committee has approved a bill that would see the application of Israeli law to academic institutions located in illegal West Bank settlements, reported Haaretz.

The draft legislation would see the annulment of the “Council for Higher Education in Judea and Samaria”, and “institutions of higher education in West Bank settlements would fall under the auspices of the existing Council for Higher Education in Israel”.

The bill was sponsored by MKs Shuli Moalem-Refaeli (Jewish Home) and Yakov Margi (Shas) and will now go forward to the Knesset with the government’s backing.

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According to Haaretz, the Council “was established in the 1990s as a way of circumventing legal obstacles concerning the accreditation of Ariel University.”

As well as Ariel University, based in the northern West Bank settlement of the same name, the law will also apply to Orot College in Elkana and Herzog College in the Etzion settlement “bloc”.

“I welcome the decision of the Ministerial Committee and call on Knesset members who support strengthening the quality of Israeli academia to support this law,” said MK Moalem-Refaeli.