Israeli Knesset has approved a bill which will extend the Israeli education law on academic institution based in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, Quds Press reported yesterday.

The “Ariel University Bill” was passed with 56 votes for and 36 against. It abolishes the Council for Higher Education in the West Bank and brings the academic institutions there under the wings of the Council for Higher Education in Israel.

The new law also allows for a medicine faculty to be opened at Ariel University located in the illegal settlement of Ariel.

Extremist right-wing Knesset member Shuli Moalem-Refaeli, who submitted the draft law, said: “This law allows Israel to apply its sovereignty over settlements.”

The Palestinian Authority (PA) official in charge of monitoring Israeli settlement in the West Bank, Ghassan Daghlas, said that the law “is an introduction to applying all Israeli laws in the illegal settlements in West Bank.”

He warned that this law would have “dangerous repercussions” on the occupied West Bank.

“The Israeli occupation took this measure due to the American support and the silence of the international community, which does not care about implementing the international resolutions related to [Israeli] settlement,” Daghlas told Quds Press.

Source: Quds Press International News Agency
Translated by: Middle East Monitor
In collaboration with the Palestinian Media Forum