JVP Statement on Ariel University Center

On July 17, 2012 Israeli government officials voted to recognize the Ariel University Center, the first Israeli university inside the West Bank.[1]  

The establishment of a university within the settlement of Ariel shows complete disregard for international law— under which Israeli settlements are considered illegal— and further highlights inequities caused by the Israeli occupation.  While Israeli citizens, including settlers, can attend classes, Palestinians living in the surrounding West Bank are barred from attending the new university.

In marked contrast, Palestinian students at Birzeit University and other institutions in the West Bank face numerous barriers to achieving their education, including checkpoints, road blocks, and other physical obstructions set up by Israeli soldiers. [2]  

Students living in Gaza are forbidden from attending schools in the West Bank and Jerusalem, where they could receive education in areas such as dentistry, medical engineering, and human rights- offerings not available at universities in Gaza. [3]  Additionally, Palestinians with Jerusalem residency rights who choose to travel abroad to study regularly return to find their rights to return to their home revoked.[4]

Professors and faculty, like their students, also face academic barriers. Without freedom of movement, it is difficult to access research materials and to communicate with other scholars.[5]

Jewish Voice for Peace supports the Israeli and Palestinian activists and more than 1,000 Israeli academics who opposed and fought the establishment of the Ariel University Center.[6] JVP supports divestment from and boycotts of companies that profit from Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem. This includes companies operating in or from occupied Palestinian territory, exploiting Palestinian labor and scarce environmental resources, providing materials or labor for settlements, or producing military or other equipment or materials used to violate human rights or to profit from the Occupation. Download our full statement on the Palestinian-led BDS movement: http://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/content/jvp-issues#1

[1] http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/ariel-academic-center-recognized-as-first-israeli-university-beyond-green-line-1.451782 and http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18879786 (accessed July 19, 2012)
[2] http://www.btselem.org/freedom_of_movement (accessed July 25, 2012)
[3] http://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-denies-palestinians-gaza-right-study-west-bank/11444 (accessed July 25, 2012)
[4] http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/palestinian-jerusalemites-go-work-abroad-and-get-residency-revoked-upon-return-1.297136 (accessed July 23, 2012)
[5] http://chronicle.com/article/In-Palestine-Occupational/125246/ (accessed July 19, 2012)
[6]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18879786