Comptroller considers investigating Ariel College
West Bank college declared itself a ‘university’ without Education Ministry’s authorization. ‘This method of operation – of trying to establish facts on the ground - is akin to the establishment of illegal outposts,’ MK Pines-Paz tells comptroller
In a letter addressed to the comptroller, Knesset Member Ophir Pines-Paz said “this method of operation – of trying to establish facts on the ground - is akin to the establishment of illegal outposts (in the West Bank). They are ignoring the law.
“The prime minister shamefully rushed to congratulate the college, despite Education Minister Yuli Tamir’s objection,” Pines-Paz wrote. “This is not the first time Ehud Olmert favors cheap political considerations over backing the authorized bodies in cases where criminals take the law into their own hands.”
'Probe will help to refute false statements'
A few weeks ago the college announced that it had obtained all the permits necessary to become a university, relying on a government decision from 2005 to turn the college into a university as part of the attempt to strengthen settlement blocs in Samaria.
However, Tamir and head of the Council for Higher Education Prof Shlomo Grossman informed the college officials that their statement stands in contradiction to the Planning and Budgeting Committee's decisions and to the opinion of the commander of IDF forces in the West Bank.
Chairman of the Ariel College directorate Yigal Orgad responded by saying, “I’m very happy that the state comptroller will investigate the conversion of the college into a university center, starting with the government’s decision and the procedures that came before it, as well as the happenings during the past two years since the government’s decision.
“It will help to refute public opinion and frivolous and false statements that there was something flawed or illegal about the process. This process has passed an inspection by a committee comprised of four Israel Prize laureates, three of whom are members of the Academy of Science, who inspected the college’s data for over a year before making their recommendations,” he said.
