The Palestinian Foreign Ministry considered that “the recognition of the Ariel Settlement University and its annexation of Israeli universities is a flagrant violation of international law and resolutions of international legality.”

The ministry said in a statement that “this decision represents a blatant attack on the Palestinian people and their homeland, support for and legitimization of settlements, a flagrant violation of international law and relevant UNESCO resolutions, and a flagrant politicization of academic and educational institutions, which is a dangerous precedent that will strengthen and deepen the settlements. And this dealt a blow to the professionalism and honor of education and represented the official voluntary affiliation of members of the Committee of Presidents of Israeli Universities to Israeli systems that support occupation and settlement.”

She indicated that she “takes this decision very seriously and will follow it up with international higher education institutions and relevant organizations of the United Nations system, primarily UNESCO, and in cooperation and coordination with the Ministry of Higher Education. It will also require universities and various academic organizations to denounce the decision and put pressure on the committee of Israeli university presidents to immediately withdraw it and sanction it.”

The ministry condemned the official Israeli welcome to the decision and considered it “new evidence that the current government of Israel is a settler, settler, and hostile government to the world.”

The Committee of Israeli University Presidents decided to implement the decision of the previous Israeli government to recognize the university of the Ariel colony, located in Palestinian lands in the central West Bank near Salfit, and include it in the committee after the Committee of Israeli University Presidents for a long time rejected the government’s decision as political.