GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The Knesset passed Feb. 12 a law applying the Israeli education law to academic institutions in West Bank settlements, which implies placing the institutions under Israeli sovereignty. The law's passage has angered Palestinians, considering it to be another Israeli step toward settlement annexation.

Haaretz reported the same day that what is known as the Ariel University law seeks to “bring the academic institutions in the territories under the aegis of the Council for Higher Education in Israel.” Previously, academic institutions in the West Bank settlements were placed under the auspices of a separate higher education council established in the 1990s.

According to Haaretz, “Figures in the academic world have warned that the law could hurt the status of Israeli academic institutions and expand the boycott against it by opponents of the settlements. The law might break agreements Israel has made with the European Union to maintain a separation between academic institutions over the pre-1967 border and those in Israel proper.”

Antoine Shalhat, the director of the Israeli Scene Unit at the Palestinian Forum for Israeli Studies (MADAR), told Al-Monitor, “Israel had previously set up a separate education council under the auspices of which academic institutions in settlements in the West Bank were placed. Said council was separate from the Israeli Council for Higher Education. This is because it feared an expanded international boycott of Israeli universities, as the settlements and institutions there are illegal under international law.”