Varsity backed

Defence Minister Ehud Barak has confirmed a government decision to officially recognise the status of the first Israeli university established in the occupied West Bank. Israel approved plans to upgrade the college in Ariel to a full-fledged university on September 9, although the move still needed the approval of the defence minister in charge of the occupied Palestinian territories. Barak’s approval came after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government advanced the building of thousands of new settlement homes in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, sparking widespread condemnation.