Bennett Announces First Arab College in Israel

Education Minister and Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett on Monday announced his intention to establish the first Arab college in Israel, Arutz Sheva reported.

“For the first time in the annals of the state of Israel we are establishing a general academic college in an Arab town,” Bennett told a Jewish Home faction meeting. “This is history for the Arab sector and this is history for the state of Israel.”

He said that the higher education council which he heads approved on Sunday an initiative to draft a budget for such a college.

Although a right-wing politician who has urged tougher policies against Hamas and other terrorists, Bennett explains that there is no conflict between national security and providing educational opportunties to Israel’s Arab population.

Bennett said last November that “99.9% of Arab citizens are loyal to the state of Israel.”

However, as Arutz Sheva noted, “that estimation was thrown into doubt by a poll just days after it was made, which found that roughly a third of Israeli Arabs supported the terror wave that was taking place at the time, blaming Israel for it.”

Nevertheless, Bennett said on Monday that “there is no reason and it isn’t right to send young Arabs to study in Chevron or in Arab states. Sometimes this creates radicalism and the right thing is for Israelis to learn in Israel. This is good for them as individuals and good for the entire Israeli society.”