CBN News posted a story today about Ariel University. It is one of the success stories of Israeli-Arab relations, and has been boycotted by European governments and the U.S. State Department. Why?

The article explains:

The university’s home is Ariel, what some call a “West Bank settlement” in territory Palestinians want for a future state. It’s also part of the land promised to the Jewish people in the Bible as an eternal inheritance.

That has led to boycotts of the university by European governments and the U.S. State Department, Friedman said.

Oddly enough, despite the politics, the university represnets a model for co-existence. Some 15,000 Israeli Jewish and Arab students study here together in Hebrew — without a problem.

The article further explains:

Chancellor Yigal Cohen Orgad credits the university’s success to creating an informal atmosphere in which students see each other eye-to-eye.

He thanked God there are no conflicts at the university. 

“We passed in Israel two intifadas, this university,” Orgad said. “There was [not] one evening or one day of tension between Jews and Arabs that study here.”

Despite its cutting-edge research, pastoral setting, and quiet campus life, some in the international community see Ariel University as a controversial place.

“We don’t have problems with other universities and research institutes,” Orgad said. “We have real problems with many governments. First of all in Europe and part of the American government, i.e., the State Department, that tries to boycott us formally or informally.”

Why? “Because they think we don’t have the right as Jews to live here in Samaria,” Orgad told CBN News.

Practically speaking, the boycott makes it difficult to obtain grants and actually hinders things like helping neighboring Arab villages improve their quality of life.

It seems very obvious that the University has managed to make peace between the Israelis and the Arabs who study there. If there is peace there, the governments in Europe and America need to stop complaining.