March 14, 2013

TEL AVIV (JTA) – Students from Ariel University have not been invited to a speech President Obama will give in Jerusalem.

The speech, set to take place at the Jerusalem Convention Center next Thursday, on the second day of Obama’s visit to Israel, will be open to some Israeli students. But the exclusion of students from the university in Ariel, a settlement deep in the West Bank, has led some to accuse Obama of boycotting the university – which is Israel’s newest.

An official at the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv told JTA, however, that only students from academic institutions with partnerships or joint programs with the embassy were invited to the speech. The official would not comment on whether other institutions fell in the same category.

Ariel, a settlement with 20,000 residents in the northern West Bank, has historically been a sticking point in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Israel hopes to keep the settlement in the event of a final-status agreement, while the Palestinian Authority would like to see it evacuated. The decision to grant Ariel University full university status in July 2012, was internationally criticized.

Israel has seven universities and a myriad of private colleges.

Students at Ariel expressed dismay at their exclusion from the speech.

“We were pretty shocked about the discrimination and the way in which they are giving up on a university in Israel,” said Ariel University Student Union head Shay Shahaf, according to Ynet News.

Ynet News reported that unless the decision is changed, Shahaf and other Ariel students planned to protest outside the speech,

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