Israel’s education minister, Naftali Bennett, announced plans to open the Jewish state’s first Arab general academic college, The Jerusalem Post reported on Monday.

Israel’s Council for Higher Education (CHE), which is headed by Bennett, is set to approve the proposal for the establishment of a state-funded college in northern Israel. The CHE will either collaborate with an existing university to open a campus in an Arab town, or fund the expansion of one of the two existing higher-education institutions in the Arab sector, which are dedicated to training teachers, into a general college.

“For the first time in the history of the State of Israel, we will establish a general academic college in an Arab town. This is historic for the Arab sector and it’s historic for the State of Israel,” Education Minister and CHE head Naftali Bennett said at the opening of the Bayit Yehudi faction meeting on Monday. …

“We continue to work on behalf of all the citizens of Israel – Jews and Arabs as one. There is no doubt that the Arab public lacks the academic framework to meet the demand and to promote equality in Israeli society,” Bennett said.

The college will to help Israel’s Arab minority further integrate into the workforce by training students in fields that are sought by employers. It will also give Arab-Israelis the opportunity to attend college near home, as opposed to Hebron or in Arab countries. Bennett said that this will have the positive effect of not exposing the Israeli students to radicalization.

[Photo: Nati Shohat / FLASH90 ]