Science Minister Ophir Pines-Paz said Tuesday that if a decision to upgrade the Judea and Samaria College to a "university center" goes into effect, he will attempt to delay its implementation by holding discussions in the cabinet and the ministerial scientific committee.

Pines-Paz described the decision by the Council for Higher Education in Judea and Samaria (CHE-JS) to turn the college into a "university center" as "a kind of trick. This is blunt intervention by politics in the research and development considerations of the Israeli educational system."

The CHE-JS decision means that after five years, if the university abides by certain criteria set by the CHE-JS, it will be recognized as a full-fledged university.

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Requests by other colleges in Israel to receive recognition as universities have been turned down by the Israeli Council for Higher Education (CHE) on the grounds that there is no academic need for another university in the coming few years. The CHE-JS, however, is independent of the CHE.

Pines-Paz attacked the CHE-JS, saying that it was supposed to be a mere technical solution to the fact that the law governing the CHE in Israel is not valid in the territories. But the CHE-JS said the decision was completely in order, since a committee had been set up to examine the question, in accordance with legal procedure, and it made the recommendation.

Though the committee was approved by the deputy attorney general, it consisted of professors with rightist views.