Israel’s Council for Higher Education last week approved the upgrading of the status of the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, making it the first ever privately-run university in Israel, writes Lior Dattel for Haaretz.

Virtually all other Israeli universities are critical of the move, which comes at the end of a years’ long bid by the Herzliya-based institution. The Council for Higher Education previously came under fire from other universities when it green-lighted an expansion of Ariel University campus into the West Bank earlier this year. In Ariel, a new medicine faculty was added to the campus and named after conservative American billionaire Sheldon Adelson, a long-time backer of the right in Israel, who donated to Ariel University and to the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya.