Earlier this morning, protestors with Trinity College Dublin Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (TCD BDS) gathered outside the Trinity Business School demanding a complete and total divestment by the university from Israel. This preceded a vote by the Board of Directors on the recommendations and findings of the Israeli Divestment Taskforce which was established last year following encampment success by protestors last May.
All recommendations relating Colleges ties to Israel set out by the Israeli Divestment Taskforce were approved for a full economic and academic boycott from all Israeli institutions and companies headquartered in Israel.
Speakers at the protest included: TCDSU president Jenny Maguire, assistant professor and Academics for Palestine member Dr. Rory Rowan, TCD BDS Chair Harry Johnston, former BDS member and Postgraduate negotiator Conor Reddy, and TDs Donna McGettigan, Paul Murphy, and Sinéad Gibney. Endorsers of the action included multiple student societies from Trinity and other Irish universities, People Before Profit (PBP), the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC), Academics for Palestine and various trade unions.
In a statement to Trinity News following the vote, Johnston praised the victory saying how “this is a massive step forward in ending TCD complicity in the ongoing occupation, apartheid, and genocide.”
“This victory shows us that people-powered movements achieve real results and change. Trinity has reversed a wrong, now we will ensure Trinity takes action in creating a positive impact beyond its legal obligations.”
TCDSU President Jenny Maguire also expressed great pride and gratitude in the results of today’s vote and the actions organised both today and in the past commenting, “thank you to everyone who has raised a sign, threw down a tent and demanded a better world.”
“This historic win must be a catalyst for change across this island. We must enact the Occupied Territories Bill. We must stop the selling of Israeli bonds. We must keep the pressure on until Palestine is free.”
A joint press release issued by Maguire and Johnston prior to the action called for numbers at the protest this morning as Trinity College voted on Israeli divestment stating that “the recommendations have been finalised and endorsed by all pro-Palestine Trades Unions in Trinity.”
“Last year when the Encampment Agreement was signed, Trinity committed to divest from Israel. Trinity has waited until after the academic year to make its final decision, a move drenched in fear of the power of mass movement,” they said, arguing that College made the intentional decision to hold the vote following the end of the school year when students would be returning home for the summer.
“The board must agree to end all ties, we are complicit in genocide, occupation and ethnic cleansing if they do not. The union has worked closely with the college to this point, and it demands it follows through,” the press statement by Maguire and Johnston continued.
“If the Trinity’s Board of Directors agrees to the taskforce recommendations, it could make the Trinity encampment one of the most successful in the world. Now is the time to not water down, but escalate as Palestinians are starved and murdered everyday. This protest is to make sure our complicity ends.”
Despite concerns expressed in regards to the turnout for today’s action, the protest received sizable support from the community. In a statement to Trinity News, Maguire commended the turnout stating, “in the middle of the summer, students, staff and the public returned in large numbers to campus united.”
Maguire went on to say how “the protest does not intend to disrupt the board or its members, but to remind us all of our shared responsibility to create and maintain a fair and equal society.”
“This fight is long, and it will not be done until Palestine is free and liberation is achieved for all. However, in a world dictated by profit and greed, the accepting of truth and justice as our guiding principles this university brings us closer to it.”
Maguire commended previous actions noting how today’s vote “was spawned by the power of thousands of people from across Ireland and beyond joining together, whether online or in Fellow’s Square, to demand Trinity end its complicity in Israel’s genocide on the Palestinian people.”
“It is because of mass organising and protest that we are where we are today – and so we have called for one last push.”
In a statement to Trinity News prior to the action, Johnston separately commented on the protest and work by the Taskforce. “BDS, TCDSU and all other representative bodies, which have a pro-BDS mandate, have endorsed the recommendations of the Divestment Taskforce”, adding that due to their confidentiality agreement, he could not disclose the “extra recommendations”.
“This protest is a culmination of the work of many people and groups over several years to build solidarity, force institutional change, and create an apartheid-free Trinity.”
Incoming SU President Seán Thim O’Leary echoed Johnston stating, “I think it is a moral imperative that College divests. I do think that the protest will put pressure on College to do so, and I am hopeful that all the hard work that has gotten us to this point will have paid off.”
Speaking to Trinity News ahead of the protest, People Before Profit (PBP) Councillor Conor Reddy, who was in attendance at this morning’s action and who was the Post Graduate negotiator with College during last May’s encampment, mentions the initial hopes of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), and the ‘rude awakening’ that would face them.
“We founded (SJP) in Trinity in 2014–15, believing, perhaps naively, that once the university was confronted with the reality of Israeli apartheid, it would act,” Reddy said.
“From the attempt to punish us for protesting the Israeli ambassador in 2016, it became clear how deep institutional complicity ran. I was the campaign manager for the SU BDS referendum in 2018, and when we won that vote, the university still refused to engage.”
“What’s changed since 2018 is the scale and determination of the movement,” Reddy continued, citing how a “vital lesson” has been learned about the power of collective action.
“But let’s be clear: this isn’t a final victory, there are no final victories, it’s a beginning, not an end,” Reddy said, assuring that actions for Palestine will not end with the passing of the Taskforce’s recommendations by the Board and how College must be held to its commitments.
The Taskforce on Israeli divestment was established and requested in an emergency meeting by the Board of Directors following the five night encampment by TCD BDS and TCDSU in Fellow’s Square and the signing of the Encampment Agreement last May. The Taskforce received recommendations from members of the college community, international experts, and was chaired by the former president of the High Court, Mary Irvine. The over 90 page documents contained recommendations and research in relation to current Israeli partnerships College holds and the total divestment from such.
Trinity was one of the first universities to agree to full divestment demands and the passing of today’s vote on the Taskforce’s recommendations marks a historical moment internationally in Israeli divestment.
