In the ongoing genocide against Palestinians, educational institutions are being especially targeted. Universities in Gaza have been levelled, those in the West Bank are under siege. Hundreds of academics – college students and lecturers – have been killed. Palestinian academic bodies have asked for meaningful solidarity from their international colleagues against this destruction of Palestinian higher education. In this context, the December 14 statement by the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) circulated among its membership, and titled “IFUT Statement on the Middle East” is grossly insufficient. It fails to even mention the genocide nor does it offer any concrete actions that Irish academics can take in solidarity with our colleagues in Palestine.

Trinity College Dublin’s Chapter of Academics For Palestine finds the wording and the spirit of this statement inappropriate, ahistorical, and decontextualised. It fails to address the situation in Palestine, the higher education context of it, or to recognise the position of IFUT’s membership on it.

The crux of IFUT’s statement is a call for ceasefire, but there is no way for the reader of the statement to understand what sort of a conflict is happening in Palestine. Shockingly, the statement fails to mention Palestine even once. Instead, IFUT Executive speaks of “parties to the conflict” and “the cycle of violence”, painting a forced two-sided image of the genocidal aggression.

In its statement, IFUT refers to the two organisations it is affiliated with: Education International (EI) and Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU). In choosing lines to quote from the statements these organisations made in October and November, IFUT Executive fails to bring in any context or any factual background those statements contained. Namely, EI dedicated a large portion of its statement (https://www.ei-ie.org/en/item/28161:education-international-calls-for-urgent-humanitarian-ceasefire-in-gaza) to the attacks on educational institutions and population of Gaza; the ICTU statement (https://www.ictu.ie/news/statement-israel-gaza-violence) gave a condensed frame of reference of the situation in Palestine since 1967. IFUT’s statement pulled quotes from these statements that were devoid of facts, at best read as cliché, and at worst run contrary to the spirit of the quoted statements.

The ICTU statement prominently featured ICTU’s long-lasting support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) initiative, and once again urged the affiliated unions (including IFUT) to act upon it. IFUT’s statement makes no reference to BDS. Not only does this run against policy positions of ICTU and spirit of solidarity, but it blatantly ignores the position of Irish academics who overwhelmingly supported the academic boycott of Israel. 3 The letter in the Irish Times (https://academicsforpalestine.org/2023/11/04/letter-to-irish-newspapers-2-november-2023/), signed by over 600 academics (the number is now almost 1000, including about 90 from Trinity College), shows the mass support for the boycott and was published more than two weeks before IFUT’s Executive meeting. It is highly unlikely that the Executive was unaware of it. Members of IFUT have been reaching out to their college branches throughout October and November asking about the status of IFUT’s efforts on BDS, and asking for union action. IFUT’s line on “respectful discourse on divisive issues” suggests that not only is the Executive aware of the overwhelming support for the boycott among the union’s members, but is rejecting it, without consulting its members. In reading this line, we refer again to the attacks on higher education in Palestine and Israel – the destruction of universities in Gaza, the attacks on those in the West Bank and the systemised repression Palestinians experience in Israeli universities. In this context, a line such as “respectful discourse on divisive issues”, could only be written with an eye closed to the Palestinian experience.

Academics in Ireland can show meaningful solidarity. Academics for Palestine continue with the initiative to sever existing institutional partnerships and affiliations with Israeli institutions. Those ties should be suspended until the occupation of Palestinian territory is ended, the Palestinian rights to equality and self-determination are vindicated, and the right of Palestinian refugees to return is facilitated. Anything less at this point amounts to tacit support for crimes against humanity.