The below letter, signed by over 370 staff members at Trinity College Dublin, was delivered to the Provost of TCD, Linda Doyle, last Thursday, March 7th. The letter asks TCD to end its silence and professed neutrality on Gaza, to condemn the attack on Gaza, support students from the region and cut links with Israeli institutions. It comes after a report in the online investigative journal, The Ditch, on February 24th that revealed that Trinity maintains investments in three Israeli companies blacklisted by the UN Human Rights Commission for their activities in illegal settlements. The letter is still open for TCD staff members to sign and can be found here: https://forms.gle/v37m8C3H5cGuwPxi8

March 7 2024

Dear Provost,
We write to you as staff and postgraduates of Trinity College Dublin, alongside members of the College branch of Academia for Palestine whose letter to you, dated 13th December 2023, expressed serious concern regarding the ongoing genocide in Gaza and received no response. As the months pass, the lack of any engagement or statement on the part of College leadership has grown increasingly troubling. It has fallen to individuals and groups, such as Prof Colin Doherty in the School of Medicine, the Trinity Students Union, and Academia for Palestine, to raise their voices against the horror that is unfolding. In light of the recent statement issued by the President of University of Galway, we urge you to respond to our concerns publicly and to assure the College community that Trinity opposes this genocide and will take meaningful action accordingly.

Over the past months we have watched an escalating crisis across the Middle East, one that has spiralled out of control. Over 27,000 Palestinian civilians have been murdered in Gaza (UNICEF; 2024) with increases in escalations in the West Bank by the Israeli military. The situation is past the point of crisis, with the Israeli state having committed numerous war crimes which international legal experts have argued amounts to genocide. Further, the plausibility of genocide was recognised by the International Court of Justice in its ruling on 26th January. The level of destruction and slaughter has reached a level that is truly apocalyptic, with the humanitarian situation deteriorating by the day, massacre succeeding massacre, both in Gaza and the West Bank. Even if a ceasefire happens, the system of permanent violence and oppression through which Israel rules Palestinians, in which the silence of academia plays a crucial role, will continue.

Some courageous Israeli citizens and academics have spoken out about the injustice of their state’s actions but have experienced repression. Those individuals and institutions supporting the ongoing war are, however, being met with approval by significant sectors of social and political relevance. This includes institutions of higher education and is of particular concern to us in consideration of the ongoing ties that Trinity College has with such institutions, as documented by Trinity News here. We share the student community’s abhorrence that these ties are maintained despite Israeli actions in Gaza. These relationships help maintain the legitimacy of the Israeli state’s actions and make our College community complicit in their crimes. The College’s refusal to engage with staff and students who have requested a review of these relationships not only denies us the right to participate in decisions that fundamentally shape College’s place in the world, but it also fails to reflect the values of open discussion, transparency and participation that are key to Trinity College and the very idea of a university.

Attacks on universities are, unfortunately, not new in Gaza, but since 7th October, all Universities in the area have been partially or completely destroyed, with Al-Isra University, the last standing university, being blown up by Israeli forces on January 18th. At least 94 academics have been killed. In her intervention before the ICJ, Irish lawyer Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh highlighted that by mid-January, a significant number of students had been killed and almost 9,000 university students had been unable to continue their studies. Amongst these are many healthcare students, critically required in the context of the overwhelming healthcare needs of the population. Driven by values of caring, justice, dignity, and humanistic engagement, some of these have died whilst trying to assist others. The targeted destruction of the Palestinian third level education system should be of particular concern to Trinity College given the renewal of a five-year Memorandum of Understanding signed in May 2023 between Trinity College Dublin’s School of Religion, Theology, and Peace Studies and Al Quds University’s Human Rights Clinic.

Cultural heritage has been subjected to similar destruction. In their most recent assessment, UNESCO have verified damage to at least 22 protected sites in Gaza over the past four months, in contravention of international law. Likewise, a preliminary report from Librarians and Archivists with Palestine have compiled evidence for Israeli forces damaging, looting, and destroying 23 libraries, archives, and museums, whilst many places of worship have also been obliterated. These losses impoverish not only the Palestinian people but the world.

Educide has other non-physical manifestations too and may be witnessed in repression of free speech for both students and academics; this, the Trinity Academia for Palestine group noted in its previous letter, has been reported on Israeli campuses. In this context, College’s refusal to engage with staff who have raised justifiable concerns is particularly worrying and runs contrary to the principles and processes of academic practice.

Trinity College Dublin is Ireland’s leading university; one which seeks to inspire people to be global citizens and global leaders. This is embodied in the Strategy 2020-25 which commits to ethical leadership in all we do. The College is directed to ‘courageously’ advance the cause of a just society. You Provost, in your speech of 6th October 2022, a year and a day before the current violence began, stated, ‘I want Trinity to be a GOOD university, where everything we do is built around respect, fairness, sustainability, democracy, diversity and other core values’. In the context of our Strategy’s commitments, a ‘good university’ is one that actively does good, particularly when oppression and injustice is happening on a scale and at a pace not witnessed in very many decades. That Trinity has reportedly no position on the conflict is, we consider, the antithesis of what the College has committed to. It is time to be that ‘Good University’ and courageously lead on our values.

We are aware that academic boycotts are serious matters, only to be undertaken in the gravest of circumstances, such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine that prompted an EU-wide boycott of Russian academia, which Trinity College rightly supported. The situation in Palestine is as grave, if not worse, given the scale and speed of destruction, and Israel’s absolute disregard for human rights. The University of Galway is the first University in Ireland to make an official statement condemning Israel’s campaign of destruction in Gaza and publicly committing to practical measures such as reviewing “the university’s relationship with Israeli institutions” and to “supporting all our Israeli and Palestinian students and staff.”

In light of this, we request that Trinity College move away from its policy of silence and release a statement that engages with and is in line with the demands of staff and students. In particular, we urge the University to issue a statement that:

(1) condemns the destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure, including its educational and healthcare systems

(2) condemns the deliberate attacks against Palestinians, including academics and healthcare workers

(3) joins other institutions, including University of Galway, in their demand for an immediate ceasefire

(4) supports the safety and well-being of all individuals affected by the current conflict, students and faculty alike, within Trinity

(5) recognises the ICJ’s interim ruling of there being a “plausible case for genocide”

(6) commits to reviewing Trinity’s ties with Israeli institutions and organisations and eliminates any potential complicity in genocidal actions, support for genocide, or incitement to genocide

(7) engages with the College community, including Academia for Palestine, in keeping with the academic value of constructive discourse, recognising the vast amount of expertise by research and experience that exists within the community.

We sign below in our personal capacity as staff and postgraduates of the College, and members of Academia for Palestine. We remain optimistic of receiving your response and will welcome your engagement with this community.

Regards

Dr Rebecca Usherwood

Elizabeth O’Shaughnessy

Dr Fintan Sheerin

Dr Meg Ryan

Dr Harun Šiljak

Dr Eman Abboud

Mandy Lee

Tooba Nadeem Akhtar

Dr Caroline Jagoe

Nicole Maiorano

Dr David Landy

Dr Doireann Wallace

Azza Warraitch

Dr Stephen O’Neill

Sorcha Mellon

Rafael Mendes

Sophie McGurk

Marcelo Henrique Barbosa de Oliveira

Alexandra Day

Lisa Doyle

Morgiane Salomé Noël

Dr Mia Pancotti

Enda Russell

Rory O’Sullivan

Emily Cunniffe

Mariana P. Silva

Sindre Brattegard

Daragh King

Amy O’Keeffe

Callum Craig

Rodolfo Pezzi

Conor Maguire

Maria Ferreira Monteiro

Huayu Yang

Salam Jabbour

Aaron Moore

Lena Kadri

Jovan Jeromela

Andrew Breen

Kathryn Ammon

Lamia Tadjine

Kelly Donegan

Katie Marquand

Haya Alnajar

Dominic Guilding

Dr Bronagh Catibusic

Dr Caitlin White

Gabriel Coleman

Alannah Smyth

Dr Charlie Kerrigan

Claudia Peroni

Shauna Donohoe

Diogo Ferreira

Alina Qaisar

Alex O’Neill

Tom Farnan

Isabel Milano

Elizabeth MacBride

Lilian McCarthy

Ellen Orchard

Lamya Al Shuhaimi

Alex Polkey

Seathrún (Jeffrey) Sardina

Áine Coogan

Professor Pablo Gracia

Rebecca Maher

Shifana Niyas

Conor Reddy

Dr Brendan Ciarán Browne

Soraya Afzali

Áine Travers Dineen

Tamrin Holloway

Dr Aisling Robinson

Dr Dean McDonnell

Anna Devlin

Dr Richard Millwood

Dr Michael Gormley

Dr Lorraine Swords

Dr Ghaiath Hussein

Rana Alamri

Dr Kristin Hadfield

Dr Yekaterina Chzhen

Marina Schenkel

Mel Swords

Amy Taggart

Dr Anne Holohan

Dr Elizabeth Nixon

Eve Doran

Anna Attwood

Lily Rice

Louisa Roos

Alejandro Criado

Dr Jennifer O’Meara

Dr Jake Byrne

Míde Griffin

Dr Cian O’Callaghan

Tommy Gavin

Cai Pengpeng

Elaine Uí Dhonnchadha

Maria Dimitropoulou

Charles Zemp

Dr Fiona McDermott

Andrew Finlay

Eoin O’Neill

Breffni O’Rourke

Sinead Kelly

Dr Yvonne Lynch

Dr Ciarán Kenny

Méabh Bonham Corcoran

Aoife Ryan

Maeve Moran

Dr Rachel Hoare

Sarah Quinn

Mohannad Saleh Ramadan

Oscar Mooney

Dr Margaret Lawler

Danielle Murphy

Prof Jerome Fennell

Claire F. O’Reilly

Qusai Khraisha

Dr Fionnuala Conway

Alastair Daly

Dr Muhammad Imran Khan

Helen Thornbury

Dr Philomena Mullen

Tereza Mytakou

Mnemosyne Rice

Denis O’Brien

Dr Nollaig Bourke

Sinéad Wallace

Professor Nathan Hill

Professor Eve Patten

Iseult Jackson

Dr Paul Delaney

Shaakya Anand-Vembar

Dr John Bosco Conama

Dr Seán Hewitt

Dr Angela Hickey

Dr David Ralph

Prof Eleanor Molloy

Stephen Leonard

Dr Deirdre Nic Chárthaigh

Dr Ellen Walsh

Imogen Eve

Minu Masliha

Daniel Araya-Ríos

Shalaleh Karkon

Maureen Burgess

Dr Rory Rowan

Dr Ronit Lentin

Dr Barbara Bradby

Dr Emer McGowan

Dr Erika Piazzoli

Paul O Connor

Fiona McIntyre

Lorraine McEvoy

Tania Bosqui

Angela Mazzocco

Dr Kevin Tierney

Dr Conor Kostick

Dr Philip Lawton

Jack Ferguson

Dr John Connolly

Míde Power

Adrienne DeVore Merriman

Ali McDonnell

Dr Andrew Malone

Fiona Clarke

Dr Katharine Schulmann

Annabel Walsh

Orla Sheridan

Dr Martin Sokol

Professor Anna Davies

Professor Ahuvia Kahane

Keith Brennan

Rongzhen Xue

Noel Phelan

Frank O’Rourke

Oscar James

Kimberly Herlihy

Gráinne Curistan

Professor Agnes Higgins

Michael Nash

Tamara Pullen-Byrne

Jonathan Cosgrove

Dr Deirdre Foley

Síomha Walsh García David

Lizzie Downes

Dr Colm OBoyle

Dr Kathleen Harkin

Jessica Hilliard

Dr Charlotte Myers

Shauna Rose Raeside

Dr Mary Mooney

Ciara Sullivan

Dr Brian Hanley

Mariana Villegas Triay

Samantha Williams

Winifred Ryan

Honghui Zhu

Rebecca Lawlor

Joanne Lynch

Daniel Mc Cormick

Eva Muhlhause

Dr Breiffni Fitzgerald

Mark Anderson

John Squires

Dr Roderick Condon

Dr Susannah Ashton

Dr Órla Fitzpatrick

Dr Elizabeth O’Donnell

Oisín Murray

Dr Michelle Share

Nerea Rodriguez

Dr Claire McKenna

Dr Camilla Devitt

Professor Isabel Rozas

Cáit Murphy

Dr John Dinsmore

Eric Swartz

Dr Nathan O’Donnell

Eimear Farrell

Jakob Summerer

Almudena Moreno Borrallo

Irene Barbotti

Madeline Regan

Bláithín Rawson

AnneMarie Farrell

Dr Carlos Medina

Olajuwon Dele

Kevin Brennan

Patrick Manning

Bashaer Alsharif

Lee Brian Anderson

Dr Mohammed Ali Selo

Oscar Kelly

Dr Nadhim Hante ALShiblawi

Aleksandra Krajewska

Julian Carolan

Abdulbaset Alazhare

Alexa Ennis

Professor David Grayson

Munirah Ghariani

Shannan Quigley

Lua Henderson

Mayssoun Allahim

Rob O’Meara

Claire Poynton-Smith

Lucy Fitzsimmons

Julie Mason

Eppie Ní Dhiarmada

Warren Farrell

Giovanna Goncalves

Eleanor Cripwell

Carita Bramhill

Gustav Parker Hibbett

Dr Maria J Santos-Martinez

Dr Evan Keane

Judy Bolger

Teona Banu

Erin Sterling

Amrutha a Puthuruvalappil Unnikrishnan

Charlotte Buckley

Dr Clare Kelly

Mark Keegan

Alessandro Summer

Sarah Browne

Dr Adrian Howlett

Kire Yanevski

Elizabeth Culleton-Quinn

Dr Sharon O’Donnell

Dr Isil Coklar Okutkan

Dr Eleanor Hollywood

Gavin Dann

Stephanie Corrigan

Dr Jenny Bortoluzzi

Dr Mel Cousins

Katie Sweeney

Dr David Mitchell

Patricia González Bermúdez

Dr Andrew Gibson

Midori Yajima

Luke Quill

Maria Kelly

Stephan Hügel

Dr Kate Antosik-Parsons

Richard Whyte

Dr Norah Campbell

Sadhbh Crean

Sarah McCormack

Ashleigh Gorman

Eduardo Ruiz Hernandez

Fabio Boylan

Ceola Daly

Professor Helen Sheridan

Dr Niamh O’Boyle

Joseph O’Shea

Eamonn Cooper

Anjali Dominic

Dr David Finlay

Dr Lean Ni Chleirigh

Martin Murphy

Dr James Canavan

Mark Travers

Audrey Carroll

Ann Hannan

Noel McGinley

Alison Boyce

Graham Tucker

Maurice Sweeney

Neil Reilly

Aaron Sullivan

Ronan Healy

Alan Kelly

Mark Kavanagh

Lorraine O’Neill

Elaine Tracey

Christopher Smith

Diarmuid Collins

Philomena McAteer

Cathal O’Connor

Lisa Gilroy

Cieran Perry

Paschal O’Connor

Gerard Kirwan

Peter Brien

Brian Talbot

Dr Gary Hessman

Dr Cicely Roche

Dr Martin McMahon

Dr Patrick Walsh

Olivia Frehill

Dr Karin O’Sullivan

Dr Rory Connolly

Dr Cian McMahon

Dr Angela Gissi

Dr Catherine Conlon

Oliviero Gobbo

Dr Frances O’Brien

Mark Linnane

Dennis McNulty

Dr Tamasine Grimes

Ralph Armstrong-Astley

Elaine Noone

Martina Ni Chochlain

Timothy Savage

Raquel Dowie

Myriam Roche

Caitríona Ní Fhaoláin

Elaine Denehan

Jean Kingston

Piaras Walsh

Holly Pickering

Nouf Abushehab

Kieva Leslie

Dr Robert O’Keeffe

Iseult Ní Chonchúir

Sorcha Grisewood

John Wynne

John Flynn

Mark Peters

Dr Beyza Yaman

Maryam Yabo

Dr Kasia Wodniak

Shauna Kindillon

Dr Camilla Kelly

Orlaith Tunney

Dr Aaron Hunter

Alfredo Ormazabal

Joshua Hovsha

Claire McNamara

Declan McKibben

Dr Lucy Hederman

Dr Lucy McKenna

Dr Kiefer Ramberg