Academics for Palestine,
29 April 2024

Subject: Consultation Response on White Paper ‘On options for enhancing support for research and development involving technologies with dual-use potential’

To Whom It May Concern:
We write to provide feedback on the White Paper titled ‘On options for enhancing support for research and development involving technologies with dual-use potential’, at a time when Europe and the world face the urgent challenges of war, climate change, ecological collapse, global inequality and displacement.

As academics, we are uniquely positioned to shape the agenda of our research to address these challenges and to direct our efforts towards creating a better-shared existence. Allowing dual-use technology within research funding frameworks sits in direct opposition to these aims and is against the intentions of the UN Sustainable Development Goals which are stated as the core principles of EU funding programmes. Concurrently, beyond the devastating human cost of war the environmental cost of conflict places dual-use technologies in direct opposition to the intentions of the EU Green Deal and wider aims of responding to climate and ecological catastrophe. Instead, dual-use directs public funds towards war and perpetuates a cycle of conflict that undermines peace, human dignity, and environmental sustainability.

Our objection is compounded by the horror of the continued and merciless bombardment being committed by the Israeli state against the people of Gaza. Although the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) finding that there is a “plausible case of genocide” committed by Israel against the Palestinians in Gaza, and that Israel must “refrain from” acts of genocide under the Genocide Convention, these acts have been facilitated with the support of EU R&I funding under previous framework programmes. EU R&I funding has been used to support Israeli arms companies, including those complicit in human rights abuses and violations of international law such as Elbit Systems Ltd and Israel Aerospace Industries which have received funding for security research despite their involvement in the prolonged violent oppression of the Palestinian people. EU R&I funding has also been used to support UN-blacklisted companies that are involved in illegal Israeli settlement activity, such as Motorola Solutions Israel Ltd, as well as those having contracts with the Israeli Ministry of Defence that provide exclusive military communications systems for the Israeli military and its Intelligence Division.

These examples raise serious concerns about the ethical regulation of participation in dual-use research programmes and the accountability of Associated Countries. This highlights that the EU must tighten, rather than loosen, its control of R&I funding to prevent complicity in war crimes and to uphold the values that it espouses.

We therefore request that –

• the EU maintains its current prohibition of dual-use for R&I funding and adds stricter stipulations and enforcement mechanisms around what the funds can be used for. Specifically, it should not allow any R&I funds to be used by any organisation or academic institution cooperating with projects that will be used by militaries or by the weapons and arms industries.
  
  
• the EU protects academics from complicity in war crimes by aligning the current funding scheme with the aims and values of the EU, the EU should continue to prohibit dual-use research in current and future EU R&I funding framework programmes, increase and ring-fence funding for basic and applied research and innovation with exclusively civil applications and strengthen safeguards against R&I funding being misused by state or non-state actors to violate international humanitarian law.

Given the many global challenges we face, we urge the EU to prioritise peace, diplomacy, sustainability, and compliance with international law in its R&I funding.

Yours faithfully,

Academics for Palestine

Thurs 2 May, 6.30pm in TU Dublin, Aungier Street building

Deluge is the first major collection on the current Gaza war, edited by Jamie Stern-Weiner of Oxford University and published by OR Books. This event is a public conversation featuring Stern-Weiner; one of its contributors, Clare Daly MEP; and Harry Browne of Academics for Palestine.

Copies of the book will be on sale at the event. Refreshments will be served after the meeting.

The event is supported by the Left Group (GUE/NGL) in the European Parliament, the Teachers Union of Ireland Dublin Colleges Branch, and Academics for Palestine. All are welcome.

To sign this letter, complete the form here.

To: Micheál Martin, Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs

Dear Minister Martin,

We write as academics and scholars in or from Ireland, to seek action in relation to the arrest by Israel on April 18th of our esteemed colleague, Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian of Hebrew University.

This comes after a campaign by her own university’s senior officials, who in October attacked her in a public statement for signing a letter alleging that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, and then suspended her in March. On both those occasions, international colleagues came to her defence, and her suspension has been revoked.

Now that she has been arrested and interrogated about her research, it is not only her career that is at risk, but her personal liberty – in an intolerable attack on her rights as an academic and a human being.

Although a judge has ordered her release on bail, the Israeli state has indicated its intention to press ahead: it seems clear the police and state repression of Prof. Shalhoub-Kevorkian will continue, and they will try to bring spurious ‘incitement’ charges against her. 

Since the Irish Government has insisted on maintaining all diplomatic channels with its Israeli counterparts despite the extent of Israel’s atrocities in Gaza, now is the time to use them to convey the horror and dismay of this country at the latest escalation of Israel’s crackdown on dissident voices and academic freedom, and to demand the Israeli state does not pursue any further investigation, charges or appeal in her case.

Prof. Shalhoub-Kevorkian is a distinguished feminist legal scholar who also holds the Global Chair in Law at Queen Mary University in London, and is well known and highly respected in Irish academic circles. She has visited this country several times, giving lectures and seminars in Trinity College Dublin among other institutions. She is a leader in her field, and we have been impressed with the depth and breadth of her scholarship; we find it astonishing that she has become the butt of a hate-campaign instigated by her own university, and now taken up by the police.

Prof. Shalhoub-Kevorkian has already been caused immense harm, and has been placed in imminent danger of violence from various actors inside and outside the Israeli state. We demand that you, on behalf of the Irish people, speak up for her safety, her protection, and her fundamental rights.

Sincerely,

Dr John Reynolds, Maynooth University
Dr Conor McCarthy, Maynooth University
Dr Patrick Bresnihan, Maynooth University
Dr James Beirne, Maynooth University
Dr Sharae Deckard, University College Dublin
Dr Patrick Brodie, University College Dublin
Dr Kathy Glavanis, University College Cork (retired)
Professor Cathal Seoighe, University of Galway
Dr Elaine Toomey, University of Galway
Dr Paola Rivetti, Dublin City University
Dr Catherine Palmer, Munster Technological University
Dr Brendan Ciarán Browne, Trinity College Dublin
Dr Harry Browne, Technological University Dublin
Jim Roche, Technological University Dublin
Tom O’Dea, National College of Art and Design
Zoë Lawlor, University of Limerick
Dr Shadi Karazi
Dr Maria Barry, DCU
Dr Yvonne Crotty
Dr John Murray
Dr Caitríona Ní Cassaithe
Niall Sheil
Dearbhla Ní Chúláin, University of Galway
Prof Stewart Smyth, UCC
Dr Adrian Howlett, Trinity College Dublin
Dr Coonor Crummey, Maynooth University, School of Law and Criminology
Assistant Professor Lisa Walshe, University of Galway
Dr Rory Rowan, Trinity College Dublin
Dr Catherine Ann Cullen
Dr Paul Nancarrow, American University of Sharjah
Dr Fintan Sheerin, Trinity College Dublin
Dr Stephen O’Neill, Trinity College Dublin
Ailbhe Smyth (retired), UCD
Professor Eugenia Siapera
Dr Matt Prout, University College Dublin
Dr Theresa O’Keefe, University College Cork
Dr Verena Commins, Ollscoil na Gaillimhe
Dr Brian Kelly
Dr Liam Thornton, Associate Professor, School of Law, University College Dublin
Tomás Mulcahy TUS
Dr Mary McAuliffe, University College Dublin
Dr. Barry Cannon, Maynooth University
Prof Dónal Hassett, Maynooth
Dr. Audrey Bryan
Dr Mary-Kate Arthurs University of Liverpool
Dr Niall Meehan Griffith College
Shane Reynolds, University of Limerick
Dr Ghaiath Hussein
Professor Emeritus John Pinkerton, Queen’s University Belfast
Dr. Féilim Ó hAdhmaill
Judy Walsh, University College Dublin
Dr Brian Vaughan
Dr Kate McCarthy SETU
Barry Finnegan, Griffith College, Dublin
Dr Mike Murphy, University College Cork
Dr John Cunningham, Associate Professor in History, University of Galway
Prof Padraig McAuliffe
Alyssa Chua, Maynooth University
Associate Professor Emeritus, University College Dublin
Lionel Pilkington, Professor Emeritus of English, University of Galwayh
Dr Niall Vallely, UCC
Maggie Ronayne, Lecturer in Archaeology, University of Galway
Dr. Des O’Rawe
Dr. Cóilín Parsons, Georgetown University
Dr Orlaith Darling
Clare Ryan, University of Limerick
Begoña Sangrador-Vegas, University of Galway
Áine Levis Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh
Irene King ATU Sligo
Prof Laurence Cox, Maynooth
Professor anne campbell
Dr Gwen Moore
Dr Sarah Brazil, University of Geneva
Prof Jane Horgan Dcu (retired)
Professor Saoirse Nic Gabhainn, University of Galway
Prof Michelle Farrell, University of Liverpool
Dr Elaine Toomey, University of Galway
Dr Eileen Culloty, Dublin City University
Dr Máire Ní Mhórdha, Maynooth University
Dr. Mikael Fernstrom, UL (emeritus)
Prof Colette Kelly
Dr Cian Ó Concubhair, School of Law & Criminology Maynooth University
Prof John O’Flynn, Dublin City University
Dr. Mary Rambaran-Olm, Independent scholar
Mahmoud Hamash
Dr Rhiannon Bandiera, Lecturer/Assistant Professor in Criminology and Co-Director of the Research Centre in International Justice, School of Law and Criminology, Maynooth University, Ireland
Dr Amina Adanan
Dr Elaine McLaughlin, St Mary’s University College, Belfast
Dr Rita Sakr, Maynooth University
Dr. Brian Hanley
Dr Tom Delahunty, Maynooth University
Dr. Patrick Anthony, University College Dublin
Audrey Halpin, Dublin City University
Dr Anne Mulhall, Associate Professor, University College Dublin
Prof Cahal McLaughlin, Queens University Belfast
Robin Steve, UCD
Donal O’Kelly Maynooth University
David Murphy, MTU
Dr Caroline Jagoe, Trinity College Dublin
Assist Prof Jeremy Auerbach, Geography, University College Dublin
Dr. Majella Mulkeen
Dr Susan McDonnell, ATU Sligo
Dr Elena Vaughan, Research Fellow, University of Galway
Dr Chandana Mathur, Maynooth University
Dr Rachel Robinson, University of Galway
Dr Róisín Ní Ghallóglaigh
Dr. Paul O’ Neill , University College Dublin
Professor Mathias Urban, Desmond Chair of Early Childhood Education, Dublin City University
Ms. Edel Sullivan
Ronit Lentin
Niamh Ní Bhriain, Transnational Institute (TNI), Amsterdam
Seamus Scanlon
Dr. Ellen Reynor
Professor Colin Harvey, Queen’s University Belfast
Douglas Carson, Design Fellow, School of Architecture, UCD
Dr Deirdre Byrne
Mr Thomas Donnelly
Dr Barbara O’Toole
Dr Harun Šiljak, Trinity College Dublin
Miriam Delaney, TU Dublin
Dr Bernie Grummell, Maynooth University
Dr David Landy, Trinity College Dublin
Dr Tony King NUI
Dr. Liz Mc Loughlin, DCU
Clare Kelly, Associate Professor, Trinity College Dublin
Andrew Finlay
Jenny Roche, University of Galway
Dr Brónach Gollogly (TU Dublin)
Dr Sean Aldrich O’Rourke
Dr Emer Purcell, National University of Ireland
Dr Maurice Coakley, Griffith College Dublin (retired)
Dr Sinéad Kennedy, Maynooth University
Emeritus Professor Jim Campbell, University College Dublin
Keelin Barry, PhD Candidate, Irish Centre for Human Rights, University of Galway
Dr Claire Raissian, UCC
Neal Halforty, Queen’s University Belfast
Professor Karen Till, Maynooth University
Mel Swords, Trinity College Dublin
Eamonn Crudden, Lecturer, Dundalk Institute of Technology
Prof Siobhán Wills, Transitional Justice Institute, Ulster University
Dr Alicia Castillo Villanueva, Dublin City University
Dr Niamh Gaynor
Dr James Carr, Dept. of Sociology, University of Limerick
Tom O’Connor
Dr Seán Marlow
Dr Camilla Fitzsimons
Dr Brian O’Boyle Atlantic Technological University Sligo
Dr. Catherine Palmer Munster Technological University
Dr Deirdre Kelly, TU Dublin
Dr Illan Wall
Garrett Greene, UCD
Daithí Ó Madáin Léachtóir le Gaeilge Fheidhmeach
Dr Annie Ó Breacháin, Dublin City University
Prof Derek G Doherty, Trinity College Dublin
Dr Stephen Lucek, University College Dublin
Dr Claudia Saba, Ramon Llull University
Dr Jacqui O’Riordan, University College Cork
Associate Professor Regina Murphy, DCU
Dr Denise Lyons
Dr Meg Ryan, Trinity College Dublin
Dr Tony Fitzgerald
Dr Jamie Gorman, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia
Dr Natasha Remoundou, University College Dublin
Peter Tansey UCD
Dr Mercedes Carbayo Abengozar, Maynooth University
Gerry Arthurs, South East Technological University
Dr Robbie Smyth, Griffith College
Dr. Niall Hanlon
Dr Michael Pierse, Queen’s University Belfast
Dr Rosie R Meade
Dr Denis Condon, Maynooth University
Kevin Hearty, QUB
Rebecca Vining
Dr Michael G Cronin (Maynooth University)
Dr Ellen Howley, Dublin City University
Dr Úna Kealy, South East Technological University
Mary Hurley School of Applied Social Studies University College Cork
Dr Joe Usher
Niamh Rooney, Maynooth University
Danny Denton
Conor Lawlor, ATU Sligo
David Peyton – TU Dublin
Niall Whelehan, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow
Dr David Kennedy, Dublin City University
Dr Tom Campbell, Maynooth University
Dr David Hughes, UCD
Merlo Kelly, University College Dublin
Dr. Karin White ATU Sligo
Dr Angela Flynn
Oona Frawley, Maynooth University
Dr Rebecca Usherwood, Trinity College Dublin
Rowan Oberman, Dublin City University
Dr Jenny Bortoluzzi, Trinity College Dublin
Dr Iain Atack, Trinity College Dublin
dr renee malone
Louise Sarsfield Collins, Maynooth University
Donal Lally
Greg Timony, UCD Year 2 History and Politics
Mike FitzGibbon, UCC emeritus
University College Cork (Retired)
Maria Murray, Munster Technological University
Ciara Gavin, University College Cork
Dr Kate Falconer, University College Cork
Dr. Gene Carolan, TU Dublin
Rory O’Sullivan – Trinity College Dublin
Professor Máiréad Enright
Anne Ralph, Munster Technological University
Dr Carrie Griffin, University of Limerick
Romeo Fraccari, University College Dublin
Dr Andrew Darley
Dr Alice Panepinto, Queen’s University Belfast
Claire F. O’Reilly Trinity College Dublin
Eoghan Horgan
Grace Mairéad Walsh, Swinburne University (AUS)
Dr. Amanda Feery
Daragh Fitzgerald Griffith College
Ciarán Hartley, Dublin City University
Dr Tim Groenland, University College Dublin
Dr Conall Mallory, Queen’s University Belfast
Dr Tina O’Toole, University of Limerick
V’cenza Cirefice, University of Galway
Lisa Doyle, Trinity College Dublin
Dr Ruth Fletcher, Queen Mary University of London
Anna Pringle, DCU
Dr Dean Phelan, University College Dublin
Criostóir King, Maynooth University
Cathal Keane, Trinity College Dublin
Prof Brian Dillon, Queen Mary University of London
Dr Áine Travers, Dublin City University
Dr Roisin McMackin, Trinity College Dublin
Dr Liam Chambers, Mary Immaculate College, Limerick

Prof Ardi Imseis, Queen’s University, Canada, speaks at 1pm on Friday 26^th April in Aras na Laoi (Law School Building) ALG_30, University College Cork

The UN has long-claimed that it is the standard-bearer of international law in the world. To what extent does this hold true when it comes to the UN’s management of the question of Palestine? Join us to discuss Ardi Imseis’s new book, The United Nations and the Question of Palestine, in which he explores the UN’s management of the longest-running problem on its agenda, critically assessing tensions between the Organization’s position and international law.

A joint event of the School of Law UCC and Academics for Palestine.

In March 2024, Academics for Palestine and a large number of Irish students’ unions wrote to the executives of higher education institutions – other than the University of Galway, which had already issued a strong statement and commitment to reviewing relationships with Israeli institutions. Our letter, published below, prompted several replies but no further meaningful statements or actions.

Dear President          ,

We write on behalf of Academics for Palestine, a group of academics of diverse backgrounds in or from Ireland who are committed to justice in Palestine, as well as the numerous student union bodies across the country listed below. In our advocacy on Palestine, we are committed to opposing racism in all its forms including Islamophobia and antisemitism. We work to support Palestinian students, academics, scholarship and institutions of higher education, and to support the Palestinian call for boycott and divestment from Israeli institutions that are complicit in Israel’s military occupation and colonisation of Palestinian territory. As you may know, all of the leading Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights organisations from Al-Haq to B’tselem and Human Rights Watch to Amnesty International are consistent in their analysis that Israel’s long-standing oppression of the Palestinians amounts to an illegal apartheid regime.

You will also be aware that thousands of university staff and students and affiliate campus groups across the country have written to various authorities in their respective higher education institutions over recent months asking them to take more meaningful positions and action in response to Israel’s war on Gaza. We are respectfully urging all HEIs collectively and individually at this point to take a strong and principled position on the situation in Palestine, as was done in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

We are sure we do not need to rehearse the details of all of the atrocities perpetrated by the Israeli military in Gaza over the past 5 months. You will have seen the scale of the death, destruction and unbearable human suffering inflicted every day on Gaza and its people. Palestinians have been killed at a higher rate than any other modern conflict, and even more so when it comes to the number of children killed. In the words of the UN Secretary-General, Israel has turned Gaza into ‘a graveyard for children’.

In our own field of higher education, every university campus in Gaza has now been partially or totally destroyed by Israel’s bombardment from the air and controlled demolitions from the ground. The extent of this destruction and the devastating number of university professors, scholars and students killed has led to experts and UN officials describing this element of Israel’s onslaught as ‘scholasticide’ or ‘educide’.

Almost the entire population of Gaza has now been displaced and is at imminent risk of enforced starvation and famine. As the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food has written: “To put things into a global perspective, Gazans now make up 80% of all people facing famine or catastrophic hunger worldwide. Since the Second World War, we have never seen an entire civilian population made to go hungry this completely and quickly”. The Special Rapporteur has concluded that Israel is intentionally starving Palestinians to death as a mode of genocide.

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and dozens of other UN experts have also repeatedly described the situation in Gaza since October as an unfolding genocide. The order issued by the International Court of Justice in January judged that it is plausible that the Israeli state is perpetrating genocide. The ICJ ordered Israel to immediately cease and desist from doing so, and to prevent any further acts of genocide by its military in Gaza. Israel has only escalated its violations since then.

All states have a legal responsibility to prevent genocide when it is occurring or at risk of occurring. After the ICJ order was issued, leading genocide and Holocaust studies scholar Raz Segal wrote: “With the ICJ ruling that Israel’s attack on Gaza is plausibly genocidal, every university, company and state around the world will now need to consider very carefully its engagement with Israel and its institutions. Such ties may now constitute complicity with genocide”.

Palestine is a defining moral issue of our time. Universities are public institutions that play a leading role in society and public life. This comes with ethical and intellectual duties to pursue truth and knowledge and to stand, speak and act for justice and freedom. At the absolute minimum, this means ensuring that our universities are in no way complicit or associated with apartheid and genocide. Universities around the world, from Norway to California, have actively begun to cut ties with Israeli institutions and divest from complicit companies. This trend will only continue to spread, as it did in the global campaign against apartheid in South Africa. And as was the case with the anti-apartheid movement, because of Ireland’s own particular history and understanding of colonial oppression, the Irish state, public institutions, trade unions and civil society can and must play a distinct and leading role in this regard.

The University of Galway has commendably committed to “review our university’s relationship with Israeli institutions”. This is the minimum first step that every institution of higher education should be taking with a view to immediately conducting such a review and enacting measures to suspend all ties with Israeli institutions and any other complicit organisations, companies, suppliers and investments. We are respectfully now asking you and all Irish HEIs to individually and collectively commit, as a matter of urgency, to suspending all such ties with Israeli and complicit institutions. As universities and institutions of education, this is both the very least and the most concrete thing we can do towards ending the systematic oppression and elimination of the Palestinian people.

Many thanks and we look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Academics for Palestine
Comhaltas na Mac Léinn Ollscoil na Gaillimhe, University of Galway Students’ Union
DCU Students’ Union
Maynooth Students’ Union
NCAD Students’ Union
TCD Students’ Union
TU Dublin Students’ Union
UCD Students’ Union
UL Postgraduate Students’ Union

Academics for Palestine is supporting the national day of action organised by university staff and students on campuses across the island on 17 April 2024. We endorse the demands being made as part of this initiative on all third-level institutions, on the Department of Further Education, Research, Innovation & Science and the Higher Education Authority in the south, and on the Department of the Economy in the north. This includes urgent calls for a review of all ties with Israeli universities, cultural institutions and the Israeli industrial sector, as well as for divestment from any holdings in companies associated with arms manufacture and for the implementation of a sector-wide BDS policy to boycott and divest from companies involved in violations of Palestinian rights. The day of action also includes calls for material support to be given by Irish institutions to Palestinian scholars, students and universities.

In February 2024, the University of Galway commendably committed to “review our university’s relationship with Israeli institutions”. This is the minimum first step that every institution of higher education should be taking with a view to immediately conducting such a review and enacting measures to suspend all ties with Israeli institutions and any other complicit organisations, companies, suppliers and investments. As universities and institutions of education, this is both the very least and the most concrete thing we can do towards ending the systematic oppression and extermination of the Palestinian people.

We recall that in early November 2023, a letter from more than 600 scholars to The Irish Times (subsequently rising to almost 1,000 signatures on the Academics for Palestine website) had condemned the Israeli state’s onslaught in Gaza which was already clearly showing itself to be genocidal at that point. This letter included “a call on all universities in Ireland to immediately sever any existing institutional partnerships or affiliations with Israeli institutions”.

The order issued by the International Court of Justice in January 2024 judged that it is indeed plausible that the Israeli state is perpetrating genocide. The ICJ ordered Israel to immediately cease and desist from doing so, and to prevent any further acts of genocide by its military in Gaza.  All states have a legal responsibility to prevent genocide when it is occurring or at risk of occurring. After the ICJ order was issued, leading genocide and Holocaust studies scholar Raz Segal wrote: “With the ICJ ruling that Israel’s attack on Gaza is plausibly genocidal, every university, company and state around the world will now need to consider very carefully its engagement with Israel and its institutions. Such ties may now constitute complicity with genocide”.

In early March 2024, Academics for Palestine and a range of students’ union groups wrote to the heads of the other 21 higher education institutions (HEIs) across Ireland, north and south, respectfully now asking them to individually and collectively commit, as a matter of urgency, to suspending all such ties with Israeli and complicit institutions. To date, we have received responses from only two institutions, which have mirrored some previous university management statements and internal communiques in their inadequacy – hiding behind contrived positions of “neutrality”, misleadingly invoking academic freedom as grounds for inaction, and avoiding the substance of our request. To be clear, it is not legally or morally defensible to be “neutral” on the matter of genocide or systematic war crimes and violations of international humanitarian law.

Prior and in parallel to this request from Academics of Palestine, over recent months thousands of university staff and students and affiliate campus groups across the country have written to various authorities in their respective higher education institutions asking them to take more meaningful positions and action in response to Israel’s war on Gaza. We continue to respectfully urge all HEIs collectively and individually to take a strong and principled position on the situation in Palestine, as was done in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

We do not need to rehearse the details of all the atrocities perpetrated by the Israeli military in Gaza over the past 6 months. The scale of the death, destruction and unbearable human suffering inflicted every day on Gaza and its people are unprecedented in too many ways. Palestinians have been killed at a higher rate than any other modern conflict, and even more so when it comes to the number of children killed. In the words of the UN Secretary-General, Israel has turned Gaza into ‘a graveyard for children’.

In our own field of higher education, every university campus in Gaza has now been partially or totally destroyed by Israel’s bombardment from the air and controlled demolitions from the ground. The extent of this destruction and the devastating number of university professors, scholars and students killed has led to experts and UN officials describing this element of Israel’s onslaught as ‘scholasticide’ or ‘educide’.

Since the ICJ’s original order in January, as well as the UN Security Council ceasefire resolution and the additional measures ordered by the ICJ in March 2023, Israel has only continued its direct violence and massacres, as well as escalating its measures designed to force Palestinians into starvation. Almost the entire population of Gaza has now been displaced and is at risk of enforced starvation and famine. As the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food has put it, “since the Second World War, we have never seen an entire civilian population made to go hungry this completely and quickly”. The Special Rapporteur concluded that Israel has been intentionally starving Palestinians to death as a mode of genocide.

Palestine is a defining moral issue of our time. Universities are public institutions that play a leading role in society and public life. This comes with ethical and intellectual duties to pursue truth and knowledge and to stand, speak and act for justice and freedom. At the absolute minimum, this means ensuring that our universities are in no way complicit or associated with apartheid and genocide. Universities around the world, from Norway to California, have actively begun to cut ties with Israeli institutions and divest from complicit companies. This trend will only continue to spread, as it did in the global campaign against apartheid in South Africa. And as was the case with the anti-apartheid movement, because of Ireland’s own particular history and understanding of colonial oppression, the Irish state, public institutions, trade unions and civil society can and must play a distinct and leading role in this regard.

Academics for Palestine and Irish Lawyers for Palestine, in association with Academia for Palestine TCD and the MPhil in Race, Ethnicity and Conflict in Trinity College Dublin, are hosting this important public lecture by Ardi Imseis on ‘Palestine at the UN and the ICJ: Challenging Injustice’.

In the context of Israel’s genocidal attacks on Gaza and the various efforts to challenge it at the International Court of  Justice (ICJ) and the UN Security Council and General Assembly, the work of Ardi Imseis and his new book on The United Nations and the Question of Palestine could not be more urgent and timely.

Please join us: 6pm, Thursday 25 April, Robert Emmet Theatre, Arts Block, Trinity College Dublin,
All welcome.

Dr. Ardi Imseis is Assistant Professor of Law, Faculty of Law, Queen’s University. He is author of The United Nations and the Question of Palestine (Cambridge University Press, 2023). Dr. Imseis is a member of the Palestinian legal team in the current ICJ advisory opinion proceedings. Between 2002 and 2014, he served in senior legal and policy capacities with the UN in the Middle East (UNRWA & UNHCR). He is a former Member of the Group of Eminent International and Regional Experts on Yemen, a UN Human Rights Council commission of inquiry mandated to investigate violations of international human rights and humanitarian law in the war in Yemen. He has provided expert testimony in his personal capacity before various high-level bodies, including the UN Security Council.

The United Nations and the Question of Palestine

Based on primary archival materials and Ardi Imseis’s first-hand experience as a UN Official in Palestine for over a decade, his book on The United Nations and the Question of Palestine aims to provide a critical international legal perspective on why and how the question of Palestine remains a festering wound on the conscience of the international community. Read more about the book here.