With the recent UN report on Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the expanded invasion of Gaza City, and the renewal of campus activism at UCD, we are publishing a letter written to UCD President Orla Feely expressing our opposition to continued UCD partnerships with complicit Israeli universities such as Technion. We renew our call for UCD management to engage with the democratic demands of students and staff, as well as fulfil its obligations to protect human rights and end its complicity in Israeli state violence. We repeat our demands that UCD end its current partnerships with Israeli universities, commit to refusing any future such partnerships, and to join efforts that seek to exclude Israeli universities from European funding initiatives. We support those protesting against the university’s ongoing complicity.
The following letter was sent to UCD President on September 12th 2025.
Dear President Feely,
We write to express our renewed dismay at the growing number of partnerships between UCD and complicit Israeli universities during the ongoing genocide in Gaza. In particular, we have already communicated our concerns regarding the CATALOOP consortium, which includes the Technion and Ben-Gurion University. More recently, we have been made aware of the INT2ACT MSCA Doctoral Network, which also partners with the Technion. We made clear in our prior letter that universities, and especially the Technion, are deeply embedded in the Israeli military apparatus and the normalisation of the illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, as made clear by a growing body of academic research. Given the growing global recognition of unspeakable war crimes being committed by the Israeli military in Gaza, the continued approval of partnerships with universities embedded in this military apparatus is unconscionable, and flies in the face of the university’s own stated commitments to human rights and outrage at the destruction of Palestine by Israel.
These aforementioned commitments also stated a willingness to engage with students and staff, as well as the wider university community in Ireland, in supporting a pathway forward to a more just and anti-oppressive higher education landscape. At this stage, nearly two years into what a growing chorus of human rights groups, governments, and academic experts are referring to as a genocide in Gaza, we hope that we don’t have to remind you that nearly all university infrastructure in Gaza has been destroyed. This scholasticide has impacted our colleagues and students’ ability to express their own academic rights and freedom, and with the Israeli cabinet committed to an expanded military occupation of Gaza, the situation does not look to be repaired anytime soon. It is UCD’s responsibility as Ireland’s Global University to speak out against this, and to take action to build a more just global higher education landscape wherever it can. Not only is UCD falling short in making active commitments, such as those expressed by Trinity College Dublin in their good faith, legally-informed decision to end partnerships with complicit Israeli institutions and work with other universities to advocate against their inclusion in future research funding frameworks until the state is held accountable. Far from actively engaging faculty raising these issues, UCD is actually contributing to the ongoing inability of Palestinians to rebuild and self-determine their own university and educational landscape by enriching the Israeli military industrial complex.
Beyond Trinity, UCD is lagging behind, and it should be made clear, its hostility towards students and staff advocating for the university’s commitments to human rights is risking damage to the university’s reputation, especially in light of the university’s history of aggressive monitoring and prosecution of student protest. Last year, when students and staff at DCU expressed concern over the GLOCTER doctoral consortium being led by the university which included Reichman University in Israel, the university, in a bare minimum action and engagement with its university community, demoted Reichman to a non-recruiting partner. This ensured that training and funding of policing and military counter-terrorism policies and forces in Israel would not be happening directly through Ireland. While the partner can and should have been removed entirely considering the risk of serious complicity in human rights abuses, this at the very least represents an attempt by the university to listen to students and colleagues and adhere to basic human rights commitments. UCD’s clear lack of willingness to engage with students and staff on these matters is troubling, and we support the rights of all members of UCD to continue to advocate for constructive change.
Our colleagues at UCD have been engaged over the past year in working groups formed as a result of UCD’s previous agreements to end the student encampment. As yet, it appears that no concrete actions have been taken publicly on new global partnerships policies or ambitions to rebuild Gaza’s university infrastructure. On the contrary, UCD has proudly announced two partnerships that continue to support genocide, apartheid, and occupation. We urge the university administration to change course and re-engage meaningfully with calls to boycott complicit Israeli institutions, and to re-commit to the principles of human rights that should inform all global universities.
Thus, on behalf of Academics for Palestine at the national level, we reiterate the four points from the earlier letter, signed by us, in tandem with local representatives from UCD BDS, UCD Justice for Palestine, and the UCD Students’ Union. These were abruptly and disappointingly dismissed by the President’s office, and we kindly ask you to consider them again, in good faith. We:
- Condemn University College Dublin’s decision to enter into partnerships with the Technion and Ben-Gurion University as indefensible in the context of Israel’s genocide, settler colonial apartheid, and occupation.
- Express our full support for UCD BDS and UCD SU’s critique of this latest project, and for any subsequent protests and solidarity actions undertaken by Palestine solidarity organisations on campus until the University fully withdraws and ceases its partnership with BGU and the Technion through CATALOOP and INT2ACT.
- Call for urgent interrogation of these partnerships and any other projects or partnerships with ties to Israeli institutions and industry and for the development of clear policy recommendations aimed at ending all complicity in Israeli apartheid, genocide, and occupation, as required by international law.
- Call for full transparency in University College Dublin’s decision-making, including good faith engagement with students, staff, and researchers. As such, we request the university as a matter of urgency to:
- Develop a human rights impact assessment tool and applying it to the partnerships with the BGU and Technion, detailing the grounds on which the projects were approved, as well as applying it to all other existing collaborations with Israeli institutions;
- Establish a mechanism for students, researchers, and staff to raise issues regarding University College Dublin’s existing partnerships, agreements, or investments that do not comply with its human rights commitments, allowing for the possibility of review and termination of such ties;
- Reverse its funding approval and fully withdraw from any partnership involving the Technion, Ben-Gurion University or any other institution complicit in serious breaches of international law. This commitment demands that University College Dublin fully divest from, cut existing ties, and not enter into any new partnerships, including research consortia, with Israeli institutions and all other complicit companies and institutions.
This is especially important given Israel’s recent escalation in the region, widely condemned by the international community including the European Union, whose president Ursula von der Leyen has just advocated repealing the EU-Israel free trade agreement in response. It is a reputational risk to continue engaging in unfettered research and exchange partnerships with Israel. Rather than wait for accountability, UCD and all other Irish HEIs should take it – now.
We remain available for any questions or engagements.
academicsforpalestine.org 