Dublin – Ireland has made moves to become the first European Union country to ban trade with Israeli-occupied territories, while its prestigious university Trinity College has cut all ties with Israel. Its long-held continuing support for the Palestinian people has roots in the country's own history – and these latest measures have crystallised tensions with Israel.
Ireland's prestigious Trinity College Dublin said on Wednesday, 4 June that it would cut all ties with Israel in protest at "ongoing violations of international and humanitarian law" – the first first Western university to make such a move.
The university's board informed students by email that it had accepted the recommendations of a taskforce to sever "institutional links with the State of Israel, Israeli universities and companies headquartered in Israel".
The recommendations would be "enacted for the duration of the ongoing violations of international and humanitarian law," said the email, sent by the board's chairman Paul Farrell and seen by French news agency AFP.
The taskforce was set up after part of the university's campus in central Dublin was blockaded by students for five days last year in protest at Israel's actions in Gaza.
US slams sanctions by UK, allies on far-right Israeli ministers
Jenny Maguire, president of Trinity's student union, told RFI's Dublin correspondent Clémence Pénard: "Last year, the university threatened to fine the union €250,000 for our protests. But today, we are gathered here, in a better Trinity, a Trinity free of apartheid."
Among the taskforce's recommendations approved by the board were pledges to divest "from all companies headquartered in Israel" and to "enter into no future supply contracts with Israeli firms" and "no new commercial relationships with Israeli entities".
The university also said that it would "enter into no further mobility agreements with Israeli universities".
Trinity has current Erasmus+ exchange agreements with two Israeli universities: one with Bar Ilan University, which ends in July 2026, and one with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which ends in July 2025, the university told AFP.
The board said that the university "should seek to align itself with like-minded universities and bodies in an effort to influence EU policy concerning Israel's participation in such collaborations".
Eoghan, a student at the university, said: "Not so long ago, under British colonisation, we too experienced oppression that we recognise in what the Palestinian people are suffering. In Ireland, we cannot remain silent in the face of this. Maybe others can, but not us. And we will make sure that our voices are heard."
French dockers refuse to load cargo of machine gun parts bound for Israel
Import ban
In the previous week, on 27 May, the Irish government introduced a bill to ban the import of goods from Israeli settlements considered illegal under international law – an unprecedented move for a European Union member.
The bill would affect only a handful of products – including oranges, dates and olives – and is largely a symbolic measure, but one that would make Ireland the first European country to restrict trade with Israeli settlements.
The move comes after the International Court of Justice last year said Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip was illegal under international law – an advisory opinion which the Irish government said guided its decision.
"The government has agreed to advance legislation prohibiting trade in goods with illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory. It is the government's view that this is an obligation under international law," a foreign ministry spokesperson told AFP.
Foreign Minister Simon Harris told reporters he hoped other EU countries would follow Ireland's lead.
Palestinian leader pledges 'unprecedented' reforms ahead of Paris conference
Scars of colonisation
Ireland has long been at the forefront of the fight for Palestinian rights. The country has often compared its own past, marked by British colonisation, to that of the Palestinian people. The sense of a shared history with Palestine is widespread, and there is a political consensus across all Irish political parties to defend the rights of the Palestinian people.
As far back as 1980, Ireland affirmed its support for the principle of a Palestinian State and last May, alongside Spain and Norway, it officially recognised the State of Palestine.
For many, this formal recognition was an essential first step towards a two-state solution. Some even hope that the island of Ireland, split in two between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, which remains part of the United Kingdom, could serve as a model for peace in the Middle East.
Ireland has been among the most outspoken critics of Israel's response to the 7 October, 2023 attacks on southern Israel by Hamas militants, which sparked the war in Gaza. Polls since the start of the war have consistently shown overwhelming pro-Palestinian sympathy in Ireland.
French left demonstrates in support of Gaza-bound aid boat
Ireland has also joined South Africa in bringing a case before the International Court of Justice in The Hague accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza – charges angrily denied by Israeli leaders.
In December, Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar ordered the closure of the country's embassy in Dublin, citing what he called Ireland's "extreme anti-Israel policies".
The Irish President, Michael D. Higgins, has been described as anti-Semitic by Israeli officials. He responded: "When the government of Israel resorts to such a defamatory insult, it undermines and devalues the very meaning of anti-Semitism."
(With AFP, and partially adapted from this article and this article by RFI's French service)
