UCC students set up encampment in university's quad over links with Israel
UCC BDS setting up camp on the quad at UCC, to force the university to divest links with Israel on Tuesday Picture: Eddie O'Hare
Students have set up an encampment in UCC in a bid to force the university to divest links with Israel.
Several tents were erected on the quad after 5pm on Tuesday. A spokesperson for the group, UCC BDS, said: “While we are waiting for UCC to act and engage in negotiations, we are seeing a catastrophic assault on Rafah.
“We believe that we cannot wait for UCC to equivocate over these demands in a lengthy negotiation process. The time for action is now and no later.”
It comes after Trinity students barricaded the Book of Kells to force the University to also cut ties with Israeli companies and institutions.
More than 100 students took part in the five-day protest which saw the college closing last week.
Trinity then announced that it would work with the students on the issues and the college reopened.
Students at UCC announced that they have launched UCC BDS following what they say is the “university’s unwillingness to meet the Students’ Union’s demands for full divestment from the ongoing genocide in Palestine".
The statement continued: “Following the lead of students in Dublin at TCD and UCD, UCC students launched an encampment on the quad at 5pm tonight."
The protesters set out their demands in an open letter to John O’Halloran, president of University College Cork.
Actions they want UCC to take include:
- No government politicians, officials or parties to be welcomed on campus or within its schools, research centres institutes, and DACs physically or online, until the Occupied Territories Bill is passed.
- Open the books and divest. Withdraw from the Horizon Europe project.
- Compile and release information on all private or university connections within the Tyndall National Institute, whether Israeli or otherwise, that are involved in Israeli occupation or settlement or the justification and normalisation thereof.
- Compile and release information on all companies involved in the research, development or manufacture of military equipment including so-called dual-use goods.
- Exclude all arms companies from recruiting from, and operating within, the university.
- Immediately set up a funded committee to deal with the students' concerns.
- Adopt BDS standards as university-wide policy, with nothing short of full divestment from Israeli companies and companies profiting from the occupation of Palestine.
- Offer university support to Palestinian students and academics to continue study and research here.
A spokesperson for UCC said: “As outlined last week, UCC is in an ongoing, direct, and constructive engagement with UCC Students’ Union on issues raised in our correspondence regarding the university’s position on the conflict in Gaza.
"The university is establishing a Palestine Emergency Response Working Group, involving SU representation, and we will continue to work with the students’ union on this and the other aspects of our response.
“The university is committed to developing an ethical, human rights-based framework, in line with the NUI Human Rights Principles and Code of Conduct and international standards.
"This will ensure that UCC’s academic, research, and business activity is in line with the university’s values. This framework — developed in partnership with the academic community including students — will inform a review of all of UCC’s current relationships, including research and industry partnerships.”
