A second third level student encampment in support of Palestine has been established this evening, this time on the grounds of University College Dublin (UCD).
In an initiative being led by the UCD Students' Union and its BDS group, around 50 students have this evening pitched tents beside a lake in the centre of the south Dublin campus.
They told RTÉ News that the encampment is in protest at UCD’s refusal to address student concerns regarding Palestine, including its failure to call for a ceasefire, and that the action is "a necessary escalation to amplify their voices and demand accountability from college leadership".
UCD Students' Union president Martha Ní Riada said they were setting up the encampment "in solidarity with the people of Palestine".
"We want UCD to recognise that a genocide is happening and to divest and cut ties with Israeli institutions," she said.
The students have published a list of actions that they want from UCD.
They include the severing of academic and other links with Israeli institutions and companies, the cutting of ties with any companies involved in weapon or other military manufacturing, the establishment of scholarships for Palestinian students and pathways for Palestinian academics, and the removal of Israeli goods and supplier contracts from the campus.
The students are also demanding a public statement from UCD calling for "an end to the genocide of the Palestinian people by the settler state of Israel".
Some of the students at the encampment still have end of year exams to sit.
Third year Arts student Éabha Hughes has exams next Wednesday and Friday.
"A genocide is a lot more important than exams," she told RTÉ News.
"I can retake my exams, but people are losing their lives," she added.
The UCD encampment follows similar action taken by the Students’ Union at Trinity College.
A camp established there just over a week ago ended on Wednesday after Trinity College Dublin (TCD) made a public commitment to a range of measures including divesting from all investment in companies active in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and on a UN blacklist.
The UCD students said their action was part of a "global student-led initiative advocating for an end to the genocide of the Palestinian people".
"In solidarity with similar movements on campuses worldwide, UCD BDS and the Students’ Union view this as a necessary escalation to amplify their voices and demand accountability from college leadership," they said.
The group said the encampment would be "a peaceful expression of empathy and solidarity" and that "no ill will" was intended towards anyone, including students, staff, or management.
"UCD BDS and the Students’ Union are committed to implementing all necessary safety measures and precautions to ensure the well-being of participants and the entire UCD community. This includes full awareness of responsibilities and consideration for ongoing exams, assessments, and campus activities," they said.
"As students and staff within University College Dublin, we will no longer accept the morally inconsistent and continued feigned neutrality of the University in the face of an ongoing genocide," they added.
The students have said the encampment will continue until their demands are met.
RTÉ News has contacted UCD for comment.
Last November, in response to concerns raised by students the UCD President Professor Orla Feely said: "Were it to be our practice to take an institutional position on geopolitical matters, we would be inhibiting the freedom of members of our community to express their individual positions and suppressing our ability to sustain and respect a diversity of views."
