Students launched UCC BDS following the University’s response to meet the Students’ Union’s demands for full divestment from Palestine
In an open letter UCC BDS have said this
Dear John O’Halloran, President of University College Cork,
These demands come in the context of the horrific ground invasion of Rafah. More broadly they lie in the material context of Israel's historic and systematic destruction of Palestinian land, culture and lives. 280,000 displaced Palestinians, of which nearly half have fled Rafah since Friday the 10th of May, are at the mercy of Israeli airstrikes and ground forces, as well as the siege conditions leading to starvation and death due to the destruction of the healthcare system in Gaza. There is simply no more time to prevaricate on the nature of this crisis, or to simply release statements. We must immediately end Ireland’s complicity in the normalisation and realisation of the ongoing genocide.
There has been tremendous global solidarity ebbing from students, workers and beyond with the people of Palestine, and unwavering protest against the genocidal Israeli State. In Cork alone we have seen 32 weeks of continuous solidarity marches.
Across the world students have stood up to their universities to say no more! We condemn the inaction of the Irish government, and the active support of capitalist imperialist states with which they associate- America, Britain and EU member states to name a few. Cooperation with these states normalises militarism and acts as a precursor to the end of our neutrality. Ireland has acted in lockstep with these states, which can be best seen in the continued use of Shannon Airport as a de-facto US military base, enabling the flow of military aid to the Israeli occupation forces
As a wide group of students, we especially condemn the weak and uninvolved response from UCC. There have been numerous demonstrations from students and staff including a very publicised walk out being met with a complete failure on the university’s behalf to engage with us. In fact the university has actively silenced Palestinian students. There is no neutrality in the face of a genocide, this did not begin on October seventh. What we demand from UCC is meaningful action not just words.
Our demands share the framework put forward by the Students Union Executive, because we believe they have not been sufficiently met. They are as follows;
● We demand that UCC immediately releases a standalone statement that includes the following;
○ Addresses Israel’s historical and systematic destruction as a settler
colonial state of Palestinan culture, land, infrastructure and lives that has culminated in a genocide.
○ Focuses in particular on the deliberate destruction of educational institutions.
○ Demands an immediate and permanent ceasefire.
○ Calls for immediate unhindered access to aid.
○ Supports the right to return for all Palestinians to their homeland.
○ Demands meaningful material reparations for the Palestinian people.
○ Demands that all those within the Israeli State perpetrating genocide
face trial.
● We demand that UCC takes the following action;
○ The occupied Territories bill!- 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 until Israeli institutions and corporations are fully excluded from this initiative.
■ 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 such as Collins Aerospace from recruiting from, and from operating within the university.
■ Immediately set up a funded committee which includes a member of UCC BDS, a member of the UCCSU
Anti-Imperialist Committee, and a member of staff of our choosing that reviews university ties such as those detailed above, that are involved in perpetrating or profiting from war with the explicit aim of ending these ties as soon as possible.
■ Either drop associations with Club Travel or investigate and demand an end to the outsourcing that this company does with Israeli companies, and assess any other links to Israeli companies.
■ Adopt BDS standards as university-wide policy, with nothing short of full divestment from Israeli companies and companies profiting from the occupation of Palestine.
○ Support for Palestinians!!
■ Offer university support to Palestinian students academics to continue study and research here. Recognising that state funding for education has become hollowed-out and reliant on corporations that will sacrifice human life in the interest of maximising profit, we demand that UCC advocate for state support in this capacity as well. We want a commitment that provides the number of ongoing individuals it will support and the monetary value of this support.
■ Commit to funding research by Palestinians both within UCC and internationally, as well as research on Palestine both now and in the future.
■ In the intention of righting the wrongdoings of UCC’s refusal to divest from institutions profiting from, and aiding in Israeli settlement and occupation, we demand that an adequately funded working group be set up for the facilitating of aforementioned points.
We acknowledge that UCC in its reply to the UCCSU letter agreed in principle to some ethical conduct, but there is no evidence of actionable uptake from these. In particular we condemn that UCC has failed to release a standalone statement on the ongoing genocide in Gaza, opting instead to attach this to their reply to the SU. They also failed to commit to adopting BDS as a university policy and entirely ignored the demands surrounding the Occupied Territories Bill and government representation on campus.
Escalation will occur until the remaining demands are met. Our encampment will not end until the members of this encampment and UCC BDS are satisfied that our demands have been met not just on paper, but that progress has been made in actually achieving these demands.
Signed,
UCC BDS
Corks 96FM & C103 received communication from UCC
UCC has not received any correspondence regarding any proposed protest.
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.
