Irish college agrees to divest from Israeli firms following student protest
Students in the Irish capital have ended their pro-Palestine protest rally after college authorities agreed to divest from Israeli companies.
Following a five-day encampment at the campus of Ireland’s prestigious Trinity College Dublin TCD in solidarity with Palestinians in the war-torn Gaza Strip, students on Wednesday ended their rally when university administration announced that it had agreed with their demand of divesting from Israeli companies.
“An agreement was reached” after “successful talks between the university’s senior management and the protestors,” said the university in a statement posted on its website, meaning that TCD would no longer have ties with Israeli firms.
In response to TCD’s agreement with the student demand, which is echoing similar moves on US campuses, Laszlo Molnarfi, president of the institution’s student union, said the university’s statement was a “testament to grassroots student-staff power.”
Anti-Israel protests have already spread to at least three more sites in Zurich, Geneva and Lausanne.
TCD further said that the university “will complete a divestment from investments in Israeli companies that have activities in the occupied Palestinian Territory and appear on the UN blacklist in this regard.”
Over the past few weeks, university campuses across the United States have also become the battleground for demonstrations against Israel’s war on Gaza, resulting in a series of tense and violent encounters.
The students are calling for an end to Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and demanding schools divest from companies that support the Israeli regime.
Israel has killed more than 34,844 people, 70 percent of whom women and children, in Gaza since early October, according to the Gaza health ministry.
