Academics call for ties with Israeli institutions to be cut

The National Union of Journalists in Ireland was among more than 70 global journalists associations and unions to call on the Israeli government to take explicit steps to protect the lives of journalists covering the war in Gaza. File Picture: AP

Hundreds of third-level teaching staff have called on all Irish universities to cut ties with Israeli institutions amid a “collective punishment” of Palestinian civilians.

A letter drafted by Academics for Palestine has gathered over 600 signatures from third-level teaching staff across the country, including lecturers, PhD scholars, and researchers.

It states that many Irish universities and EU-funded research projects have active collaborations with Israeli universities.

“We call on all universities in Ireland to immediately sever any existing institutional partnerships or affiliations with Israeli institutions,” the letter reads.

“Those ties should be suspended until the occupation of Palestinian territory is ended, the Palestinian rights to equality and self-determination are vindicated, and the right of Palestinian refugees to return is facilitated."

The academics said the scale and severity of Israel’s current war on the Gaza Strip has exceeded all previous levels of violence “in the prolonged and brutal Israeli occupation of Palestine".

International law lecturer at Maynooth University and co-author of the letter John Reynolds said Irish third-level partnerships with Israeli institutions range from student and teacher exchange programmes to some Irish-partnered projects which include research on technologies.

“The ones that are our biggest concerns are where there are technologies that are directly feeding into the conflict,” he said.

The letter also raises concerns that several Palestinian universities in Gaza have been destroyed, while academics and students are among the civilians killed.

“With the atrocities in Gaza now added to Israel’s 75 years of colonisation and occupation of Palestinian lands, there should be nothing remotely approximate to ‘business as usual’ continuing,” it reads.

It comes as the National Union of Journalists in Ireland was among more than 70 global journalists associations and unions to call on the Israeli government to take explicit steps to protect the lives of journalists covering the war in Gaza, "in accordance with international law".

International Federation of Journalists general secretary Anthony Bellanger said the number of media workers who have lost their lives in three weeks of conflict is “unprecedented”.

“We demand an explicit commitment from the Israelis that their armed forces will take every effort to ensure that the grim tally of journalists who have died in this conflict rises no further," he said. 

"This is simply unacceptable, and the Israeli Government will have to accept its responsibilities."

At least 33 journalists and media workers have been killed since October 7, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a nonprofit organisation that promotes press freedom worldwide.