UCD announces steps as pro-Palestinian encampment ends 

Students part of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) group in UCD set up tents on the Belfield campus earlier in May in solidarity with Palestinians who are being displaced from their homes in Gaza. 

University College Dublin (UCD) has announced a series of measures in response to concerns raised by students taking part in a Pro-Palestine encampment protest on its grounds. 

Students part of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) group in UCD set up tents on the Belfield campus earlier in May in solidarity with Palestinians who are being displaced from their homes in Gaza. 

The UCD encampment had 11 demands which included asking the university to divest from any business, academic, or research ties with Israeli institutions. 

The students also asked for an "anti-apartheid" policy and campus to be implemented by the college. 

“(It) means that no institutions or companies or any relationship between UCD and any institution in the future that has ties to emancipation, a genocide, a regime of any kind, we’re really pushing for that policy," they said in a statement issued in May. 

On Saturday, UCD announced that an agreement had been reached and that the protest encampment had ended. 

The university announced that it will support up to eight displaced Palestinian applicants under the sanctuary scholarships as well as support up to four scholars from Palestinian universities under its Scholars at Risk programme.

Working Group

A working group, with nominees from the Student's Union, will also be established to develop a policy on ethical investment by June next year for approval by the Governing Body. 

Further measures include: 

• The university bursar will report annually to its finance committee on the location of all university investments; 
• The list of research grants included in the president's reports to the governing authority will also include the international partners for each;
• Nominees determined by the Students Union will join a review group of our sustainable procurement policy;
• The college added that it will take action to ensure its multicultural campus community can be better reflected in the names of spaces on campus, and in university awards and honours.

"UCD is a university with a strong commitment to human rights and the rule of law. Accordingly, we are outraged by the ongoing mass killing of civilians, the withholding of humanitarian aid, and the destruction in Palestine by Israel," the statement said. 

"As a member of the global university community with an enduring commitment to academic freedom, expression and safety, UCD is particularly appalled by the destruction of all universities in Gaza and attacks on their students, faculty and staff." 

The college added that its statement follows the Government's recognition of the Palestinian State and its intervention in South Africa’s case against Israel under the Genocide Convention at the International Court of Justice.

"The university recognises the International Court of Justice rulings to prevent the violation of international laws in Palestine," they said. 

"UCD Students’ Union, UCD BDS and UCD Academics for Palestine have now ended their encampment and associated protests on the Belfield campus."