UCC students lead protests against 'scholasticide' in Palestine

All 12 universities in Gaza have been bombed, along with some 200 schools, while more than 4,300 students are among the dead

Students from the Trad Society played at the main quadrangle of University College Cork (UCC), as staff and students joined the national day of action in solidarity with Palestine. Picture: Larry Cummins

Clutching a dead “baby”, a woman wandered barefoot and draped in black through University College Cork (UCC) — an unsettling piece of performance art to protest the slaughter in Gaza.

Above her head, Palestinian flags had been hung in the window of the belltower in UCC’s Quad.

Staff and students had “occupied” the belltower yesterday to hang the flags as part of a nationwide protest in third level institutions.

UCC had sparked that all-Island protest – the first of its kind – across some 20 higher education institutions both North and South, from 8am to 8pm.

#TLC4P (Third Level Campuses for Palestine), the group that organised this day of action, did so to stand in solidarity with the higher education system in Gaza and against the onslaught it has endured — which they describe as “scholasticide”.

All 12 universities in Gaza have been bombed, along with some 200 schools, while 4,327 students; 231 teachers; 95 deans and professors; and three university presidents are among the dead.

The group is calling on Irish third-level institutions to implement seven measures — including condemning Israel’s mass killing of Palestinians, condemning the destruction of educational institutions, demanding an immediate ceasefire and unhindered access to aid, offering sanctuary status to Palestinian academics and students, and implementing a sector-wide Boycott, Divest, Sanctions policy.

Eimear, from UCC, carried a dead ‘baby’ as she walked around the quad in her bare feet. Picture: Larry Cummins

UCC academic and performance artist Eimear, who asked that her last name not be used in case it hinders her access to Gaza and the West Bank in future, recited a poem about Gaza and its wounds as she wandered barefoot through the campus dressed in black traditional keening clothes.

“My outfit is based on the Irish keener, but the veil is made of gauze — a fabric made and believed to have been developed in Gaza, which was once a centre of the fabric trade.

“Now, the hospitals cannot get enough gauze in to dress the wounded.

“I was in the West Bank in September through the Lajee refugee centre. Nothing can prepare you for what you witness in Palestine. Not for one second can people forget they are under occupation.

Life is so precious there because death is so common. One woman started crying when she heard my words today.

“People think they don’t have power, but they do. People don’t even need to join protests, they can boycott Israeli goods.”

“Boycott” as a word and concept is one of Ireland’s proudest exports, Eimear said.

“It was invented during Ireland’s land wars, called after Captain Charles Boycott and invented by Charles Stuart Parnell as a method of non-violent resistance.”

Claire O’Reilly joins protesters from Trinity College Dublin holding a demonstration, on the day where students will graduate from the university, in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Picture: Sam Boal/Collins

Retired sociology academic Kathy Glavanis was at the protest outside the front gate by Western Rd, where people waived Palestinian flags, handed out information sheets on the war’s terrible damage, and played Palestinian music for the crowd.

“We’re absolutely disgusted with the lack of response from the university administration to the war in Gaza,” she said.

“Most universities have said they need to stay ‘neutral’, but how can you be neutral when you’re talking about genocide? And the reaction was so different when Russia invaded Ukraine.”