In an email sent to all UCD Staff and Students shortly after 11:30am on Saturday 8th June, President Orla Feely announced that an agreement has been reached between the University, UCD Students’ Union, UCD BDS and UCD Academics for Palestine to end the Palestinian Solidarity Encampment that has been in place for more than four weeks.
In an email sent to all UCD Staff and Students shortly after 11:30am on Saturday 8th June, President Orla Feely announced that an agreement has been reached between the University, UCD Students’ Union, UCD BDS and UCD Academics for Palestine to end the Palestinian Solidarity Encampment that has been in place for more than four weeks. Since the encampment began on Saturday May 11th, it has grown significantly in size and numbers, occupying the grass lawn outside UCD’s O’Reilly Hall and University Club.
Throughout the past 28 days, the group has engaged in numerous peaceful protests and solidarity marches to challenge the University’s neutral stance in the ongoing genocide currently being committed in Palestine by the Israeli State. Throughout the past month, the group entered into numerous negotiations with the UCD Management Team to work towards achieving the 12 goals they set out at the beginning of the encampment.
UCD Releases Statement Announcing Agreement To End Encampment
At around 3pm on Saturday 8th May, Prof. Orla Feely sent an email to all UCD Staff and Students, announcing that “the University has now come to an agreement with UCD Students’ Union, UCD BDS and UCD Academics for Palestine to end their encampment”, along with “associated protests” on the Belfield campus.
More details of the agreement were found after clicking the link in the President’s email, in which UCD made a public statement “on Palestine and the agreement to end the protest encampment on campus.” The statement declared,
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 continued, “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.”
Reference was made to the Irish government’s official recognition of the state of Palestine, and “their 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.”
Referencing the past month of protest, UCD stated it “supports freedom of speech and the right of students and staff to protest on campus. We recognise the powerful tradition of student and staff activism in our university, as in others, in bringing about positive change.”
Members of the Palestinian Solidarity Encampment have begun dismantling, with UCD confirming, “UCD Students’ Union, UCD BDS and UCD Academics for Palestine have now ended their encampment and associated protests on the Belfield campus.”
The statement appears to meet demand seven from the UCD BDS list, in which the group asked UCD to “Release a public statement on behalf of the University”, recognising “the disproportionate onslaught of Palestinian people by the Israeli state”, though failed to label the ongoing genocide in Palestine as such. The statement recognised the destruction of Universities in Palestine, and “supports freedom of speech and the right of students and staff to protest on campus.”
The statement falls short of UCD BDS demand number eight, in which the group called on the University to call for “an end to the genocide of the Palestinian people”.
Similarly, the University was asked to call for “the complete dismantling of the Israeli illegal and colonial settlements in Palestine”, as well as for a “one-state solution” and to call on the government “to enact the Occupied Territories Bill”. These demands were not met by UCD in their recent public statement.
In their statement, UCD outlined a number of steps they will now undertake as part of the finalised agreement. Firstly, UCD has committed to increasing the number of Palestinian students and academics provided for under both the University of Sanctuary Programme and the Scholars at Risk programme. As a 'Scholars at Risk' University, UCD provides temporary sanctuary to scholars and academics who face “losses of academic freedom and real risks of serious harm, due to armed conflict or indiscriminate violence, in their home countries.” The Sanctuary Programmes provides scholarships, increased entry pathways, and financial support for International Protection Applicants, Refugees, and those with Subsidiary Protection or Humanitarian Leave to Remain.
Eight sanctuary scholarships will be awarded to displaced Palestinian applicants through a separate stream, in a similar manner to the pathway currently available to Ukrainian asylum seekers who apply to UCD.
A further four scholars from Palestinian Universities will be supported under the Scholars at Risk programme. These commitments from UCD are in line with the fourth and fifth demand set out by UCDSU and UCD BDS for the university.
Furthermore, UCD has agreed to the creation of a working group which will develop a university policy on ethical investment by June 2025. The working group will include “nominees of the UCD Students’ Union”, with the policy itself then needing approval from the Governing Authority. This is in line with the third demand of UCD BDS and UCDSU, which directly calls on UCD to “develop a policy on ethical investment” and further cut all ties with companies linked to “weapons, military manufacturing, or ‘dual use goods’, Israeli or otherwise.”
Nominees of the UCD Students’ Union will also join a review group of UCD’s sustainable procurement policy, which currently seeks to ensure that all goods and services in UCD undergo “environmentally responsible procurement by identifying sustainable products and services, practices, processes and procedures.”
The demands set out by the encampment included a call for full disclosure of “all ties, academic and financial, to Israeli institutions or enterprises”, including full disclosure of “any funds of the university which are held as stocks or bonds, or in investment funds.” In line with this demand, the Bursar of UCD, David Kelly, will now report annually to the Finance, Remuneration and Asset Management Committee (FRAMC) of the Governing Authority on “the location of all university investments”, and the President’s reports to the Governing Authority on the list of research grants must now include the international partners for each.
Negotiations with the university had previously been stalled, which UCD BDS had claimed at the time was due to a lack of progress on their 11th demand; to rename the UCD Centre for Future Learning after Palestinian academic and poet Refaat Alareer. Whilst UCD BDS remain unsuccessful in this regard, UCD’s final commitment was to “take action to ensure our multicultural campus community can be better reflected in the names of spaces on our campus, and in university awards and honours.”
Following UCD’s statement, the members of the UCD Palestinian Solidarity Encampment began packing up their camp, with six out of twelve of their demands met, and progress made on two more. The end of the encampment comes four weeks after it was initially set up, with the final week leading up to the agreement including allegations of escalations stemming from both sides.
A Turbulent Week at UCD
On May 30th, The University Observer exclusively reported that UCD Festival had been cancelled in light of events that had taken place over the course of the week, in which one protestor was allegedly placed in a "chokehold" by a non-uniformed security officer as UCDSU and UCD BDS staged a sit-in in the University Club. Another protestor claimed they were sexually assaulted during the sit-in. UCD did not respond to reqeusts for comment after the allegations of the use of excessive force.
In an email sent to all UCD staff and students on Friday, 31st May, Prof. Orla Feely announced that negotiations between the University and UCDSU and UCD BDS had “come to an impasse”. She stated, “While we have made significant progress in discussions, there remains a gap that could not be bridged.”
The announcement followed two weeks of staggered negotiations between UCD and delegates from the encampment. UCDSU and UCD BDS representatives previously stepped away from negotiations on 17th May due to UCD’s alleged refusal to label the Gazan crisis a genocide in a public statement
The email signified progress on three of the twelve demands set out by UCD BDS, however the group claimed that in the final days of negotiations, the University Management Team had “stepped away from the table in under 20 minutes, refusing to engage”, despite the students entering the process “in good faith.”
Following Prof. Feely’s email, UCD BDS shared that an upcoming Conferring Dinner for graduates of the School of Medicine had, alongside UCD Festival, been cancelled by the university for “operational reasons”. The dinner was scheduled for Thursday, 6th June. UCD BDS extended an invitation to “all disappointed graduates” to a free meal, hosted and provided by the encampment, on the same date the conferring dinner was due to be held.
On the evening of Friday, 31st May, UCD BDS released a further statement claiming that UCD had de facto removed toilet access to protestors in the encampment. The Village is the only building on campus with 24 hour open-access, and members of the encampment have been reliant on its bathroom facilities as a result.
UCD BDS claim that members of the encampment were told that they could not enter the village without a UCard (UCD-specific student/staff card), following in their statement that “as most students have finished their exams and assignments, virtually none of us have our UCards with us.” The group viewed the alleged move by UCD as a direct violation of human rights, and “the University's latest act of aggression toward the protestors.”
Following UCD’s statement, the members of the UCD Palestinian Solidarity Encampment began packing up their camp, with six out of twelve of their demands met, and progress made on two more. The end of the encampment comes four weeks after it was initially set up on Saturday 11th May.