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At 3 pm on Monday, 20th May, UCD President Prof. Orla Feely, released a second statement in reaction to the Palestinian solidarity encampment established in front of O’Reilly Hall. Specifically, she addressed and condemned the camp’s most recent escalations, referring to them as a “widespread defacement of [our] campus, including messages of hatred and violence that are entirely unacceptable”.
At 3 pm on Monday, 20th May, UCD President Prof. Orla Feely, released a second statement in reaction to the Palestinian solidarity encampment established in front of O’Reilly Hall. Specifically, she addressed and condemned the camp’s most recent escalations, referring to them as a “widespread defacement of [our] campus, including messages of hatred and violence that are entirely unacceptable”.
Prof. Feely’s email was sent to all UCD students shortly after the conclusion of a protest led by UCDSU and UCD BDS, in which members of the encampment marched towards the Tierney Building to protest the University’s neutral stance on the genocidal campaign currently being committed by Israel in Gaza.
Prof. Feely opened the email by stating, “Despite very considerable effort last week, which I was hopeful would lead to resolution, it did not ultimately prove possible to reach an agreement to end the encampment.” UCDSU President Martha Ní Ríada said that negotiations with the University started last week, amounting to 16 hours over Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. She notes, however, Prof. Orla Feely has not been present in the negotiations, with members of the University Management Team and the Dean of Students, Professor Jason Last, representing the University. The University Observer requested a comment on the reasons behind the president’s absence and has not received a reply.
Prof. Orla Feely has not been present in the negotiations, with members of the University Management Team and the Dean of Students, Professor Jason Last, representing the University
Ní Ríada stated that during negotiations “[The University] refused to call it a genocide in [their] public statement, and that was a red line issue for us… There's no point in having scholarships and showing the financial ties if they won't even recognize what's happening in Palestine.” As a result, UCDSU and UCD BDS representatives temporarily stepped away from negotiations on Friday, with Ní Ríada restating that the future of negotiations depends on the University’s willingness to call the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza a ‘genocide’ in their public statement.
Ní Ríada continued, “If the university does come back and they do want to reconsider what they'll put out in the public statement, then we'd like to pick up where we left off. And there was consensus from the university side as well that they'd be happy to start back with a lot of the progress that we'd made over those three days. That public statement was a major thing that we didn't want to let go.”
On Monday 13th May, Prof. Feely cancelled a meeting with a group of Palestinian students and UCDSU representatives that was due to take place the following day. Speaking to The University Observer at the time, UCDSU President-elect Miranda Bauer stated that cancelling the meeting contrasted with the President’s hope that “UCD can continue to be a place that supports open and constructive debate”, which was a goal she stated in her college-wide email on May 12th. Bauer went further to argue that the President was “only willing to have discussions with us if it’s on her terms”.
On Monday 13th May, Prof. Feely cancelled a meeting with a group of Palestinian students and UCDSU representatives that was due to take place the following day
Later in the email, President Feely stated, “On my arrival this morning, I was very disturbed to see widespread defacement of our campus, including messages of hatred and violence that are entirely unacceptable.” The statement does not make reference to any specific examples of language pertaining to ‘hatred’ or ‘violence’. In a video released by UCD BDS and UCDSU on Sunday 19th May, members of the encampment are seen hanging up Palestinian flags, putting up posters outlining UCD’s links to Israel, and chalking Palestinian solidarity slogans on walls around UCD campus, as well as temporarily renaming the Tierney Building the ‘Rafah Building’. The slogans shown in the video include “Orla Feely you can’t hide”, “Zionism is terrorism”, “shame on you UCD”, “dismantle Zionism”, and “RIP Palestinian martyrs”.
At Monday’s protest, students chalked messages of Palestinian solidarity across campus, whilst flying flags and unveiling posters of support which read, “Free Palestine”, “Neutrality is Complicity” and “Stop Genocide”.
Clare Daly MEP was in attendance at Monday’s protest, and speaking to The University Observer said that it was “regrettable that Colleges are prioritising financial interest” in the face of the ongoing crisis in Gaza. Daly went further to say that it was “regrettable” that “our education halls of tutoring and knowledge and law” were “enabling Israel” by maintaining their neutral stance. The Dublin MEP argued that UCD’s administrations were being “particularly intransigent in the demands” and that they were employing “stalling tactics” to discourage students involved in the UCD encampment. In a statement, Daly declared: “They [The University] hope that the students will get bored and go away, but that is not going to happen.”
They hope that the students will get bored and go away, but that is not going to happen
The UCD President concluded her email by stating her desire to “find a resolution to the current situation on our campus”, following with “However, in University College Dublin academic freedom within the law is non-negotiable.” This is an issue of contention between the encampment and the university, as point one of the demands set out by UCD BDS and UCDSU calls on UCD to “Sever links with Israeli institutions through ending current academic ties, and by committing to creating no new academic ties with the settler colonial state of Israel.”
The university won’t even say the word genocide, won’t even the say word Palestine
In a video posted by UCD BDS at 5pm on Monday evening, responding to Prof. Orla Feely’s email, co-founder of the group Eabha Hughes stated, “All our supposed defacement of the campus has been completely in chalk, and other materials that can be easily taken away. And the idea that the University is focusing on this instead of the genocide in Gaza and Palestine as a whole is absolutely reprehensible”. Josie Collins, other co-founder of UCD BDS, followed by stating that “within the email, Orla Feely stated the excuse of academic freedom, but that’s not why we’re protesting today. We’re protesting today because [the university] refuse to say the word genocide, which is just the bare minimum. In terms of the excuse of academic freedom, where is the academic freedom of the Palestinians who are being murdered, the Palestinian students, the Palestinian academics who are being caught in this onslaught by this genocide? And the university won’t even say the word genocide, won’t even the say word Palestine. So that’s why we protested today, because we see through your lies, and through their excuse of academic freedom. It’s not good enough and we won’t stand for it.”