As the solidarity movement for Gaza continues to grow across the globe, Eli Kane
explains how students in Ireland have been in the lead. How the students have
been making the Boycott, Divest and Sanction (DBS) a reality on Irish campuses
and showing the path that labour unions and others need to follow.
The Palestine solidarity movement has found an exciting new expression through student encampments. Since Columbia University in New York, launched its encampment on April 17th, 188 universities in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia have undertaken similar protest actions.
The encampments are a successful innovation in the wave of global solidarity actions that began after Israel’s brutal bombardment of Gaza in response to the Palestinian Resistance’s October 7th operations last year. Student encampments utilise peaceful, disruptive direction action to pressure major institutions to end their complicity with the settler colonial Zionist project and its ongoing genocide against Palestinians.
BDS Demands
The demands made by these student encampments are inspired by the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement founded by Palestinian activists in the wake of the Second Intifada. The student encampments are focused on isolating the Zionist regime through forcing major institutions (i.e., prestigious universities), to divest from financial and academic ties with Israel.
The particular demands made by each encampment are focused and targeted, based on research into that university’s involvement with Israeli companies and academic institutions, and tailored to local conditions. Not only do the student encampments make specific, achievable demands of their target institution, they are tactically organised to leverage maximum pressure over the university.
Trinity Tactics
In Ireland, this protest strategy was first adopted by students at Trinity College Dublin. At dusk on the 3rd of May, an encampment led by Trinity BDS and the Student Union began on the lawn of Fellows Square, directly in front of the Book of Kells. The College immediately closed the Book of Kells and refunded all tourist tickets until the following Tuesday morning. Participants in the encampment set up tents on Fellows Square and blockaded the area with benches and temporary fences. The Book of Kells was symbolically closed with a stack of benches. On Wednesday–after just five days–the encampment decided to disband after a round of successful negotiations.
The demands of the encampment were as follows (paraphrased):
- Divest from Israeli institutions, removing all investments and cutting all ties including procurement, outsourcing, and academic partnerships (the list of which was obtained via FOI requests by the SU prior to the encampment.)
- Make a statement in solidarity with Palestine, unequivocally condemning the Zionist project and its ongoing genocide against Gaza.
- Make reparations for complicity with Zionism by fully funding 100 Palestinian scholars to undertake studies at Trinity College.
The encampment was also used to leverage separate demands by the SU, centred around the dropping of academic sanctions and a hefty €214,000 fine levied on the SU for protests the week before.
Trinity College met all of the demands, in whole or in part. On Monday, the 6th of May, the College released a statement that included a welcoming of the ICJ’s ruling on genocide and a condemnation of the “onslaught on Gaza.” By Wednesday, College administration had also agreed to divest from UN blacklisted Israeli firms, “endeavour to” divest completely from Israeli companies, support eight Palestinian scholars, and establish a taskforce to explore further BDS related issues.
There is always a risk of backsliding with wording like this, and a recent email from Trinity president, Linda Doyle, has raised concerns. The email, sent to Trinity staff and students, contains a cynical reference to antisemitism in the context of Palestine solidarity protest and indicates that student activists may not have as much input into BDS-related decision making as previously thought. It remains to be seen whether the material changes sought by the encampment protest will fully take place. The experience of post-encampment negotiations will provide valuable lessons and learning opportunities for activists.
Nevertheless, a public statement made by the president of a prestigious university specifically indicating the intention to isolate the Zionist state by divesting from Israeli institutions is an historic step forward for the movement. In a landscape where such wins are vanishingly rare, it is worth analysing how the encampment strategy was able to achieve this so quickly.
Hit Them In The Pocket
Trinity BDS’ encampment had an important advantage: merely by existing, it exerted massive financial pressure on the College, by keeping tourists away from the Book of Kells. It is estimated the Book of Kells generates €42,000 per day in revenue. The College needed a quick resolution to this blockade. Calling the police to violently remove protesters, as has been done in US campuses and some European universities, was not an attractive option for several reasons. The College was already experiencing reputational damage for the punitive fine given to the SU the week before. Additionally, the encampment enjoyed broad and vocal support both from within and without: a poll of students found overwhelming support for the encampment, and a large, hours-long protest applied pressure from outside the College’s gates during the weekend.
The encampment, therefore, was able to win its demands without any major escalations. Students and supporters increased the militancy of the encampment by chalking anti-Zionist and pro-resistance messages, flying the flag of Palestinian Resistance groups, and publicly displaying a willingness to defend the camp against eviction with a simulated drill.
Thus, the encampment hit on a rare winning strategy: identify tangible and undeniable connections with the Zionist state to inform demands, locate and apply pressure to key financial pain points in the institution, and maintain tight organisation and swift decision making throughout the duration of the encampment. Other universities in Ireland–namely University College Dublin and University College Cork– have adopted the same approach.
Solidarity Spreading
On the 11th of May, students at University College Dublin (led by UCD BDS and SU) launched an encampment on the lawn outside of O’Reilly hall. This encampment is still ongoing and, at the time of this writing, entering its third week. The experience of students at UCD is a useful comparison with Trinity for understanding how the encampment protest strategy can adapt to differing conditions.
At UCD, there is no equivalent to the Book of Kells that students can exploit for leverage. UCD, located in Belfield in south Dublin, is not nearly as visible to the city and population as is Trinity. The encampment’s presence is disruptive, but, at least until graduation ceremonies begin on the 6th of June, it will not interrupt any key University functions. Additionally, the University’s connections with Israeli institutions are more tenuous, or at least more hidden.
The UCD Variation
Therefore, the encampment’s demands have centred around isolating the Zionist project via disclosure of all financial investments and associations with Israel, public statements condemning the genocide in Gaza and calling for a one-state solution (a democratic, secular state) to the occupation of Palestine, cancellation of research associations, and strengthening support for Palestinian students.
For all of these reasons, and due to the much longer duration of the encampment, protestors at UCD have had to take a different strategy. Learning from the experience in Trinity, and adapting to the above, students have planned deliberate escalations to increase the disruption caused by the encampment. Protestors have chalked explicitly pro-resistance and anti-administration messages around the campus, have pasted propaganda posters and images of resistance leaders and martyrs onto important University buildings, and have occupied the University Club cafe twice.
Through back-and-forth communications with university administration, public statements made by the University, and several rounds of negotiations, the UCD protestors are experimenting and learning what tactics cause the most consternation in the target and how to increase their leverage.
Learning the Lessons
After the success of Trinity’s encampment, the question is whether UCD will achieve similar, if not greater, gains. The Irish Palestine solidarity movement, including trade unions, stands to learn a lot from the experience of these two prolonged, direct actions.
A key element of what makes these encampments effective is that they are based on collective action. This is the principle that unions are based on. Many unions have policies in support of BDS but these need to be made effective. Like the Dunnes Stores strikers did against apartheid in South Africa and the students are doing now.
The model of identifying bespoke demands on the target, locating and applying strategic pressure to key functions of the target, and maintaining unity in political orientation and tactical approach can be adapted to protests that target state institutions as well. Especially in the wake of the Government’s shameful decision to delay action on blocking US warplanes from using Shannon Airport, an escalation in pressure on the state is of paramount importance.
