Trinity College Coat of Arms (CC)

The call for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel was first issued in 2004 by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI).

PACBI claims that their call for a boycott is not against individuals; the boycott applies to academics and scientists only when they are representing their universities.

“…the thought of an academic boycott touches raw nerves – teachers and researchers are rightly sensitive about any restrictions on the free flow of ideas. To support an academic boycott of Israeli universities further raises hackles because of the issue of anti-Semitism…The academic boycott is aimed at institutions, not individuals…

The boycott is not a boycott of Jews. The claim of anti-Semitism confuses Israel – a state; and Jews – a religious or ethnic group…We are always happy to talk, to debate, to discuss with Israeli colleagues and do so at all opportunities.” (1)

Did any inter-academic talks actually happen between Israeli, Palestinian, and Irish academic departments, and senior college administration staff – prior to the passing of Trinity’s selective sectarian strictures?

If so, what were the outcomes? And where can we read them to judge if any debates were impartial and judiciously balanced? Or were any presumed exchanges merely just “high table” hectoring and humiliating lectures?

In 2023, over 600 academics across Ireland called on Irish universities to sever all partnerships and affiliations with Israeli institutions. Can 600 august individuals really be on the wrong side of history?

Trinity through times of turmoil.

Screenshot from Inside the Student Movement that Forced Ireland’s Trinity College to Divest from Israel

By November 2024, Trinity College convened a task force in response to student encampments and student union & trades unions demand for action in response to the Israel / Gaza War. Did any other international universities cave in so quickly to pro-Palestinian protestors? (2)

The task force comprised 26 members, including three members nominated by the Trinity Students Union, two by the Central Societies’ Committee, and four nominated by the Group of Unions.

The task force, chaired by former president of the High Court Mary Irvine, met on 14 occasions (between November 2024 and May 2025). Is such a high volume of college task force meetings normal? To this university-free autodidact so many meetings on just one issue seem a lot.

Last Wednesday (June 4, 2025), Trinity College’s university board informed students that it accepted the recommendations of the task force to sever “institutional links with the State of Israel, Israeli universities and companies headquartered in Israel.”

Irish universities collaborated with Israel on 257 projects

Until this academic-apartheid ruling, Trinity had strong ties to Israeli organisations through research collaboration and business relationships. The now-leper list of institutions included: Tel Aviv University; the Israel Institute of Technology; the Weizmann Institute of Science; the KI Research Institute; and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. (3)

Irish universities collaborated with Israel on 257 projects. Seven of them were listed as “security,” and thirteen others as “aerospace.” Those 20 “military” projects represent less than 10% of all cross-university collaborations. (Academia Against Apartheid: The case for an academic boycott of Israel – see second link below, page 18)

What exactly were the other 237 uncategorised ventures? Did they consist of important empirical research of significant value to humanity and society?

Where will this political purge of all-things-Israeli end?

How does the mind-blinkering boycott leave Trinity College’s Herzog Centre for Near Eastern and Jewish Religions and Culture? With its “Zionist” roots, will it be shuttered next?

Founded in 1997, the Herzog Centre aims to facilitate the engagement of students and the Irish public with Jewish and Near Eastern history and culture. This is accomplished through academic programmes, public lectures, and cultural events. (4)

International scholars (including some Israeli professors) contribute to that department’s courses and public lectures. Are those visiting Israeli professors now “verboten” on the politically virtuous precincts of Trinity College?

What if there is ever an academic interfaith conference in Israel, concerning Palestinian religious and human rights? Will Trinity College grants be withheld to students wanting to participate on behalf of Palestine / Gazan interests?

Finally, where does this anti-Israel ideological storm leave the ‘Maurice Abrahamson 10 year Bursary’? Established in 2023 for disadvantaged students who wish to attend Trinity College; it was temporarily withdrawn after bursary trustees became concerned that the university was becoming a “no-go zone for Jews”.(5)

In an ironic end note: Trinity has not withdrawn from some ongoing projects. Israeli partners will provide military technology and military training until 2029. Why did that august academic establishment decide to not ditch that with all other doctrinaire “divestments”?

Trinity College Dublin School of Law announced in 2023 the award of the inaugural Maurice Abrahamson Bursary to three Trinity Access Junior Fresh students.

https://www.irishlegal.com/articles/maurice-abrahmason-bursary

“Through times of turmoil as well as progress, Trinity has been the crucible for change across more than four centuries. Today, as Trinity imagines the world in the 21st century, it seeks to inspire new generations in new ways.” https://www.tcd.ie/about/history/