Labour expresses solidarity with TCD Students raising plight of Gaza

Labour expresses solidarity with TCD Students raising plight of Gaza

Labour's Further and Higher education Spokesperson Senator Annie Hoey has expressed support for the student protest and encampment in Trinity College Dublin against the Universitys' financial links to Israeli companies and ties to Israeli Institutions.

Senator Hoey said:

"The students of Trinity College Dublin are rightly protesting against Trinity's financial investments in Israeli companies and links to Israeli institutions.

"The Trinity College Dublin Endowment Fund has invested in 13 Israeli companies.

"Three of these include Bank Leumi, Shapir Engineering, and Energix. All of these companies feature on a UN Blacklist and are involved in the supply of equipment, services or materials for use in the West Bank or Gaza.

"Trinity College Dublin also receives over €2.5 million for research collaboration with Israel from twelve Israeli organisations.

"Trinity collaborates with Tel Aviv University, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, the Weizmann Institute of Science, and 9 others. From these ties, Trinity receives over €2.5 million but these organisations have been found to be directly involved with Israeli Defence Forces and Israel's occupation of Palestine.

"The students have protested these issues consistently, and by Trinity's rules, for the past number of months but there has been little response or action taken.

"Protest that does not cause an interruption or nuisance for the University have been ignored. It is right for the students to escalate their protest.

"Solidarity with the students of Trinity College Dublin. They are doing the heavy lifting on this issue and we need to see our universities divest from being complicit in genocide."