Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) has rebuffed claims that the referendum on a boycott, divest and sanctions campaign against Israel will be deferred.
Contrary to what Trinity News reported this week, the referendum is set to go ahead on March 19th. The TCDSU Education Officer, Alice MacPherson, told The University Times that the referendum will go ahead as scheduled.
“I was first made aware of an article in Trinity News stating that the referendum on TCDSU’s stance regarding Palestine was deferred. This is not the case. The referendum will take place, as scheduled, next week and begins with online campaigning on Monday 19th of March”, she said.
In a statement to Trinity News, Students for Justice in Palestine, the group that pushed for a referendum, said: “In light of the rising movement against supplemental fees we have taken a unanimous vote to postpone the referendum and throw ourselves singularly into this struggle.”
Speaking to The University Times, Conchúir Ó Raidaigh, one of the group’s members, said Students for Justice in Palestine was determined to ensure the referendum was moved.
He has said that many of the group’s members were the “most involved in the Take Back Trinity” campaign”, which he called a “once in a generation moment”. Ó Raidaigh claimed that TCDSU President Kevin Keane had promised to help work on deferring the referendum. While Ó Raidaigh has not yet spoken to MacPherson, he said the referendum “can’t happen at the moment” due to limited resources and the focus on the campaign against supplemental exam fees.
Ó Raidaigh said that the Take Back Trinity campaign had built up a “lot of trust” with the union and that a failure to defer the referendum “would sour that”.
In an email statement to The University Times this evening, Keane said: “I simply referred the campaign’s query on to Alice, the Education Officer. It is not my role to provide Constitutional interpretations, the Electoral Commission serves that purpose. I certainly welcomed the attempt by the campaign to postpone the referendum, and I support that tactic, given the current political climate in Trinity & the risk of burnout to campaigners.”
“It’s a real pity that lines were crossed in this regard, and it was by no means intentional on my part”, he added.
The referendum campaign is set to take place between March 19th and 22nd while polling will take place between March 21st and 22nd. The results will be counted on the evening of March 22nd, as things stand. “No attempt to withdraw the referendum was made. The Electoral Commission was not contacted by any member of Students for Justice in Palestine with this request”, MacPherson said.
“It is important to note that the referendum in question was called by 722 members of the Union in petition and not by a small group of organisers”, she added.
In late February, the Students for Justice in Palestine group handed in a petition with 722 valid signatures. This was nearly three times the amount of signatures needed to trigger a long-term policy referendum. As per the union’s constitution, 250 signatures are required for this type of referendum.
The group wants to mandate the union to support the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. In April of last year at TCDSU council, students voted against a motion that called for an academic and economic boycott of Israel.
