“I always… knew I wanted to get involved in this sort of activism” explains Quinn Katz-Zogby, a Senior Freshman PPES student, currently serving as Chair of the Trinity Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) group. Being the grandson of John Zogby, founder of the Arab American Institute, Katz-Zogby may seem a natural candidate for the role. However, having previously served as one of Trinity BDS’s First Year Representatives, Katz-Zogby’s ascendance to the role of Chair arguably represents a shift in the management of Trinity BDS.
Patrick Keegan, a Junior Sophister Business and Politics student and previous Secretary of Trinity BDS, explained this was a new addition to the committee from last year because Trinity BDS had “added two First Year Reps and one Postgrad Rep to the committee”. Expanding the committee, he explains, “really helps with organisation because… not everybody is going to be able to do everything because we’re students as well, first and foremost”.
Katz-Zogby also supports the expansion of Trinity BDS’s committee. He explained that when he became a first year representative “a lot of the people who were on the committee… were leaving and… of the ten members of our committee… only five or six were remaining in Trinity”. He goes on to say that first year reps“are basically just there to learn and help out with what can be helped with… the intention was to create a larger committee, that would be able to have more organisational capacity, and would bring new people in that were not just people who knew the other committee members”. He believes the engagement aspect of this role has been successful, since he and his fellow first year reps from the previous academic year have continued to serve on the committee in different roles.
Among Katz-Zogby’s most notable responsibilities on last year’s committee was corresponding with Senator Lynn Ruane. As one of Trinity’s representatives in the Seanad, Katz-Zogby coordinated with Senator Ruane regarding support she and her office could provide to support May’s BDS encampment. This involved Senator Ruane attending a meeting with Trinity BDS, which Keegan sat in on and described as “very productive”. Keegan also explained that “probably about a month before the encampment she had sent an email to the Provost with the other members of the civil engagement group in the Seanad and Linda Doyle ignored the email… from multiple senators”.
When asked to comment on this matter, Senator Ruane’s office responded saying “Senator Ruane wrote to the Provost in March, alongside a number of former Senators from the University of Dublin panel in Seanad Éireann, to urge the College to be a clear and urgent voice for the protection of civilian life, and against genocide, in Gaza. The Senators explicitly called on the College to terminate its business and research relationships with Israeli companies and institutions with immediate effect and asked that the Provost would meet to discuss their concerns further. The office of the Provost acknowledged receipt of the letter, but a formal response or a meeting were never offered. I have attached the letter above for reference. Senator Ruane was glad to meet with representatives of Trinity BDS in Leinster House in May, and to extend her full support for their collective action and planned encampment. The impact of Trinity BDS, TCDSU and the broader student body’s organising was immediate and profound, demonstrating the importance of collective action in affecting the change we wish to see at institutional, community and societal levels.” In addition to this comment, Senator Ruane’s office provided The University Times with a copy of the letter sent to Provost Linda Doyle. The letter was signed by, among others, former Senator David Norris and Labour leader Ivana Bacik.
When asked to comment on receiving this email, the Provost’s Office told The University Times the contents of the email were addressed in the statement made in the aftermath of the encampment.
When prompted, Katz-Zogby described the circumstances which resulted in the success of May’s encampment as the “Perfect Storm”. He discussed the importance of administrative factors behind the encampment’s success, explaining that “we were lucky… we had… administrators that were sympathetic… we also had… a law that was much more amenable to protesters than they have in America… and private security at Trinity is not allowed to touch students, which was another huge help for us… we knew going into it that we just had to not escalate those confrontations that were bound to happen, and we would be safe.”
Keegan emphasised popular support for May’s encampment, stating “Once you saw the polls that came out from Trinity News, I think eighty something percent of students supported the Encampment”. He went on to say “When you look at Ireland… very, very high polling among the population… that supports Palestine versus Israel. It’s Ireland’s very different situation… than anywhere else in the Western World… once the media picked it up in Ireland, I think there was no going back.” This attitude is shared by Katz-Zogby, who explained that even when faced with certain hurdles “you can still have a successful encampment because of the popular support and outpouring of dedication to this movement that I think is really inspiring”.
Katz-Zogby’s conversation with The University Times concluded with Trinity BDS’s plans for the coming academic year. He discussed a willingness for BDS to work with the administration to form a meaningful framework for ending Trinity’s investments in occupied Palestinian territories. However, Katz-Zogby wants to go further and pressure Trinity to end all investments in “deeply exploitative and oppressive structures that exist around the world”.
Katz-Zogby believes this involves setting clear parameters for Trinity’s investments and pressuring the administration to implement these demands. He emphasised the importance in demonstrating “that we’re not a one trick pony” and that Trinity “can’t just leave us in the dust and not fulfil [their] end of the bargain and we need to be in a position where we can make those promises and that we can fulfil them, if Trinity decides they do not want to keep working with us on this”.
Acknowledging the challenging nature of these demands, he explains the importance of this by saying “a big thing that we heard… from people pushing back on us in our demand to end the investments and partnership with Israeli institutions like, who else are you going to end your administrative ties to… there’s these human rights abuses here… and oh what about China, oh what about Australia, oh what about wherever, and to that and to that… we need to be consistent and say no, those things are also not okay, and we need to review those things too”.
From this discussion with The University Times, it can be assumed that during the coming academic year, Trinity BDS will be primarily working towards ending Trinity’s investments in Israeli companies. It will also, however, possibly be focusing on ending other investments Trinity has made in companies which are based in countries which grossly violate human rights. Trinity BDS will also be campaigning to ensure that the College maintains the commitments it made in the aftermath of May’s Encampment. Although Trinity BDS may see cause for optimism, Katz-Zogby saying “we’re not just going to blockade the Book of Kells again”, implies they’re willing to protest more overtly than last year to pressure the College to keep its word.
