Trinity Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) have blocked the Book of Kells Experience following the news that the Faculty of Health Sciences has been promoting fellowships with the Azrieli Foundation. The group met at 10 am on the 27th of March at Teach 6 before moving towards the Book of Kells.
In a statement to The University Times prior to the protest, BDS stated that “This action is in solidarity with Palestine, and to call on Trinity to immediately cut its ties with Apartheid Israel.” They continued, “Recently, we also discovered that the Faculty of Health Sciences has been promoting fellowships with the Azrieli Foundation, an Israeli Foundation with connections to the Azrieli Group, an Israeli real estate holding company with holdings in illegal settlements in the West Bank. Trinity BDS are calling on Trinity College Dublin to take a principled stance against the egregious human rights violations in Israel and to cut ties with Israeli institutions complicit in the apartheid and genocidal state of Israel”.
The blockade follows BDS’ encampment last May, which ended successfully with Trinity agreeing to cut ties with Israel and Zionist organizations. The encampments also led to the creation of a Taskforce to ensure these agreements were met.
BDS stated, “The work of the Taskforce is currently ongoing. Despite this, Trinity continues to act carelessly, forging new ties with Israel. Earlier this year, we discovered that Trinity had bought materials from a new Israeli supplier (Alomone Labs) amounting to €1836 through a Freedom of Information (FOI) Request, despite them previously stating that they only had one Israeli supplier (Enspire Science Ltd.) remaining until March 2025 for contractual reasons”.
In a press release, sent on the morning of the 27th, BDS wrote, “Additionally, there have been worrying reports from Trinity Dual BA students in Columbia University who have faced disciplinary action for taking part in Palestine protests. Trinity must fulfill its duty of care for students studying in the Dual BA program, and must condemn Columbia University’s shameful actions. Trinity must use all available resources to put pressure on Columbia University to ensure the welfare of our students”.
Chair of BDS Patrick Keegan told The University Times, “We’re here today to protest the continuing complicity in genocide and apartheid. We want College to actually stick to their promises they made during the encampments”. He stated that College is “constantly breaking their agreements and constantly being careless”.
Of the importance of the Book of Kells as a place of protest, he stated “The Book of Kells is a symbolic target, it really was the start of it and we’re going back there now to say, ‘we still can organize, we still can put pressure on the college’”.
Another protester, a second-year Biomedical student, told The University Times, “we’re blocking the Book of Kells because that is how we can do direct action in terms of getting College to actually notice that we’re not gone, even after the encampment. That we’re still here, that we are aware that they have created more ties with Israeli institutions and that we do not agree with that, that is shameful quite frankly, that they are doing that and they are going back on promises that they made to us. We’re just showing that we’re not going”.
The goal of today’s blockades, a fourth-year Environmental Science student told the University Times, is to act as “a reminder to the college that there is that willingness to escalate. The most apparent thing would be to honor the agreements that have already been agreed to”. The student stated, “ It’s clear that if the college isn’t willing to engage with the lobbying process that they hoped to integrate the students into, to try and meet those demands, then it’s very clear what we have to do in response is direct action and pressuring the college financially. Because if they’re not willing to play by the [quiet] politics behind closed doors, that they used to get us to step back from the encampment, then it’s clear that we can’t honor. If they’re not honoring their side of the [deal] we can’t honor ours either”.
After initially blocking the entrance facing the Arts Block, the protesters split into two groups to ensure both entrances were blockaded. The protest included Palestinian flags and signs with statements such as “Put your imperialism on a leash. Make Gaza habitable for the Palestinians” and “Israel: a settler colonial project. A state of apartheid. A genocidal mindset”.
