In 2018, Trinity’s branch of Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) was set up following a referendum. Ever since, following the success of the encampment at the end of the 2023/24 academic year and Trinity’s complete divestment from Israeli organizations as a result, Trinity students have had the privilege of inheriting the legacy of having one of the most successful BDS movements globally.
With the genocide still ongoing, the global BDS movement’s work is still incomplete. Trinity BDS’s actions have always been reflective of the situation at hand, with an eye particularly towards the College management’s attitude towards the genocide in Palestine.
Speaking to The University Times, BDS Secretary, Elisa Zito, stated that the encampment was the outcome of a situation where students’ demands were entirely ignored for over a year. Zito called the encampment “an extreme reaction to an extreme situation.” Given Trinity management’s compliance with the Student Union and BDS’ demands since the end of the encampment, the role of Trinity BDS has also turned into one of oversight and monitoring, as well as ensuring the College’s compliance. Patrick Keegan, Chairperson of BDS in the academic year 2024/25 also believes that the actions of BDS “were driven by the exact same principles, but manifested in different ways due to the changing circumstances.” In 2024/25, thanks to the successes of the direct action of the encampment, BDS acted as more of a bureaucratic figure via the taskforce which brought them to the “negotiating table” vis-a-vis the College and the Board.
The successes of the encampment certainly cannot be understated, as its results have been inherited by the College and its students ever since: the action resulted in Trinity reaffirming its position against the genocide, a promise by Trinity to divest from all Israeli companies, the setting up of a taskforce, and supporting Palestininan scholars. This initiative was fulfilled this year by BDS when they welcomed 66 Palestinian students to Trinity.
The taskforce exemplifies the changes in the circumstances of the College to the BDS movement. Despite not being a form of direct action, the taskforce codified and ensured Trinity’s compliance and commitment to the principles of BDS in the years to come. As Zito believes, the role of BDS over the course of the past two years has been to “play an active and vigilant role” in this process. According to Keegan, the taskforce “created a set of principles and procedures for the College to follow.” It also “made recommendations in regards to divestment, which the College accepted.” To ensure a thorough and fully-representative body to carry out its functions, the taskforce included experts in their respective fields, such as Mary Irvine, the former President of the High Court, as well as representatives from the Students Union and the College, like the Secretary and Senior Dean. The taskforce concluded with the suggestions of 1) further divestments from all institutions headquartered in Israel as well as divestment in matters of suppliers and intellectual property; 2) ensuring lack of academic ties with Israeli universities, such as under the umbrella of the Erasmus+ Program by the College; 3) no longer entering any research agreements with Israeli universities.
These recommendations prove that the role that BDS has to play in ensuring the College’s compliance still remains unfinished and a top priority. The circumstances within Trinity at this moment do not call for direct action and the priorities of Trinity BDS lie in its association with the College. Within Trinity itself, Trinity BDS has focused on the Dual BA program with Columbia University, where censorship and safety dangers for international students, as well as those protesting the genocide, run rampant. Since the condemnment of the Dual BA program in the first Comhairle of this year, students whose degrees have been withheld by Columbia for their activism, were finally awarded them by Trinity, proving the success of Trinity BDS as a force ensuring the College upholds its principles and meets the demands of its students.
The way forward for Trinity BDS requires looking back on Trinity’s anti-apartheid legacy that dates back to South Africa. There is space for Trinity BDS to continue boycott campaigns such as with Coca-Cola and the Columbia Dual BA program. Wider student organizations such as the Student Neutrality Front have carried out protests and frontfacing direct action that has allowed for the involvement of Academic BDS groups across Dublin and Ireland. Through this, Trinity BDS and other Dublin universities have engaged in the campaign to continue with one of the proposals of the taskforce: to stop engaging with Israel on an academic level via the campaign to push Israel out of Horizons. This, as Keegan says, is an opportunity for Trinity BDS to direct its focus “to national issues, such as working with other groups to pass the Occupied Territories Bill with both goods and services”.
The BDS movement is an inherent part of the College and Ireland’s anti-colonialist attitude. The students of Trinity are privy to this tradition and, therefore, awareness of its actions and proceedings must be an issue regarding both human rights and the very foundations of the College.
