UCC protest heightened ahead of ‘jarring’ graduations today
As the first round of graduations take place at UCC today, the people of Cork are invited to join a group of peaceful protestors calling for the college to clarify its stance on Palestine.
The UCC Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement have been camped out on college grounds for almost 20 days. It is calling on the college it cut all ties with Israel and to release an official statement calling for an immediate ceasefire in Palestine.
With medical and dental graduates set to receive their degrees/diplomas this morning, the UCC BDS has highlighted what it sees as the “juxtaposition of medical conferrings at UCC while hospitals and healthcare workers are deliberately targeted in Gaza”, describing today’s conferrings as “jarring”.
The group says it has provided the leverage to pressure UCC into making these bare minimum commitments, actions the group says UCC should have already been taking.
The group also stated that it can no longer engage in negotiations as they have been structured so far.
“We are not withdrawing from communication with UCC altogether; we are waiting for an offer that addresses our key demands. We have spent hours in discussion, and the UCC team is well aware of the points of contention,” the group stated.
While UCC BDS said it is pleased with the progress made, it cannot halt its protest until UCC makes a number of necessary commitments publicly.
The group firstly wants UCC to collaborate with representatives of UCC BDS, the Students’ Union, and staff to release a statement reflecting the considerations of the Students’ Union and UCC BDS on the objective conditions and genocide of the Palestinian people, representing the university as a whole.
The group is also calling for the establishment of a funded working group to review all ties, commercial and academic, to Israeli institutions, companies, and non-Israeli companies profiting from occupation and apartheid, with the explicit intention of ending these ties.
On top of that, UCC BDS is calling on the college to discontinue direct ties to the Israeli Ministry of Health through the Horizon Europe project and end ties with other Israeli institutions that UCC has direct connections to through Horizon Europe, including but not limited to the University of Haifa, Israel Institute of Technology, Thermomind Ltd, and Weizmann Institute of Science.
One UCC BDS Student said: “Despite our engagement with the college for nearly 20 days, no significant progress has been made, and their bare minimum concessions are an affront to every Palestinian enduring ongoing and escalating imperialist violence and genocide.”
Another student added: “Instead of meeting the college at the negotiating table, we will be joined in protest on campus by the wider Palestinian solidarity movement in Cork. There is no business as usual during genocide, and we are all Palestinians today.”