Anti-Israeli student activists have staged an encampment on the grounds of Trinity College Dublin in protest against the conflict in Gaza, forcing the university to restrict access to the campus.
Following the lead of leftist activists in the United States and France, members of Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) and the Trinity Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (TCD BDS) group began to blockade areas of Ireland’s top university on Friday evening, the Irish Examiner reports.
The student activists erected tents on the campus grounds and blocking off the entrance to the Old Library, which contains the Celtic illuminated manuscript of the Book of Kells, one of Irelands top tourist attractions.
Sharing an image of benches stacked up in front of the entrance to the Old Library, Students’ union President Laszlo Molnarfia said: “The Book of Kells is now closed indefinitely.”
“Our fight for Palestinian liberation and to make our university adopt the principles of boycott, divestment and sanction (BDS) has seen us blockade and take disruptive action which is now being criminalised, essentially,” he added.
The encampment was set up after the Trinity College’s students’ union claimed that it had been fined 214,000 euros ($230,000) by the university to pay for the costs of protests in recent months, including but not exclusively for pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
As has been seen in protests in the United States, the student activists at Trinity College have also demanded that the university end ties with universities in Israel and to completely “divest” from companies with ties to the Jewish state.
Trinity College said that while it supports the right of students to protest, they must be carried out within the university.
A spokesman confirmed that the university would be restricting access to the campus on Saturday to only those with a college ID to ensure the safety of students and academics. Trinity also said that it would keep the Book of Kells exhibit closed.
“The closure of the Old Library impacts on researchers, whether they are students, staff or visiting international researchers,” the spokesman. “It also impacts on the staff working there, many of whom are students themselves.”