Students gathered on the campus of University College Cork yesterday (October 3rd) in solidarity with Palestine. The Workers Party Youth handed out our recent statement on the capture of the Global Sumud Flotilla, which you can read here. The speakers called for the immediate release of the participants in the Global Sumud flotilla who are currently detained by the Israeli state, most awaiting deportation. They are being subjected to humiliating and degrading treatment by Israeli government ministers who visit them like animals in a zoo.
Most importantly, and the focus flotilla participants can be commended for keeping sight of, is the fact that critical aid has not reached Gaza. The aid was confiscated by the Israeli forces to be “distributed through the appropriate channels”. If Israel was interested in distributing aid “correctly” or at all then there would not be more than half a million Palestinians currently experiencing starvation1 and the litany of horrific issues that come with it such as miscarriage/fertility problems, susceptibility to infectious disease, and more. Of course at this point we can all agree this famine is entirely man made by the state of Israel and its allies in order to kill, displace, and collectively punish Palestinians.
While official estimates of the death toll sit at around 66,0002, a report from medical journal The Lancet suggested in July 2024 that it was entirely plausible that the death toll was closer to 186,000.3 Realistically, as in many slaughters and genocides of the past century it will be impossible to know until “afterwards”, and even then we can imagine so many people will be forgotten in these figures as entire bloodlines have been exterminated.4 With this information in mind we turn our focus to the role of the university in supporting business arrangements that enable and prolong the genocide and suffering of Palestinians.
It is not good enough to support Palestine in words, or bemoan ones inability to stop supporting partners in genocide due to contractual agreements or possible penalties (pg. 12).5
Horizon Europe
UCC and Tyndall institute are currently involved in a research collaboration called PHORMIC. PHORMIC focuses on the development of photonic chips.6 Mellanox Technologies, a subsidiary of NVIDIA, is a partner in this project.
The parent company of the research partner produces chips used in producing military drones by Israeli company Elbit Systems LTD.7 These drones are highly manoeuvrable and useful in urban environments or when following targets. The further refinement of these chips improves the ability of military forces to more precisely pursue targets, and cause maximum damage to life and infrastructure.
There are several other research partnerships through HORIZON Europe that Tyndall National Institute joins Israeli institutions in participating in. These are not just academic institutions, in some cases the Israeli partner is in fact the Israeli Ministry of Health and other government institutions that are directly involved in the genocide.8
Dual Use Exports & Tyndall Institute
Tyndall National Institute is a partnership between UCC, the Science Foundation of Ireland (SFI) and the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment.9 The technology developed and advanced at Tyndall Institute has many military and surveillance applications including sensor based technologies, drone assisted communication10, and the exploration of applications of laser technologies. The university as well as tyndall institute attempt to distance themselves from this and adopt a legalistic perspective. Many times in the Israel & Palestine working group report the specific area of research relating to Israeli partnerships is mentioned such as for Crohn’s disease. This is an attempt by the university to hide behind important and altruistic research to avoid criticism of their partnerships with Israel.
“A question regarding dual use products in Tyndall was raised in the Working Group and in response, confirmation was received that following inspection by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment in 2024, both Tyndall and the University received a clean audit with respect to export control matters” (pg. 10).11
This is a direct admission from the university that they and the Tyndall Institute areinvolved in the export of dual use technologies, and that the inspection rules are in line with the terms and conditions of the dual use export license from the Department of Enterprise, Trade, and Employment. If they were not in possession of a permit and/or engaged in the export then surely there would be nothing to investigate in this regard. There is a serious lack of transparency in the issuing of dual uses export licenses in Ireland, the list is not available to the public.
This is in no way the university satisfying last year’s encampments demands to open the books of Tyndall institute, in fact it has in some ways served to obscure the level and types of engagement even more.
The university is not neutral. No institution, especially an academic one can be neutral in the face of genocide. Neutrality as it is referenced in the Palestine and Israel Working Group report ultimately means continuing business as usual.
To address a final point frequently made by the university in the working group reports and updates – on academic freedom– the working youth and students must make their position clear. The blocking of technology, research and institutional legitimacy that enables the genocide must be initiated without delay. The real threat to academic freedom is not the hurt feelings of Israeli institutes or Zionist scholars, or even those who think the university should be “neutral”. The university is not neutral. No institution, especially an academic one can be neutral in the face of genocide. Neutrality as it is referenced in the Palestine and Israel Working Group report ultimately means continuing business as usual. There is no sane person who can really say that the feelings and perceived discrimination against Israeli research matters more than the millions of Palestinians caught up in an imperialist slaughterhouse.
There is currently no universities left standing in Gaza, students have been forced to graduate early in fields of medicine to deal with the mass casualties and try and keep the health system in any way operational, and no child can be expected to learn and achieve their full potential while bombs fall around their ears and their bellies are empty. Academic freedom is being used as a shield by the university in a particularly tone deaf manner, with no respect for the full rights and dignity of Palestinians.
The student encampments in the summer of 2024 were successful in putting pressure on the university, which previously had failed to even make a coherent statement on the genocide. Unfortunately the university committed to many meaningless groups and commissions to investigate what we already knew to be the truth, and used this to shut down the encampment with the assistance of law enforcement.
So what now?
The university must immediately:
- Expand the scholars at risk programme and support the evacuation of scholars and their families.
- Sever all academic and cultural links with Israeli institutions, including through Horizon Europe. No more reference should be made as a defence to the implications upon the university, or possible claims of discrimination against Israeli scholars.
- Open the books of the Tyndall institute – properly this time. We do not care whether or not they pass an audit saying they comply with the export legislation. In fact the legislation itself is the problem and does not address the impacts of dual use technology as long as one has a special permit.
- Not one more working group, commission, or talking shop. In the face of the slaughter of Palestinians the University must be forced to act immediately in line with these modest demands.
How can we make this happen?
In order to prevent further delays and exert pressure on the colleges working youth and students need to get organised. The Workers Party Youth is planning to host a discussion for all interested students to come and discuss the issue at hand and begin making a plan to achieve these aims. We will set out our aims and how they will be achieved, we will also discuss what we will accept and not accept.
We will announce the date for this meeting on our instagram @workers_party_youth If you prefer not to use instagram and would like to contact us directly you can use the contact form on our website www.workerspartyyouth.ie/contact-us or send us an email to info@workerspartyyouth.ie.
- https://www.who.int/news/item/22-08-2025-famine-confirmed-for-first-time-in-gaza ↩︎
- https://www.expressandstar.com/world-news/2025/09/28/palestinian-death-toll-in-israel-hamas-war-climbs-above-66000/ ↩︎
- Counting the dead in Gaza: difficult but essential. Khatib, Rasha et al. The Lancet, Volume 404, Issue 10449, 237 – 238 ↩︎
- https://www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2024/10/8/know-their-names-palestinian-families-killed-in-israeli-attacks-on-gaza ↩︎
- https://www.ucc.ie/en/media/support/globalengagement/PalestineandIsraelWorkingGroupReport17April.pdf ↩︎
- https://www.tyndall.ie/projects/phormic/ ↩︎
- https://www.rte.ie/news/regional/2024/0621/1456049-call-to-remove-israeli-company-from-research-project/ ↩︎
- https://www.healtheuropa.com/israeli-ministry-of-health/88680/ ↩︎
- https://www.ucc.ie/en/build/projects/completed/tyndall/ ↩︎
- https://www.hyperpath.ie/case-studies/mistral ↩︎
- https://www.ucc.ie/en/media/support/globalengagement/PalestineandIsraelWorkingGroupReport17April.pdf ↩︎