Press Releases

BADIL Concludes a Speaking Tour in Ireland to Confront 76 years of Ongoing Nakba with Ongoing Resistance
BADIL Concludes a Speaking Tour in Ireland to Confront 76 years of Ongoing Nakba with Ongoing Resistance

BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights completed a speaking tour in Ireland, in partnership with the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC), to confront 76 years of Ongoing Nakba with the Ongoing Resistance of the Palestinian people. The aim of the tour was to put the ongoing Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip in the context of Israeli’s system of domination, which utilizes three pillars: forced displacement and transfer, colonization and apartheid, and to highlight the obligations of states to impose sanctions.

 

The tour took place from 12 to 23 May 2024, and included meeting with representatives of political parties, civil society organizations and solidarity groups, student groups, and involved participating in the national march and demonstration on 18 May.

 

The tour spanned the cities of Dublin, Belfast, Mullingar, Letterkenny, Portadown, Galway, Ennis, Cork and Killarney. The tour also included radio and newspaper interviews with national and local media.

 

BADIL called on political party representatives in Dublin and Belfast to adhere to their absolute international obligation to prevent and stop genocide by implementing sanctions, highlighting that the current genocide in the Gaza Strip is the result of over 76 years of impunity for Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity.

 

The 9 public talks (one in each city) with civil society groups and organizations in solidarity with Palestine were attended by over 500 people, most of them active in the solidarity or student movements. Post-presentation discussions focused on strategically and sustainably escalating direct actions in order to pressure the Irish government to meet its obligation to impose sanctions.

 

BADIL also met with student movement groups in Trinity College, University College Cork (UCC), and Galway University that are each in different phases [1] achieving divestment goals through encampments and other direct actions. BADIL expressed its admiration of the student movement groups, and encouraged their continued solidarity for Palestine.

 

BADIL thanks IPSC for their partnership with BADIL and unwavering solidarity with Palestine.


The student movement at Trinity College, after implementing an encampment, succeeded in securing a pledge from the university administration to divest from Israeli universities and to cut ties in order to cease its complicity with genocide. The encampment held at UCC by the student movement there is ongoing and the students are hopeful that their demands for divestment will be met. Galway students are in negotiations with the administration but are contemplating escalating their actions as the administration continues to defer the decision to divest.