Community network urges University of Galway to cut ties with Israel
An organisation that represents more than 200 local community organisations has urged University of Galway to end its link with Israel.
Galway City Community Network (GCCN) wrote to University of Galway demanding it immediately ended its research partnership with Israel’s Institute of Technology, Technion.
The GCCN, which represents 209 community organisations in the city, decided at its AGM to write to University President David Burn. The letter will be delivered this week.
Brian Doherty, Development Co-ordinator with Galway City Community Network, said there was “no moral justification for continuing this research agreement, particularly at a time when the UN has exposed Israel’s targeting of children”.
“The United Nations recent report concluded that Israeli authorities deliberately inflicted death and severe physical and psychological harm on Palestinian children,” he added.
GCCN noted that the Lancet Global Health recently estimated that Israeli air strikes and attacks in Gaza caused over 75,000 violent deaths between October 7, 2023 and January 5, 2025, including an estimated 22,800 children.
Deirdre Curran from the Campus Anti-Genocide Coalition (CAG), which has been lobbying the university to cut its contract with Technion, quoted The Irish Centre for Human Rights which confirmed that Technion has “an inseparable, foundational, and ongoing relationship with the Israeli government and its defence establishment, and is the backbone of Israel’s security, infrastructure, and high-tech industry”.
She said it was “unconscionable for us that the university we love, value and respect can choose to be allied with Technion”.
“In the interest of preserving the reputation each of us worked hard to build, we will not rest until the contract is cut,” she added.
The GCCN motion called on the university to withdraw from its ASTERISK Horizon Europe research agreement with Technion.
It warned that failure to do so will have serious implications for current and future collaboration between the University and GCCN's member organisations.
GCCN said its position reflects its core values of anti-racism, equality and diversity, social justice, social inclusion and human rights.
Nora Corcoran of the Galway Traveller Movement said Ireland’s human rights experts deserved to be heard.
“The Irish Centre for Human Rights has presented a detailed legal case. University management should engage with those arguments instead of delaying action. The University's contractual obligations cannot outweigh its commitment to human rights or its own stated values,” she said.
Campaigners pointed to Ghent University in Belgium which recently announced it will withdraw from its remaining Horizon Europe projects involving Israeli partners.
It said it had found a way to exit without unilaterally breaking contracts.
“Ireland has just begun its Presidency of the Council of the European Union. An Irish university should be leading by example. Ghent University has shown there is a pathway forward. University of Galway should now begin the process of ending its partnership with Technion,” Mr Doherty said.