Trinity College boycotts arms companies complicit with apartheid Israel

Trinity College in Ireland, one of the country’s most prestigious universities, has announced that it no longer has investments in arms and weapons companies that are complicit with the Israeli apartheid regime.

The move comes following a petition launched by the Trinity Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign (BDS), calling for the University to “divest from the war industry”.

“The signatories of this petition call on Trinity College Dublin to take a principled stance against apartheid, colonialism and military occupation in historic Palestine by endorsing the principles of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement”, the petition wrote.

A Freedom of Information request submitted by the Chairperson of Students4Change, Laszlo Molnarfi, last year, revealed that the College had approximately €2.5 million ($2.5 million) of equity investments in the armaments and defence industries.

“This includes companies which manufacture arms or security technologies used by Israel to carry out ethnic cleansing and implement apartheid against the Palestinian people, such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Technologies and BAE Systems”, Trinity BDS said in a press release.

In response, a College spokesperson told Trinity News, “Trinity has thoroughly restructured its equity portfolio and has no investments in any of the companies mentioned.”

Last month, Trinity BDS joined a protest outside Leinster House calling for an investigation into apartheid in the state of Israel.

In 2018, Trinity College Dublin voted to support BDS, meaning the Students Union will support the Movement and “comply with the principles of BDS in all union shops, trade, business and other union operation,” a move that pro-Palestine activists say is in place to help businesses profiting from apartheid Israel.

READ: Nobel laureate Ernaux believes Israel is the coloniser and Palestine is colonised