Students at Trinity College Dublin protesting Israel\u2019s war in Gaza have built an encampment that forced the university to restrict campus access on Saturday and close the Book of Kells exhibition, one of Ireland\u2019s top tourist attractions.
\nThe camp was set up late on Friday after Trinity College\u2019s students\u2019 union said it had been fined 214,000 euros ($230,000) by the university for financial losses incurred due to protests in recent months not exclusively regarding the war in Gaza.
\nStudents\u2019 union President Laszlo Molnarfia posted a photograph of benches piled up in front of the entrance to the building where the Book of Kells is housed on the X social media platform on Friday. The illuminated manuscript book was created by Celtic monks in about 800 A.D..
\n\u201cThe Book of Kells is now closed indefinitely,\u201d he said in the post.
\nTrinity College said it had restricted access to the campus to students, staff and residents to ensure safety and that the Book of Kells exhibition would be closed on Saturday.
\nSimilar to the student occupations sweeping U.S. campuses, protesters at Trinity College are demanding that Ireland\u2019s oldest university cut ties with Israeli universities and divest from companies with ties to Israel.
\nProtests at universities elsewhere have included Australia and Canada.
\nIn a statement last week, the head of the university, Linda Doyle, said Trinity College\u2019s was reviewing\u202f its investments in a portfolio of companies and that decisions on whether to work with Israeli institutions rested with individual academics.
\nMore than 34,600 Palestinians have been killed in Israel\u2019s seven-month-old assault on the Gaza Strip, say health officials in the Hamas-ruled enclave. The war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and abducting 253 others, of whom 133 are believed to remain in captivity in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
\nIreland has long been a champion of Palestinian rights, and the government has pledged to formally recognise Palestine as a state soon.
\n($1 = 0.9295 euros)
\n(Reuters, File Photo)protests. protesting, encampment, university<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Students at Trinity College Dublin have built an encampment in protest of Israel’s war in Gaza, leading to restricted campus access and the closure of the Book of Kells exhibition, a top tourist attraction in Ireland. The protest was sparked by a fine imposed on the students’ union by the university, not solely related to the Gaza conflict. The protesters are demanding that the university cut ties with Israeli institutions and divest from companies connected to Israel. Ireland has a history of supporting Palestinian rights, with plans to formally recognize Palestine as a state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":10675,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1521,6552,1943,328,8591,4039,913,4073,33,6432,5193,7747,1468,6039,5576,145,8782,895,415,298,3272,210,658,2828,3752,1130,299,2952,1150,345,462,4843,463,8641,8904,577,1812,1222,817,6842,7967,1827,6958,3378,618,1424,2737,1001,7850,293,6024,18],"class_list":["post-10674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other","tag-1521","tag-access","tag-assault","tag-australia","tag-book","tag-building","tag-canada","tag-closure","tag-companies","tag-conflict","tag-decisions","tag-encampment","tag-exhibition","tag-financial-losses","tag-fine","tag-gaza","tag-gaza-conflict","tag-gaza-strip","tag-government","tag-hamas","tag-hamas-militants","tag-health","tag-history","tag-institutions","tag-investments","tag-ireland","tag-israel","tag-media","tag-monks","tag-palestine","tag-palestinians","tag-president","tag-protest","tag-protesters","tag-protesting","tag-protests","tag-rights","tag-safety","tag-social-media","tag-social-media-platform","tag-state","tag-statement","tag-student","tag-students","tag-top","tag-tourist","tag-tourist-attraction","tag-universities","tag-university","tag-war","tag-war-in-gaza","tag-world"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"\n