Students at Trinity College Dublin and Lausanne University in Switzerland have staged occupations to protest against Israel\u2019s war in Gaza, joining a wave of demonstrations sweeping U.S. campuses.
\nIn Dublin, students built an encampment on Friday 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 after the students\u2019 union said it had been fined 214,000 euros ($230,000) by the university for losses caused by protests in recent months, not exclusively over Gaza. The protesters were demanding that Trinity cut academic ties with Israel and divest from companies with ties to Israel.
\nStudents\u2019 union president Laszlo Molnarfia posted a photograph of benches piled up at the entrance to the building housing the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript created by Celtic monks in about 800 AD.
\nTrinity College said it had restricted access to students, staff and residents to ensure safety, and that the exhibition would be closed on Saturday.
\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 252 others, of whom 133 are believed to remain in captivity in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
\nPro-Palestinian protests have also been held at universities in Australia and Canada.
\nIn Lausanne, around 100 students occupied a building to back demands including an end to scientific cooperation with Israel.
\n\u201cPalestinians have been dying for over 200 days, but we\u2019re not being heard,\u201d one protester told Swiss television on Saturday.
\n\u201cNow there\u2019s a global movement to get governments to take action, but it\u2019s not happening. That\u2019s why we want to get universities involved now.\u201d
\nThe university said the occupation could continue until Monday provided it did not disrupt work on campus.
\n\u201cWe universities are not called upon to take political stands,\u201d the university\u2019s rector, Frederic Herman, told RTS radio.Last week, the head of Trinity College, Linda Doyle, said it was reviewing\u202f its investments but that it was for individual academics to decide whether to work with Israeli institutions.
\n(Reuters\/FILE PHOTO: College students protest on University of Michigan campus)protests. protests, occupations, Gaza<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Students at Trinity College Dublin and Lausanne University in Switzerland staged occupations to protest against Israel’s war in Gaza, joining demonstrations at U.S. campuses. In Dublin, students built an encampment that led the university to restrict campus access and close the Book of Kells exhibition. The protesters demanded Trinity cut academic ties with Israel and divest from companies with ties to Israel. In Lausanne, around 100 students occupied a building to support demands, including an end to scientific cooperation with Israel. The university said the occupation could continue until Monday as long as it did not disrupt campus work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":10761,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1521,6552,1943,328,8591,4039,913,33,3475,5752,7747,1468,145,895,298,3272,210,6654,2828,3752,1130,299,1150,4271,8978,345,462,4843,8644,463,8641,577,1222,3378,1358,8977,618,1424,1001,7850,293,6024,18],"class_list":["post-10760","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-companies","tag-cooperation","tag-demonstrations","tag-encampment","tag-exhibition","tag-gaza","tag-gaza-strip","tag-hamas","tag-hamas-militants","tag-health","tag-housing","tag-institutions","tag-investments","tag-ireland","tag-israel","tag-monks","tag-occupation","tag-occupations","tag-palestine","tag-palestinians","tag-president","tag-pro-palestinian-protests","tag-protest","tag-protesters","tag-protests","tag-safety","tag-students","tag-support","tag-switzerland","tag-top","tag-tourist","tag-universities","tag-university","tag-war","tag-war-in-gaza","tag-world"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"\n