{"id":10598,"date":"2025-08-20T01:56:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T01:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/10598\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T01:56:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T01:56:10","slug":"protesters-demand-action-to-ensure-entry-to-ireland-for-palestinian-students-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/10598\/","title":{"rendered":"Protesters demand action to ensure entry to Ireland for Palestinian students \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dublin college students staged a protest outside the Department of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday, demanding the Government facilitate the evacuation of students from Gaza<\/a> to take up places in Irish universities. <\/p>\n

The Representative Office of Ireland, in Ramallah, provides 30 scholarships to Palestinian students to pursue one-year master\u2019s degrees in Ireland through a programme with Irish Aid<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Others receive supports from individual Irish universities, called \u201csanctuary scholarships\u201d, which often include waived fees and a monthly stipend. <\/p>\n

Students from Trinity College, University College Dublin, Dublin City University and the National College of Art and Design gathered at Iveagh House where they called on the Government to \u201cmake good on its promise to Palestinian students, both current and future\u201d. <\/p>\n

In July, nine Palestinians arrived in Ireland to begin their studies this September; however, protesters claim more than 40 others remain trapped in Gaza with no clear path to Ireland. <\/p>\n

\u201cWith few safe passages out of Gaza, these students are being left cruelly stranded by the Government that invited them here in the first place,\u201d the coalition of students\u2019 unions said in a joint statement. <\/p>\n

\"IbtisamIbtisam Abuhassira, who has called on the Irish Government to evacuate her son and husband from Gaza, at the protest in Dublin. Photograph: Bryan Meade <\/p>\n

Speaking on the steps of Iveagh House, Harry Johnston, chair of Trinity College Dublin\u2019s boycott, divestment and sanctions group \u2013 a student-led pro-Palestinian organisation with no affiliation with the university\u2019s administration \u2013 said Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Harris and his department were failing those due to arrive on campuses. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re here today to demand that sanctuary scholarship students, people who have been promised places in Irish universities, will be allowed to take up those places,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have to do better as a nation that has experienced forced famine and the same displacement that is affecting Palestinians right now.\u201d <\/p>\n

Hazen Griffin, from UCD\u2019s students\u2019 union, accused the Government of \u201cplaying games\u201d with the lives of affected students by not evacuating them immediately. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo grant a student fleeing war and genocide a place at a university in another country with no extra support or financial help is nothing short of despicable,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Mr Griffin read from correspondence the UCD union received from a Gazan student due to begin studying in Dublin. <\/p>\n

\u201cOn August 18th, 2024, an Israeli air strike destroyed my family\u2019s home while we were inside. My father and brother were injured. It was the hardest night of the war,\u201d the letter read.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dream is to study biomedical engineering. Growing up in Gaza, I witnessed hospitals without electricity, life-saving equipment broken and a lack of spare parts, and patients dying while awaiting basic treatment.\u201d <\/p>\n

The student said he had witnessed his father suffering in hospital with no way to receive the correct treatment. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat experience strengthened my commitment to pursue biomedical engineering, not just for myself, but for anyone going through similar tragedies.\u201d <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Student with place on UCD master\u2019s course still awaiting evacuation from GazaOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Independent Senator Alice-Mary Higgins told the demonstrators that the Gazan students \u201chave done the impossible work of earning scholarships, of being accepted to universities, of continuing to envisage a future when they are living in a place moment by moment, when all they are surrounded with is death\u201d. <\/p>\n

She said she took issue with being told by the Department of Foreign Affairs that she should appreciate that the embassy has limited resources to support non-Irish citizens. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t appreciate that and we don\u2019t accept it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea that the workload of an embassy and a few staff is so difficult that they can organise evacuation for nine students but not for 40 is outrageous. What really that language is hiding is a rollback on decency,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

In response, the department said it was aware of the 40 Palestinian students and was providing consular assistance.<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman said individuals must be in possession of valid visas and travel documents in order to travel to Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cExit from Gaza is dependent on receipt of permission from the relevant local authorities, both in Israel and, in certain circumstances, neighbouring jurisdictions. Such permissions are outside the control of the Government of Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dublin college students staged a protest outside the Department of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday, demanding the Government facilitate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,8104,18,13,14,3761,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,72,44,1420,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-10598","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-department-of-foreign-affairs","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-gaza-strip","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-latest-news","19":"tag-latestnews","20":"tag-main-news","21":"tag-mainnews","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-palestine","24":"tag-simon-harris","25":"tag-students","26":"tag-top-stories","27":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}