University College Dublin teams up again with Israel's Technion

I am always confused when I hear university graduates talk about their “alma mater.” As the term literally means “nourishing mother,” does it imply that you love and respect the place you studied in the same way you love and respect your mom?

A detail I have just learned fills me with scorn for University College Dublin – my alma mater: UCD has joined a new European Union-funded research project alongside Israel’s Technion, a well-known scientific institute.

Scheduled to kick off in January next year, the $5 million project focuses on “innovative nucleic acids.” As nucleic acids can help diagnose cancer and other serious diseases, the EU is indicating that the project is medical in nature.

That doesn’t make everything okay.

During the ongoing genocidal war, Israel has starved Gaza of food, medicines and the other essentials of life. It has caused devastation to Gaza’s healthcare facilities, frequently killing patients and staff.

Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, is being detained in barbaric conditions following his arrest last year. His weight has fallen dramatically as a consequence.

Funding medical research projects involving Israel can never compensate for the crimes Israel has committed against healthcare and against humanity itself.

And the Technion’s medical research activities will never cancel out how the institute serves as a laboratory for Israel’s arms industry.

The Technion even hosts a conference billed as “the most important annual event” for Israel’s aerospace (read: weapons) industry.

Israel’s top arms makers sponsor the event, which – the Technion website states – provides them with a platform for “presenting up-to-date technology.” It is a safe bet that products which have been tested out on Palestinians are included.

UCD’s management has been alerted time and again to the Technion’s relationship with Israel’s weapons industry. Previous cooperation between UCD and the Technion has been strongly criticized by students and professors in Dublin.

Commitment to human rights?

Responding to massive public pressure, the Irish government has acknowledged that Israel is conducting a genocide. That places an onus on public authorities – such as universities – to avoid collaboration with Israeli partners, particularly those with close military connections.

In a 2024 statement, UCD’s management expressed a “strong commitment to human rights.” By entering into a fresh cooperation project involving the Technion, UCD has proven that its commitment to human rights is extremely weak.

Another Irish college – the University of Galway – has greatly angered its own students by refusing to pull out of an EU-funded project that also involves the Technion.

Last weekend, the University of Galway cited legal advice as the reason for why it cannot leave the project, known as Asterisk.

Activists in Galway have confirmed to me that the university has not provided them with a copy of the “legal advice” in question.

No matter how clever any lawyers hired by the university may be, they cannot magic away some uncomfortable truths.

The relevant facts include how the project did not get underway until January 2025 – about a year after an interim ruling by the International Court of Justice, which accepted as plausible a case brought by South Africa demonstrating that Israel is conducting a genocide.

Once that interim ruling was issued, all cooperation with Israel was automatically called into question, given that governments and public authorities throughout the world are under a legal obligation not to aid the crime of genocide.

Although the European Union welcomed that ruling, it has generally continued doing business as usual with Israel.

In July, the European Commission – the EU’s executive – proposed to “partially suspend” Israel from a relatively small number of research activities.

The proposal was blocked by Germany, Israel’s most powerful ally in Europe. And, in any event, it would not have affected cooperation with the Technion or other Israeli universities.

Along with the aforementioned project on nucleic acids, the Brussels bureaucracy has approved at least four other grant decisions benefiting Technion over the past few months.

Dealing with such topics as fifth generation batteries, “highly intelligent machines” and modern organic chemistry, most of these projects do not have a medical focus. The excuse often trotted out to “justify” EU-Israel cooperation – that it might help efforts to cure cancer – is, therefore, inapplicable.

There was never a convincing excuse for why the EU keeps on embracing Israel. After more than 700 days of genocide, all excuses should be greeted with derision.

Update

University College Dublin’s administration did not respond to a request for comment about its cooperation with Israel’s Technion. Following publication of this article, the University of Galway finally responded to a request that it provide details of the legal advice it had obtained on the Asterisk project. A spokesperson for the university said: “Legal advice by its nature is confidential and is not made public.”