Call for academic boycott of Israel

Sir, – I note that at its annual conference, the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) has – on human rights grounds – called for an academic boycott of Israel which will include, but will by no means be limited to, placing a ban on student exchanges with Israeli schools.

There seems to have been no discussion of the extensive academic ties that Trinity College, Dublin Institute of Technology and University College, Dublin all have with Russia and China, despite the former country’s illegal occupation of parts of the sovereign state of Georgia and the general human rights situation in the People’s Republic.

This is all the more surprising given that it was the Dublin Colleges Branch of the TUI that sponsored the anti-Israel motion. Was there no time for this given the packed conference agenda? – Yours, etc,

CIARÁN

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Ó RAGHALLAIGH,

College Street, Cavan.