Zev Stub is the Times of Israel's Diaspora Affairs correspondent.
Three Irish figures, including actress Olwen Fouéré, have rejected honorary doctorates from the University of Galway due to the university's research partnership with The Technion - Israel Institute of Technology.
Fouéré, who has appeared in movies and shows including "Derry Girls" and "The Crown," refused to receive the honor at a ceremony on Thursday, alongside filmmaker Margo Harkin and academic Kerby Miller, according to the Irish Times.
Fouéré said her decision was due to the university's "extremely problematic" ties with the Haifa-based Technion.
Through the EU-funded ASTERISK program, Galway has a partnership worth some €4 million (NIS 15 million) with the Israeli university to derive sustainable green hydrogen from seawater.
Anti-Israel groups like Academic for Palestine have called on Galway to withdraw from the program due to what they say is Israel's unfair treatment of the Palestinians and "genocide" in the Gaza Strip.
The school's president said in September that, while it would not participate in any new research agreements with Israeli partners, it was contractually obliged to continue the existing partnership with the Technion.
Demonstrators from the Campus Anti Genocide coalition held a silent protest at Thursday's ceremony over the continued partnership.
Academic boycotts of Israeli institutions and professors in Europe have continued and intensified even after Israel signed a ceasefire agreement with Hamas in October. More than 1,000 boycotts have been recorded by the Israeli Committee of University Heads (VERA) since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, sparking the war in Gaza.
Antisemitic sentiments are seen to be extremely high in Ireland, a country with fewer than 3,000 Jews, due in large part to entrenched religious beliefs held by the Catholic community, according to a recent study.
Last week, the Dublin city council said it would vote on renaming a park honoring Israel's Irish-born former president Chaim Herzog.
Fouéré, the actress, is the daughter of Yann Fouéré, a notorious antisemite who collaborated with the Nazis in France. She said in a statement that The Technion "trains future Israeli military leaders and specialises in the development of tank and drone technologies used by the Israeli regime."
"It is well known that several demands from University of Galway staff, researchers, students, and the wider community, to cut the University's ties with the Technion contract, have been met with avoidance, delay and legal obfuscation," Fouéré said. "After a great deal of thought, I have regrettably come to believe that the [best] action is in refusing to accept an honorary degree at this moment in the University's history."
Fouéré's decision followed an announcement by Harkin, the filmmaker, last Monday that she would refuse the doctorate. Harkin is best known for directing the drama "Hush-a-Bye Baby" and the documentary "Bloody Sunday: A Derry Diary."
Miller, a historian who donated a major archive of Irish-American immigration documents to the university for its Imirce project, announced his own refusal during a campus event on Wednesday.