Senior staff at the Irish Centre for Human Rights have published an open letter demanding that the University of Galway cuts ties with Technion University in Israel.
The letter claims that a multi-university research project on green energy may be weaponised by Israeli military forces implicated in war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Twelve top academics signed the urgent request, addressed to the university’s president and senior officials, to end the Galway-led research collaboration with The Technion – the Israeli Institute of Technology, through the European Commission’s Horizon-funded ASTERISK project.
They write that the ASTERISK project aims to further “green hydrogen production on a scale compatible with the needs of today’s industry” through seawater electrolysis, while the Israeli Defence Forces is reportedly investing in hydrogen fuel cell-powered drones and drone development.
Their letter is in response to a statement issued by the university in May.
It condemned the ongoing genocide in Gaza, reiterated the institution’s commitment to human rights and admonished the “abhorrent treatment and arbitrary detention of peaceful, humanitarian civilian campaigners on the Sumud Flotilla” including University student Louise McCormack and graduate Dr Margaret Connolly.
The statement also spelled out that the college, and other research participants, were unable to withdraw from this Horizon project because the EU has declined to suspend its association agreement with Isreal, and that acting unilaterally “would result in significant consequences” for the university.
In response, the 12 academics wrote this week that the ultimate consequences may be faced by innocent children instead.
“We note the May 2026 University statement, and specifically the statement that to unilaterally withdraw from the ASTERISK project, would result in, ‘significant consequences to the University beyond an individual research project.’ President, and University Management Team members, the consequences of Israel’s continuing actions, if not actively opposed by third states and collaborating institutions, will be most keenly felt by the children of Gaza,” the academics write.
The signatories are Professor Siobhán Mullally, Dr Illan rua Wall, Dr Edel Hughes, Professor Ray Murphy, Dr Maeve O’Rourke, Dr Paul Bradfield, Professor Shane Darcy, Dr Mais Qandeel, Professor Roja Fazaeli, Dr Joel Hanisek, Dr Anita Ferrara, and Dr Róisín Mulgrew.
All are affiliated with Irish Centre for Human Rights (ICHR ), within the University of Galway’s School of Law.
They have published their open letter on the ICHR’s online blog, including copious research notes backing up links between scientific research and military activity. They also document various authorities’ findings that children are being deliberatly targeted in Palestine.
Speaking to the Advertiser, a university spokesperson said the college did not have anything new to add to its previous statement on this topic, issued in May.
Senior officials are understood to be working on “all options” to address a torrent of concern expressed by students, graduates and others relating to the Technion-University of Galway collaboration, and this broadside from the institution’s own resident experts on links between academia and alleged war crimes will add further pressure on the college’s president, Professor David Burn.
