Editorial: ​Now Queen’s University in Belfast disgraces itself over Israel too, just as Trinity College Dublin has done

​Hot on the heels of the cowardly and despicable decision of Trinity College, Dublin to cut links with Israel, Queen’s University in Belfast (QUB) has done the same.

​The headline decision by Queen’s has been made to look reasonable. It said that the university had already announced last year that it would divest “from companies blacklisted by the UN Human Rights Council”. The implication was that this was a rational decision based on international norms, but gave no hint of how that same council has been disgraced by the way in which it has admitted countries with appalling records on human rights. These are often nations that traditionally gang up on Israel, yet they have nothing like the advanced democracy, legal system or other aspects of civilised governance that the Jewish state has had since its inception.

Then the QUB statement came to arguably the even worse part of its decision, severing of ties with Israeli institutions. It said: “From an academic standpoint, we currently have no institutional research MoUs with Israeli-based partners, there are no direct research partnerships with Queen’s and any institution in Israel, and we have no student exchange programmes with Israel.”

Note the present tense. Did it have such ties, we have asked? And even if not, the implication of the statement is of a passive situation, in much the same way that any typical university will have arrangements with places of learnings in some countries but not others. But the situation is not passive – QUB has actively decided not to have partnerships with Israel.

Queen’s and Trinity are traditionally Ireland’s best universities, but it’s not as if either institution is as high as they might be on international tables. Yet they spurn academic links with one of the most dynamic and technologically advanced nations on earth, one that is surrounded by failed or semi failed, hostile states.