News & Events

Distinguished speakers are coming to the University of Galway during Nelson Mandela Anti-Racism Week. Two high-level events on Palestine will feature Dr Mads Gilbert speaking on ‘Health Apartheid in Palestine’ (19 March), and Francesca Albanese and Maha Abdallah highlighting the situation in Gaza and the ‘Implications of South Africa’s Genocide Case at the International Court of Justice’ (22 March).

On Tuesday, 19 March 2024, at 17:15, we are honoured to host a guest lecture with Dr Mads Gilbert, a specialist in anaesthesiology and senior consultant at the University Hospital of North Norway and professor emeritus at UiT the Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø. Dr Gilbert has worked in solidarity medicine in Lebanon and occupied Palestine since 1981 and has been outspoken against Israel’s attacks on Palestinian healthcare in Gaza. Taking place at the Institute for Lifecourse and Society, the lecture will highlight the detrimental impacts of Israel’s occupation and blockade on Palestinian health, rooted in a deep structural racism described by experts as ‘health apartheid.’

On Friday, 22 March 2024, at 18:15, we are honoured to host the Irish Centre for Human Rights’ 2024 Annual Distinguished Lecture at the Human Biology Building, with expert speakers Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Palestine, and Maha Abdallah, Palestinian PhD Scholar at the University of Antwerp, researching the legal framework of genocide in relation to Zionism, settler colonialism, and the Palestinian people. The distinguished speakers will discuss South Africa’s ongoing genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

The two high-level events are taking place during Nelson Mandela Anti-Racism Week (19-22 March), as part of the University of Galway’s commitment to anti-racism and anti-apartheid. At Nelson Mandela’s historic conferring here in 2003, the former South African President expressed his people’s gratitude for ‘the solidarity of the Irish people with the suffering masses of South Africa during the anti-apartheid struggle,’ and insisted that ‘We cannot allow the world to again degenerate into a place where the will of the powerful dominates over all other considerations.’

In February 2024, the University of Galway became the first university in Ireland to call for an immediate, permanent ceasefire in Gaza and for a review of relationships with Israeli institutions. The statement by University President, Prof Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh, recalled the ICJ’s provisional measures order for Israel to comply with the 1948 Genocide Convention and to prevent genocide in Gaza, where Palestinians continue to be subjected to indiscriminate Israeli airstrikes and are now dying from starvation and dehydration under Israel’s suffocating siege.

The events on Palestine during the Nelson Mandela Anti-Racism Week are organised by the Palestine Solidarity Society at the University of Galway with the support and sponsorship of the Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Project Fund as well as the Irish Centre for Human Rights. The events will also feature stalls of the Galway Palestine Solidarity Campaign for those interested in getting involved.

Both events are in person and open to the public. Registration is required:

• Guest Lecture with Dr Mads Gilbert, 19 March 2024: http://tinyurl.com/2uarj2ys.
• Distinguished Lecture with Francesca Albanese and Maha Abdallah, 22 March 2024: http://tinyurl.com/3xuzwj3k.