{"id":577939,"date":"2026-07-31T23:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T23:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/577939\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T23:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T23:06:08","slug":"protesters-gather-in-solidarity-with-gazan-students-denied-visas-to-ireland-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/577939\/","title":{"rendered":"Protesters gather in solidarity with Gazan students denied visas to Ireland \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

About 100 people gathered at the Let Them Study demonstration outside the Department of Justice<\/a> on Friday to protest against the refusal of visas to students from Gaza. <\/p>\n

More than 20 prospective students from Gaza<\/a> have been refused visas allowing them to take up fully funded places in Irish universities from September. Last year about 60 Gazans were evacuated by Irish authorities to study in Ireland.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018Studying in Ireland was the hope I was holding on to\u2019: Palestinian teacher \u2018dying inside\u2019 since visa refusedOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Some of the reasons for rejection given to students in Gaza recently include not supplying original bank statements, not accounting for gaps in their education, and a failure to provide strong evidence that they will return home once their course of study is complete. <\/p>\n

Former People Before Profit (PBP) TD Br\u00edd Smith said she believes people are shocked by the response of the Department of Justice. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo ask students to provide documentation when it\u2019s [Gaza] in the middle of a genocide. They don\u2019t have original documentation,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She said Gazan students, \u201cwill rebuild Gaza, but they won\u2019t do it unless they\u2019re educated\u201d. <\/p>\n

Senator Laura Harmon urged Minister for Justice Jim O\u2019Callaghan to take action. \u201cHe needs to ensure these students get their visas,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

The Labour spokeswoman for further and higher education said, \u201cthey\u2019re [the Gazan students] qualified to study here. They\u2019ve been accepted. The colleges are really eager and excited to take them in\u201d. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Refusing visas to Gaza students: humanity and common sense should applyOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Harmon said she has been in contact with five distressed Gazan students denied visas who asked her to intervene. <\/p>\n

Daniel Walsh, president of Aml\u00e9 (formerly the Union of Students in Ireland), said the union was at the protest in solidarity with the students and that Aml\u00e9 believes education should be a path to a brighter future. <\/p>\n

Walsh spoke of Palestinian students who worked hard while living in unimaginable circumstances only to find themselves \u201cfacing a further barrier to education in the form of strict, stringent visa requirements that frankly don\u2019t reflect their reality, and that reality is one of living through an active genocide\u201d. <\/p>\n

Ghada Ashour, one of the speakers at the protest, came to Ireland from Gaza last year to study for a master\u2019s degree at DCU. Ashour said her life changed completely because of the scholarship she received. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor a Palestinian student a university offer is not simply an email it may be the only thing which can keep them hopeful … it may be the first time in years that they allow themselves to imagine a future,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Addressing the visa requirements for original documents, she said, \u201cthey are being asked right now to provide ordinary documents from a place where nothing is ordinary\u201d. <\/p>\n

Erin Foley, president of South East Technological University\u2019s (SETU) student union, read a letter from Shahd, a Palestinian who received a scholarship to study at SETU but was denied a visa. <\/p>\n

After being rejected Shahd said: \u201cI found myself wondering whether all those sacrifices had been for nothing.\u201d <\/p>\n

James Hickey, an organiser with PBP said the students being denied visas are potentially future doctors and nurses who could rebuild Gaza. \u201cThe fact that we\u2019re not even letting them come here to study, I think is shameful,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

In a statement the Department of Justice said: \u201cEach visa application is assessed on its own merits, taking all relevant information into consideration at that time. All visa applicants are advised that the responsibility is on them to provide as much information in support of their application as they feel is necessary.\u201d <\/p>\n

It added, \u201capplicants that carefully follow these guidelines have an improved prospect of receiving a positive decision at first instance. The reasons for a refusal are outlined in the decision letter issued to the applicants\u201d. <\/p>\n

The department declined to comment on Friday\u2019s protest. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"About 100 people gathered at the Let Them Study demonstration outside the Department of Justice on Friday to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9691,3409,61,60,43,4268],"class_list":["post-577939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-department-of-justice","tag-gaza-strip","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-palestine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}