Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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83. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the reason an embassy (details supplied) sponsored an event at which persons were not permitted to attend; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8546/19]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Irish Embassy in South Africa provided financial support for a closing event for a conference on post-conflict reconciliation organised by Stellenbosch University in December 2018. The closing event, at which the Embassy supported the participation of a speaker from Northern Ireland, was planned to honour the legacy of Archbishop Desmond Tutu and mark the 20th anniversary of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The Embassy agreed to support the closing event in light of the relevance of the themes of post-conflict resolution to the Northern Ireland Peace Process, in what was the 20th anniversary year of the Good Friday Agreement. It was felt that this was a good opportunity to highlight the ongoing reconciliation work taking place in Northern Ireland and the support provided by South Africa to the Irish Peace Process. Stellenbosch University has an existing strong relationship with Queens University Belfast and is a respected institution in South Africa.

I understand that the conference organisers, faced with strong local protests about the participation of Israeli academics, tried to devise a formula which would describe the Israeli academics as being present in their personal capacities, and not as representatives of Israel or of their universities. This was a good faith effort by the organisers, but the Israeli academics concluded they could not participate under the altered terms, which would have applied only to them, and withdrew from attending the conference.

I would like to make clear that Ireland is opposed to boycotts of Israel, including academic boycotts. The absence of the Israeli participants from this conference was regrettable, and this is clearly also the view of Stellenbosch University.

I am convinced that peacebuilding and reconciliation work is very important and a positive contribution to conflict resolution, and I believe that this conference, despite this unfortunate situation, nonetheless played a valuable role in this regard. I understand that other European Embassies and Cultural Institutes who were involved with sponsoring the conference took the same view.