Notre Dame & Israel

I'm a little behind on this, but on the 16th of this month 61 academics signed a letter to the Irish Times (sub reqd) calling on the EU to stop awarding grants and contracts to Irsaeli universities until "Israel abides by UN resolutions and ends the occupation of Palestinian territories". They also want EU academics to refrain from "further joint collaborations with Israeli academic institutions".

I had heard about this, but hadn't paid much attention until I saw Jon Ihle's post on the subject and his mention of Notre Dame. All the signatories are based in Ireland except for three - all of whom are on the faculty of Notre Dame.

• Prof Seamus Deane, Institute for Irish Studies, University of Notre Dame;
• Prof Luke Gibbons, Dept of English, University of Notre Dame;
• Dr Breandán Mac Suibhne, Institute for Irish Studies, University of Notre Dame;

What's going on here? Why is Notre Dame the only non-Irish university listed? Are these three working to ban contacts between Notre Dame and Israeli universities? Is Notre Dame a hotbed of anti-Israeli sentiment?