Psc casino

UK advocacy organisation

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) is an activist organisation in England and Wales. It was founded in the UK in ^[1] and incorporated that year as Palestine Solidarity Campaign Ltd.^[2] In , The Guardian described it as "Europe’s largest Palestinian rights organisation".^[3]

Structure

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) is an activist organisation in England and Wales, based in London. It is politically unaligned.^[4] There are also the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign and the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign. The latter is a separate organisation set up in late by established Irish human rights and community activists.^[5]Jeremy Corbyn, Hugh Lanning and Tony Greenstein have all been involved with the group.^[6][7][8] In , Jewish News reported that Lanning (then chair of PSC) was barred from entering Israel; the Israeli embassy in the UK said this was in part due to his connections with Hamas, which the EU had declared a terrorist organisation.^[7]

Its director from has been former social worker Ben Jamal, the son of a Palestinian Anglican vicar and English mother.^[3]

Boycott Israeli goods campaign

In , the Trade Union Congress (TUC) agreed to boycott produce grown on Israeli settlements.^[9] The PSC organised disruptions of a performance by the Israel Philharmonic at the Royal Albert Hall in February BBC Radio 3, which was broadcasting the concert live, was forced to suspend the broadcast several times due to the protesters' shouting and heckling.^[10]

On 28 May , when Israel's Habima Theatre company performed at the London Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, the PSC and other BDS groups organised a protest outside the building. On 29 May , BBC Radio 4 reported that Habima was "being criticised for performing to Jewish audiences in the Occupied Territories." A PSC press release corrected the report, saying that it was criticising Habima "for performing in illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank." After six months of pressure by PSC, the BBC Trust upheld the PSC's complaint.^[11] The Trust report stated "the complaint was upheld with regard to Accuracy, not upheld with regard to Impartiality and Fairness."^[12] The PSC waged a two-year campaign to block an EU trade agreement, the ACAA, that recognised Israeli pharmaceutical standards as equal to those in Europe. The agreement was passed in October ^[13]

Other activism

Sarah Colborne (then director of the PSC) was on board the Mavi Marmara during the flotilla raid.^[14] The PSC arranged a 30 March "Land Day" protest outside the Israeli Embassy in London.^[15]

Launching a campaign against what it termed Israeli apartheid in , the PSC announced that universities in the UK were investing almost £ million in companies which were aiding in Israeli breaches of international law. It produced a database of these investments.^[16] Also in the PSC signed a letter alongside over other groups calling on the International Criminal Court to begin investigating war crimes committed by Israeli in the Palestinian territories.^[17]

In , the PSC organised a march in support of Palestine in London which was attended by over , people. Other events took place in Bristol, Nottingham and Peterborough. The group was protesting against an Israeli bombing offensive which had killed over people in eleven days.^[18]Black Lives Matter supported the march.^[19]

In October , Apsana Begum posed with the PSC at their stand at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool.^[20][21]

During the Hamas–Israel War, PSC was the main organiser of a series of demonstrations jointly with Friends of Al-Aqsa, the Stop the War Coalition, the Muslim Association of Britain, the Palestinian Forum in Britain and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.^[3] These included on 21 October, with some , marchers in London ,^[22][23] a national demonstration on 11 November, at which police estimated , marchers and organisers estimated ,,^[24] local rallies and vigils on 2 December,^[24] 25 November in London, attended by tens of thousands,^[25] and a national demonstration called for 9 December.^[24] In late October, PSC Director Ben Jamal said Keir Starmer's statement that Israel had the right to cut off water and electricity to Gaza was "grotesque".^[26] Also in October, four members in Manchester were suspended for describing attack by Hamas gunmen as a "heroic move" in which "Palestinian freedom fighters from besieged Gaza broke Zionist colonial barriers and entered settlements built on stolen Palestinian land".^[3][1] The 11 November London demonstration was controversial as it coincided with Armistice Day; after complaints from Conservative politicians that this was "provocative and disrespectful", far right counterprotesters announced they would defend the Cenotaph from marchers, although the march was not planned to go near it.^[1][27] At the 25 November demonstration, one protester was arrested on suspicion of inciting racial hatred, for carrying a placard with Nazi symbols on it. The chant "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" was widely used.^[28]

See also

References

External links