Palestine Solidarity Campaign

PSC campaigns for Palestinian self-determination and a Palestinian right of return, while seeking to build a mass movement capable of influencing British government policy.[5] Its stated objectives include developing relationships with Palestinian organisations and challenging actions by Israel and other entities that it considers to suppress Palestinian rights.[5] It presents its purpose in terms of freedom, justice and equality, while its practical work combines public mobilisation, lobbying and campaigns directed at businesses and public institutions.[5][6]

Boycotts, divestment and sanctions form a central part of this activity.[3] In the 2017 pension-investment litigation, its campaigning was described as targeting Israel and companies supporting the occupation, with particular attention to companies operating in the United Kingdom that facilitated the construction, administration or maintenance of Israeli settlements.[2] PSC also campaigns against the Jewish National Fund's activities in Britain, accusing it of involvement in the “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians; this is an allegation advanced by PSC, not a finding established by the campaign's existence.[3]

PSC says that it is not aligned with a political party in either Britain or Palestine and does not participate in internal Palestinian politics.[6] It nevertheless works with British parties across the political spectrum to seek policy changes and maintains that Palestinians should determine their own future.[6] Its campaigning encompasses media coverage as well as government decisions, corporate relationships and public demonstrations.[6]

Activists initially met in London under the name Palestine Solidarity Liaison Committee before adopting Palestine Solidarity Campaign, in the retrospective account of former general secretary John Gee published in 2007.[7] PSC dates its establishment to 1982.[1] Gee recalled that Israel's June 1982 invasion of Lebanon changed the basis of the group's work, after which it held weekly meetings in Bethnal Green attended by approximately 20 to 25 people.[7] Its first branches outside London were established in Swansea, Brighton and Bradford.[7]

Organising continued after Palestine and Lebanon receded from news headlines following the September 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacres.[7] A printed bulletin, Palestine Solidarity, appeared regularly for nearly ten years, while branches developed in Manchester, Sheffield, North-East England and South Wales.[7] Gee's account linked this continuity through the mid-1980s to the organisation's ability to respond through an existing network when the Palestinian uprising began in December 1987.[7]

Surviving London-branch records cover 1983–2003 and are held by Bishopsgate Institute under the reference PSC.[8] The archival catalogue classifies the branch under political parties and pressure or promotional associations; the record dates concern that branch's archive rather than establishing the national organisation's founding date.[8]

A 2010 analysis by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs described PSC's contemporary self-presentation as independent, nongovernmental and nonparty political, working for “peace and justice for the Palestinian people.”[9] It reported just over 4,400 members at the 2010 annual general meeting, about 1,000 more than the previous year, and attributed that increase to reactions to Israel's Operation Cast Lead.[9] Its account identified 40 regional groups in England and Wales, alongside independent groups in Scotland and Ireland.[9]

By September 2023, a report on British higher education described PSC as the largest UK organisation advocating Palestinian rights, with more than 8,000 members and affiliations with 15 national trade unions.[10] These figures describe a different period and organisational measure from the 2010 membership and regional-group counts.[9][10]

PSC is a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales under number 05213508, rather than a charity.[6] It lists its registered office at 27 Old Gloucester Street, London, and a separate correspondence address at Box BM PSA, London WC1N 3XX.[6] Its published governance arrangements describe an elected Executive Committee responsible for managing the organisation.[6]

Members, branches and affiliates elect volunteers to the Executive Committee at the annual general meeting, which also determines campaigning priorities through an annual plan.[6] Representatives of the Student and Youth Committee and Trade Union Advisory Committee join the executive.[6] A 2010 Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs analysis likewise identified an elected executive and a Trade Union Advisory Committee in its description of PSC's structure at that time.[9]

Trade-union affiliation has been a significant organisational connection.[7] In spring 2007, PSC reported affiliations from 18 national unions with a combined membership exceeding five million, while explicitly noting that affiliation did not mean every individual member endorsed their union's adopted policies.[7] The September 2023 account identified many PSC members as students or academics and described people facing antisemitism allegations in higher education contacting PSC, which referred them to the European Legal Support Center.[10]

PSC says that membership subscriptions and supporters' donations finance its work and that it accepts no money from governments, political parties or big businesses.[6] It identifies protests, meetings, lobbying, vigils, campaign materials, equipment, office provision and a small staff team as uses of its funds.[6] Its published annual membership rates start at £30 for standard membership, £15 for concessionary membership and £10 for students and young people.[6]

Declared income rose from £691,736 in 2022 to £773,886 for the financial year ending 31 August 2023, when direct campaigning costs were £789,528.[11] For the financial years ending in August 2024 and 2025, income was reported as £3,675,576 and £3,838,259 respectively, with campaigning costs of £1,941,615 and £2,386,923.[11] The reported 2024 income represented a 375 percent increase over the previous year.[11]

In April 2010, PSC and the Trades Union Congress launched “Would you buy stolen goods?”, seeking an import ban on products from Israeli settlements in the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria.[12] TUC general secretary Brendan Barber distinguished the initiative from a general boycott of Israeli goods and services, which he said could harm ordinary Palestinian and Israeli workers.[12] He instead presented it as targeted, consumer-led pressure on settlement businesses.[12] The campaign alleged that produce originated on “stolen land” and advanced claims about Palestinian exports, water resources and child labour.[12]

The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs described PSC's activities around 2010 as including the Boycott Israeli Goods campaign, lobbying British and European Union politicians, and organising West Bank delegations for trade-union activists, MPs and other political figures.[9] It also reported an annual Trafalgar Square rally around Nakba Day, marked on 15 May.[9] These descriptions concern the programme at the time of that analysis rather than establishing that each activity continued unchanged.[9]

Cultural boycott campaigning included an effort in 2011 to persuade the BBC to cancel an Israel Philharmonic Orchestra performance at the Royal Albert Hall.[13] PSC argued that Israel violated law and human rights and that the orchestra “services the Israeli army.”[13] After cancellation was refused, several dozen activists unfurled a “Free Palestine” banner and shouted at conductor Zubin Mehta, interrupting the live BBC Radio 3 broadcast twice.[13] The disruption was linked to PSC-organised activism in the account documenting the incident.[13]

A later UK-wide campaign, “Don't Buy Apartheid,” urged individuals, shops, restaurants and businesses to boycott Israeli products, including avocados, oranges, herbs and dates.[14] It also targeted Coca-Cola and associated brands, citing a regional distribution centre in Jerusalem.[14] Activists were reported removing Israeli-origin products from a Waitrose supermarket in Preston in connection with the campaign, although the store action was attributed to activists and a social-media video rather than directly to PSC.[14]

PSC has pursued financial-sector targets as well as consumer boycotts.[15] In December 2018, it announced that HSBC had “fully divested” from Israeli defence contractor Elbit Systems after campaigning for the bank to cut its ties since 2017.[15] This was PSC's account of the outcome: HSBC had not responded to the reporting at the time, and an Elbit communications executive said the company had received no announcement from the bank.[15]

Political lobbying has also sought restrictions on trade.[16] In evidence submitted to the UK Foreign Affairs Committee in February 2025, PSC called for a ban on trade with Israeli settlements and other trade that it said assisted Israel in maintaining its occupation.[16] A July 2026 call similarly sought restrictions extending beyond settlement goods to other trade that PSC considered supportive of Israel's presence in the occupied Palestinian territory.[16]

A London demonstration held on 22 May, described in a 2006 account, was organised by PSC with help from Christian Aid and Pax Christi and drew an estimated 20,000 people.[17] Speakers included Baroness Jenny Tonge and MP Jeremy Corbyn, with a mock-up of the security barrier and a banner demanding an end to occupation and recognition of Palestinian democracy behind them.[17]

PSC reports that its supporters sent 57,000 emails to MPs before the October 2014 parliamentary vote on recognising Palestine.[6] It also reports that more than 150,000 people demonstrated in London during the 2014 Gaza war.[6] In May 2021, PSC was among the organisations behind another London demonstration, whose participants marched through Hyde Park toward the Israeli Embassy; Corbyn was among those present.[18] An organisers' spokesperson called for immediate British government action and an end to what the organisers described as Israel escaping punishment for violence and repression against Palestinians.[18]

After 7 October 2023, PSC helped organise major demonstrations with Friends of Al-Aqsa, the Muslim Association of Britain and the Palestine Forum in Britain.[3] Director Ben Jamal participated in coordinating London marches with representatives of other organisations.[3] PSC and five other organisations applied to hold a London demonstration on 7 October, with notification to the Metropolitan Police reported at approximately 12:50 p.m. for a rally the following week.[1] A separate briefing described police approval shortly after midday and a PSC rally in Brighton on 8 October.[19]

PSC's later strategy included online actions, lobbying, leafleting and protests at MPs' constituency offices, framed internally as “maximizing pressure on MPs and holding them accountable.”[11] PSC claimed that, from June 2024, it helped prompt at least 34 councils to propose divestment motions concerning Israeli-linked companies and obtained signatures from 1,468 councillors for a pledge on Palestinian rights and council action.[11] Those numbers are campaign claims about motions and pledges, rather than evidence that all the proposed divestments were implemented.[11]

A demonstration advertised for September 2025 under the title “Stop Starving Gaza” was scheduled to assemble at Russell Square and proceed to Whitehall, demanding changes to British policy and an end to arms sales.[20] A government assessment anticipated several thousand participants and classified the planned march as high risk, while acknowledging that its network-monitoring information might be incomplete; the account concerned preparations rather than confirmation of the event's eventual course.[20]

At the National March for Palestine on 10 October 2026, organised by the Palestine Coalition, PSC director Aimee Shalan called for “full sanctions on Israel.”[21] PSC's accompanying social-media message demanded sanctions on the whole state and a full arms embargo.[21] Attendance was described as several thousand, whereas PSC claimed tens of thousands.[21]

PSC and Jacqueline Lewis challenged restrictions imposed through government guidance on Local Government Pension Scheme investment policies.[2] Lewis was a PSC member, an elected Unison official and a local-authority employee of nearly forty years who contributed to the pension scheme; the subsequent Supreme Court judgment identified her as a PSC executive-committee member.[2][22] The guidance had been introduced in 2016 and sought to constrain certain pension-fund decisions involving boycotts of Israel or British defence companies.[23]

The challenged passages restricted pension authorities from pursuing boycotts, divestment and sanctions against foreign nations and UK defence industries, and from adopting policies contrary to British foreign or defence policy.[2] The restriction applied even where an investment strategy presented no significant financial risk and regardless of pension members' support.[2] The proceedings concerned pension investment powers, rather than a judicial assessment of the political merits of PSC's campaign.[2]

The government identified possible mixed messages abroad, damage to community cohesion through legitimising antisemitic or racist attitudes and attacks, and adverse consequences for British defence industries as concerns.[2] It also accepted that anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian campaigning was not, in itself, antisemitic.[2]

On 22 June 2017, the High Court upheld the challenge because the Secretary of State had imposed the restrictions for purposes outside the statutory power governing the pension scheme.[2] The judgment contrasted restrictions on certain non-financial considerations with the allowance of others, such as public health or environmental concerns, even where no significant financial detriment or member objection was anticipated.[2] The government had not justified that distinction by reference to a pension-scheme purpose.[2]

PSC chair Hugh Lanning called the result a “victory for Palestine, for local democracy and for the rule of law.”[24] A Board of Deputies of British Jews spokesperson stressed its technical legal basis and suggested that compliant guidance could be reissued.[24] The Court of Appeal reversed the decision in 2018, and the Supreme Court heard the subsequent appeal on 20 November 2019.[22]

On 29 April 2020, the Supreme Court allowed the appeal by three votes to two and restored the order declaring the two passages unlawful.[4] Lord Wilson, joined by Lady Hale, concluded that the statutory framework permitted guidance on how authorities considered non-financial factors, but not directions concerning investments for reasons extraneous to that framework.[4] Lord Carnwath agreed with the outcome, while Lady Arden and Lord Sales would have dismissed the appeal.[4]

The majority treated pension administrators as having responsibilities resembling those of trustees acting for scheme members.[22] Lord Wilson rejected the description of pension contributions as public money, reasoning that employees contributed from their income and employer contributions formed part of remuneration.[22] Lord Carnwath likewise emphasised that the relevant investment-policy choices belonged to administering authorities rather than the Secretary of State.[22] Following the ruling, the government proposed legislation to prevent public bodies from pursuing their own approach to international relations.[23]

PSC's combination of affiliated unions, local branches and direct membership gives its campaigning several channels into British public life.[6][10] Its activities connect street demonstrations with parliamentary lobbying, corporate campaigns and efforts to influence local-authority investment decisions.[6][11] The substantial increase in reported income between 2023 and 2025 accompanied an expanded financial scale for these activities, although income figures alone do not establish their political effectiveness.[11]

The pension case produced a specific legal result limiting the Secretary of State's use of statutory guidance, rather than endorsing a particular boycott or resolving the Israel–Palestinian conflict.[2][4] Its significance for PSC lay in restoring pension authorities' ability to consider investment policies within the applicable statutory framework without the two challenged restrictions.[22][4] The narrow majority and ensuing legislative proposals also illustrate that the institutional rules surrounding public-body boycott policies remained politically disputed.[4][23]

PSC's 7 October 2023 statement said the offensive from Gaza “can only be understood in the context of Israel's ongoing, decades long, military occupation and colonisation of Palestinian land,” and its 9 October statement attributed the escalation to Israel.[3] Jamal separately expressed horror at civilian deaths and hostage-taking while defending Palestinians' right to resist occupation.[3] PSC's national leadership suspended four Manchester branch executives after publications praising the attack, rejected those publications as unrepresentative and condemned intentional civilian killing and hostage-taking as war crimes regardless of the perpetrator.[3] PSC continued to describe the conflict through its allegations of occupation, colonisation and apartheid in January 2025.[1]

Antisemitism-related disputes include former executive member Tapesh Abu Shaim's social-media claims blaming Israel for ISIS and invoking “9/11 truth”; he served on the executive from 2015 to 2020.[25] At a May 2018 meeting, PSC's director rejected antisemitic narratives, Holocaust denial and conspiracy theories about Israeli power, saying such views had “no place” in the movement.[25] PSC also opposes adoption of the IHRA working definition of antisemitism, arguing that some examples risk conflating antisemitism with criticism of Israel.[26] A 2010 Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs analysis assessed PSC's position on Jewish statehood and one-state or two-state outcomes as unclear in the material it reviewed, rather than establishing its current policy.[9]

In March 2024, PSC's West Midlands branch withdrew sponsorship from a fundraiser advertised with Leila Khaled among its speakers.[27] PSC said the framing did not clearly fit its principles and reiterated its position that armed resistance must observe international law and that force against non-combatants is illegal; whether Khaled would speak remained unclear.[27] Separately, Jamal was arrested following a January 2025 London protest, pleaded not guilty to public-order charges and was found guilty in April 2026, receiving an 18-month conditional discharge and £7,500 prosecution-cost order.[1]

Israel's Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism recommended considering entry restrictions on activists and workers from PSC and ten other British organisations.[28] The recommendation was not itself an entry ban: individual cases and supporting material were to undergo further review.[28]