Rosemary Addington, Kingston Peace Council reports:
Palestine Solidarity Campaign’s 2026 AGM was an inspiring event, and we all resolve to do whatever we can to carry on this crucial work.
As usual the AGM was busy and well-attended event. PSC Chair Louise Regan opened the proceeding and the minutes of the 2025 AGM were approved. She spoke of the increasing membership of PSC resulting in more income, but of course costs have risen too. Secretary Ben Soffa gave the annual report and mentioned an important success – the Co-op has now agreed to stop stocking any Israeli products.
We still need to prioritise the campaign against Barclays Bank and the need for local councils to divest pension funds from anything supportive of Israel must continue. Ryvka Barnard, PSC Deputy Director, outlined the Annual Plan. She spoke of tackling the widely condemned proscription of Palestine Action and the need to resist the up-coming Government Crime and Policing bill.
Then we had an inspiring speech from guest speaker Jeremy Corbyn who is of course a dedicated supporter of PSC. He spoke about South Africa under apartheid, and that the current on-going situation in Gaza is even worse. We must not and will not ever stop. The rest of the morning was taken up by various motions pertaining to Objective 1 of PSC’s constitution: to demonstrate solidarity.
The 1st motion on this was about the continued incarceration of Marwan Barhgouti ever since 2002, this is strongly supported by Israel as they realise how tremendously powerful he would be if released and allowed to become a strong leader supported by very many Palestinians. The resolution also dealt with his repeated torture, and the use of torture against other Palestinian prisoners, many of whom have never actually been charged with specific crimes.
The afternoon session opened with a speech on video from the second guest speaker, Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on occupied Palestine. She praised the many campaigns of PSC, especially mentioning the Barclays Bank campaign, and the campaigning and leafletting that takes place outside shops continuing to sell Israeli products. She emphasised that the movement also keeps growing internationally in very many countries, often using human rights and international law. Arab freedom can never be complete without Palestine, she said.
More resolutions and amendments were then discussed and passed. These came under Objective 3, Strengthening our Campaigning, Building Political Alliances, and Organising for Growth. Due to time pressures we were unable to tackle all proposed resolutions. Maybe we will need a two-day event next year!
A nice touch came in the afternoon was when Louise Regan introduced all PSC staff by name, to much applause, with a brief description of each of their jobs, about 20 people now I believe.
There was then a guest panel, Art and Culture against genocide. The two panellists mentioned an impressive number of actions taking place here involving writers, artists, and actors preventing their work getting into Israel. Some actors were pulling out of festivals sponsored by Barclays. Five countries are boycotting Eurovision due to the continued involvement of Israel.
The last resolution discussed and passed was an emergency resolution that dealt with the ever-worsening abuse Israel is committing in the West Bank, more and more illegal settlements and outposts being established and attacks against individual Palestinians taking place often witnessed by police and army, but in no way prevented by them. A big demonstration outside the Israeli embassy was proposed.
Our last guest speaker was Zainah El-Haroun from Al-Haq, an organisation that documents and records the many violations committed against Palestinians in the West Bank as well as Gaza. One of the issues she spoke of was the many Bedouin communities which are being driven out of their homes and their villages destroyed by Israeli forces. Of you search for her on-line there is a recording of her whole speech to us – well worth watching.