Dozens of leading supporters of the Palestine Solidarity
Campaign have engaged in antisemitic activity online, a
new report into the group claims.
A 79-page dossier published on Wednesday reveals an
antisemitic mind-set is prevalent among senior PSC members according to
evidence collected over two years by David Collier, a Jewish blogger and
activist.
Mr Collier attended events run by local branches of the
group and said he had discovered hundreds of links between prominent PSC members
and antisemites.
Jew-hatred had been “present consistently”, he said. Among
the examples Mr Collier collected were cases of Holocaust denial, suggestions
of a global Jewish conspiracy, and claims Mossad carried out the July 7 terror
attacks in London.
Mr Collier, a British activist who lived in Israel for 19
years, worked independently to collate the evidence and said the research
suggested Jew-hate “is the fuel that primes the PSC engine”.
The PSC is Britain’s main pro-Palestinian group and is
chaired by Hugh Lanning, a former Labour parliamentary candidate and ex-trade
union director. Its patrons include academic Ilan Pappe, film director Ken
Loach, Baroness Tonge, and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. There is no suggestion in the report that any
of the patrons were personally involved in antisemitic activity.
There are dozens of active PSC branches across the country,
with local members running speaker events, fundraising initiatives and urging
companies and institutions to adopt a boycott of Israeli goods.
Mr Collier’s dossier shows hundreds of examples of PSC
supporters and campaigners engaging in antisemitic activity. He said members
“frequently cross the line between legitimate criticism of Israel and
accusations that can be identified with classic antisemitic tropes”.
In one branch he found PSC supporters claiming Israel was
harvesting Palestinian organs and suggesting Mossad had attacked Paris. One
activist posted an online link to a video claiming the Holocaust was “the
greatest lie ever told”.
On social media, thousands of articles promoted by
pro-Palestinian supporters related to Jews orchestrating global terror attacks
and encouraging paedophilia.
