Open Letter to Ben Jamal, Director of Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Instead of Helping Implement the Proscription of Palestine Action You Should Be Doing Your Best to Frustrate It - As Martin Luther King said:

Please note the date is wrong but the link is correct.

It is Friday 4 July 7.30 pm

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If you want to add your name to this Open Letter please let me know at azvsas@gmail.com

Monday 30 June, 2025

Dear Ben Jamal,

I write as one of the original founders of Palestine Solidarity Campaign although I resigned in 2022 as a result of PSC’s abandonment of anti-Zionism in the new Constitution which you supported.

I have subsequently observed in wry amusement that you now claim to have been anti-Zionist all along. However as long as you don’t call for the replacement of  a Jewish Supremacist state by a Unitary Democratic State it is impossible to consider PSC anti-Zionist.

We are living through the world’s first live streamed genocide in Gaza and the fulfilment of Zionism’s Messianic End Times. US and British imperialism are wedded to supporting Hitler’s Bastard Offspring. Today when genocidal and exterminationist ideas are commonplace in Israel and when nearly half of Israeli Jews support exterminating the Palestinians of Gaza, the last thing we should do is retreat in the face of government threats of proscription. Today the Nazi doctrine of Death by Hunger is the official policy of the Israeli government.

Ben Jamal

Despite the creation of a mass Palestine solidarity movement, both in Britain and internationally, we have not been able to stop the Genocide. At best we have been able to limit the carnage and force Zionism’s mafia bosses in Tel Aviv to admit a bare minimum of aid.

PSC, together with Stop the War Coalition and other groups, have organised impressive demonstrations in London but by themselves they have failed to change British government policy, wedded as it is to NATO and the alliance with the United States. Today we are led by war criminals and we must act accordingly.

A chance was missed in January when the Police banned the march from starting from outside the BBC. The Metropolitan Police adopted wholesale the Zionist smear that the marches offended Jews worshipping in a distant synagogue,. Instead of saying that you would call the march at the BBC regardless of the Police’s attempt at sabotage you meekly complied by rearranging the starting point in Whitehall, which enabled the Police to kettle, harass, arrest and attack protestors.

By way of contrast, one of the most successful groups in the past five years has been Palestine Action.  It has been so successful that the government has been forced to try and proscribe it as a terrorist organisation. This is the first attempt to ban a protest group as ‘terrorists’. This attempt has been met with a wave of opposition from other protest  and civil liberties groups, charities and academics reaching into the Home Office itself.

If anything represented a line in the sand then this is surely the issue – the proscription of a protest group as ‘terrorists’. It is an assault on the most basic of rights of a democratic society, the right to protest and freedom of speech, Articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention of Human Rights.

As you are aware, having often quoted them yourself, protest movements have a long history of defying coercive and repressive laws when democratic rights and basic freedoms were under attack. Slavery abolitionists, trade unionists, Chartists and Suffragettes were prepared to put themselves on the line. As Martin Luther King said in his Letter from a Birmingham Gaol

‘one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all."

A law, which is passed, which erodes our democratic rights is an immoral law. This was the position of the Suffragettes, the Chartists and all manner of social movements in the past. This is a law fit for a Police State and yet you insist that PSC branches and members meekly comply. In your ‘advice’ you write

PSC’s position is clear – we will not allow any branch to jeopardise the organisation and the movement by taking such actions in the name of PSC. It is vitally important for all branches to understand this and to act accordingly – ensure that no branch communications profess support for a proscribed organisation, that no events are planned in support of a proscribed organisation, and that no clothing or signs are used which profess support for a proscribed organisation

The Police, the Courts and the State have been implacably opposed to the Palestine solidarity movement.  Why?  Because the West’s alliance with Israel is based on strategic imperialist interests. Israel is the West’s attack dog. This is why Palestine Action has been targeted. To the state Palestine Action’s opposition to Britain’s military co-operation with Israel is no different from that of Hamas. Hence the proposed proscription.

Whereas Western regimes have supported the Zionists the people have supported the Palestinians as opinion polls have consistently demonstrated.  The reception of the audience at Glastonbury to Kneecap and Bobby Vylan’s chants of ‘death to the IDF’ demonstrates who has the ear of the young.

We see this in the decision of the High Court on Monday approving the sale of F-35 components even though the judges knew full well that they will be used to commit genocide.

The Guardian reported on Saturday that ‘concerns about proscribing Palestine Action extended into the home secretary’s own department.’ A senior civil servant was quoted as saying that ‘Home Office staff are concerned about the “absurd” decision to ban Palestine Action under UK anti-terrorism laws.’

 “From desk to desk, colleagues are exchanging concerned and bemused conversations about how absurd this is and how impossible it will be to enforce. Are they really going to prosecute as terrorists everyone who expresses support for Palestine Action’s work to disrupt the flow of arms to Israel as it commits war crimes?

If ever there was a time for civil disobedience it is now. It is fine citing the example of groups in the past which broke the law for the common good but there comes a time when PSC has to decide which is more important – obedience to the law or solidarity with the Palestinians. If PSCrefuses to contemplate civil disobedience it is more of an NGO than a solidarity campaign.

The time to refuse to accede to the proscription of Palestine Action, whilst Zionist genocide groups go unmolested, is now. If thousands of people openly defy the proscription by refusing to accept Police State Starmer’s equation of Protest Groups with Terrorism then the law will  become inoperable.

As it says in Ecclesiastes 3 (and Pete Seeger’s song Turn, Turn, Turn)

‘To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.’

Now is that time but to the leadership of PSC, afraid as you are of your own shadow, the idea of civil disobedience is something you praise in history not something you yourselves participate in. Past heroism is easy to praise. Doing it yourself is something else.

PSC has never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Unlike the Anti-Apartheid Movement of the 1970s it is afraid to build a popular movement that challenges the State’s support for genocide. The vast majority of the population, both in Europe and the United States are utterly sick of the genocide in Gaza yet PSC is afraid of breaking the law. 

Now is the ideal time to put a spoke into the Zionist wheel. Now is the time to defy yet another anti-Palestinian law with both right and public opinion on our side. Yet what do you do?  You instruct members and branches of PSC to fully implement the ban on supporting Palestine Action if the law comes into effect. Let’s be blunt. You are doing the work of the Zionists for them. You don’t know what to do with a mass movement except march them up the hill and down again.

You have no perspective beyond the accumulation of funds and the employment of more staff.  PSC has made over a million pounds from Israel’s genocide in Gaza yet politically you are still as timid as when, in 2022, you took anti-Zionism out of the constitution.

What is your justification? The threat of 14 year prison sentences? I doubt if even Lady Justice Carr, the most reactionary Chief Justice since Lord Denning would dare impose such a sentence but more importantly public opinion would not stand for it. The best way of avoiding prison sentences is mass defiance of the law such that it will be impossible to implement it since it is clear to all that Palestine Action is not a terrorist group. Embedding a lie within the law will not make it true.

A mural was painted in Gaza over a year ago to thank us for taking direct action against Israel’s war machine.

Now, more than ever, Palestinians need us to step up.

Join our workshop tomorrow and #ShutElbitDown: https://t.co/Aw3ubRyNC0 pic.twitter.com/cBqMk5gUuz

— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) October 20, 2023

Your fear of challenging the unjust laws that Yvette Cooper is proposing stems from your fear of upsetting the applecart. To be blunt you are afraid of challenging the undemocratic British state and prefer to sacrifice the Palestinians instead. It was not PSC but Palestine Action that had a mural painted for it in Gaza.  Palestine Action have achieved in 5 years more than PSC have done in 40.

What is the purpose of PSC if not to support the Palestinians?  Palestine Action has closed 3 Elbit factories and premises in its five years of existence. It has posed a challenge to the Israeli state’s operations in this country which PSC with all its staff and resources have not been able to match. Hence its proscription.

I am not at all surprised by your behaviour. When Palestine Action was formed in July 2020 PSC did all that it could to strangle it at birth. Your ‘legal advice’ then was a carbon copy of your advice today. You wrote:

PSC has sought legal advice about the potential liabilities arising from the commission of acts of criminal damage of high monetary levels ... If the value of the damage caused exceeds £5000 a person can be sentenced to a maximum of 10 years imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine.

These liabilities potentially extend to both individuals encouraging or assisting criminal acts (including, for example, providing financial support), and organisations, including PSC branches that offered encouragement or assistance.

These concerns are not raised because PSC, or the BDS Movement is opposed to any form of direct action. Instead, they are raised because of the strategic and legal risks associated with the type of action being conducted by the group.

If supporters of the Palestinians had taken your advice and if members of PSC had gone along with it then Palestine Action would not have existed. You were forced to change course because PSC members and supporters disregarded your advice. Today you write that:

Publicly inviting support, for example through a social media post, wearing clothing which indicates support, or arranging a meeting where a member of a proscribed organisation speaks or a speech indicating support for the organisation is given are all criminal offences which can carry prison sentences of up to 14 years

That is true, theoretically and that is why mass action in defiance of this law is necessary and should be organised, with PSC’s help if possible, without it if necessary. The proscription of Palestine Action can only be challenged by mass defiance, not the timidity of PSC under your tutelage. PSC itself should be taking the lead instead of trying to frighten its members. There is nothing stopping national PSC declaring that its support for PA remains unchanged.

You and the leadership of PSC have always been hostile to PA because you saw it as a competitor. In January 2022 when PA achieved its first victory with the closure of Elbit’s Oldham factory PSC was eager to claim the credit. You issued a statement which said:

We pay tribute to all those who have campaigned since Elbit Systems purchased the site in 2007, including many members of the Manchester PSC branch 

As I wrote at the time:

‘I have to pay tribute to whoever drafted the statement. It must have taken some effort to draft a statement welcoming the closure of the factory without at the same time mentioning the group which was responsible for the campaign that was responsible for this success.

Because British imperialism supports Zionism and Israel there is no legal way to prevent the state supporting Israel short of mass action. That is why defiance of the law is an essential component of any solidarity action. Of course that does not mean we defy the law on any and every occasion but we choose the time and place. This is such an occasion. The classifying of a protest group as a terrorist group breaks new ground. It is a red line for more than just the Palestine solidarity movement. It has united Palestine solidarity supporters with virtually the whole liberal and even not so liberal establishment. It is indefensible. If any issue was likely to be won by a refusal to cowtow to the Police and State this is the time.

Your real reasons for opposing a refusal to implement the law have nothing to do with possible prison sentences for those who defy the law. They have everything to do with your empire building and the cushy salaries that comes with it.

You say that ‘The people of Palestine are depending on us now, during their darkest hour, and we cannot afford to let them down.’ Yet by colluding in the implementation of this law that is precisely what you are doing. You are helping the British state implement this police state law.

Tony Greenstein

Supported by:

Leeds Students Against Apartheid Coalition

Unis Resist Border Controls (URBC)