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Union-backed Palestine Solidarity Campaign forced to distance itself from anti-Semitism yet again

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This keeps happening to the union-backed “Palestine Solidarity Campaign”, which is the propaganda arm of Hamas in the United Kingdom.

The PSC, whose affiliates include some of Britain’s largest trade unions, was forced in recent months to expel proponents of Holocaust denial from within its ranks, to publish a statement on the website saying that its opposition to racism also mean opposition to Jew-hatred, and so on.  But apparently all this is not enough — the anti-Semites and Holocaust deniers continue to flock to the PSC, causing one embarrassment after another.

This week it was the turn of a Twitterer known as @londonbds.  This twitterer, who has 2,195 followers, has been closely linked to the PSC in the past, with the PSC re-tweeting his comments.

But recently, @londonbds tweeted a link to a Press TV column containing a particularly virulent anti-Jewish rant and praise for Holocaust denier David Irving.  Under massive public pressure, they deleted the offending tweet — but not before others saved it, and demonstrated links between @londonbds and the PSC.

As a result, the PSC has had to issue this statement:

Palestine Solidarity Campaign is shocked and disgusted that a twitter account @londonbds tweeted an article with clearly anti-Semitic content. We oppose all forms of racism, including anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.

Anti-racism is a core value of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement and the broader Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and equality. Palestinians face systematic discrimination and building opposition to all forms of racism is a key part of our campaigning.

Supporting Palestine is supporting an anti-racist struggle and we shall continue to make clear that there is no place for any form of racism in our movement.

PSC has been informed that this is not the twitter account of London BDS group, whose account is @londonbdsgroup, but an apparently lone individual. We have reported this to twitter as hate speech.

Among the unions which remain affiliated to the PSC are ASLEF, BECTU, BFAWU, Connect, CWU, FBU, GMB, NUM, NUT, PCS, RMT, TSSA, UCATT, UCU, UNITE, UNISON, and UNITY.