This is a cross post by Anthony Cooper
Last November, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign was forced to distance itself from Gilad Atzmon. Its director, Sarah Colborne, told the Jewish Chronicle:
PSC has made clear … that we have no links with Gilad Atzmon, and that Palestine Solidarity Campaign does not work with him.
You can read more details on the background here, here and here.
This message, though, didn’t appear to get through to the Bristol branch who organised a meeting with Atzmon for this afternoon. Then, last week, a comment appeared from a representative of Bristol PSC stating:
Gilad is well known for his outspoken criticism of Israel and Zionism which will be of interest to many people. However his book focuses primarily on Jewish identity and is not directly relevant to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. For this reason this event is now organised independently.
I think it’s fair to say that the statement is far from being a denunciation of his anti-Semitism. It doesn’t enlighten us as to who is now organising the already organised event. The only people involved in the original arrangements were Bristol PSC, why did they not cancel the event?
More interestingly, it appears that nobody told Gilad that Bristol PSC was no longer organising the event. After an article written (published yesterday) by Atzmon, defending expelled Holocaust denier Francis Clark-Lowes, he makes the following comment (left today):
Interestingly enough I give a talk today at Bristol PSC. I will probably end up discussing those issues…
It certainly seems like an odd situation. First the PSC claims that it has nothing to do with Atzmon and then one of its branches organises an event entitled “Tea with Gilad Atzmon”. Then the branch apparently has a change of heart but doesn’t cancel the event, instead telling everyone that it is being organised by someone else. Yet Atzmon still thinks he’s talking to the PSC.
Would it be going too far to suggest that the organisers of the event are still Bristol PSC and the attendees are still going to be PSC supporters and members and the only thing that has changed is that the PSC has tried to pretend that it isn’t organising it.
Maybe someone from Bristol PSC can clear this up?
