PSC distances itself from Raise Your Banners

posted by: Nick Lowles | on: Wednesday, 23 November 2011, 12:29

When people first raised their objections to Gilad Atzmon performing in Bradford, the Raise Your Banners (RYB) organisers contacted the Palestine Solidarity Campaign for advice. I'll set aside the issue of whether the PSC is the most appropriate body to determine the antisemitism or otherwise of Atzmon's work for now, but their response, or so it appeared, was used by RYB to ignore the protests, including from many within their own organisation.

The RYB organisers, in the first of two public statements issued on Atzmon, claimed: "We have discussed the matter with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and are satisfied that PSC have no boycott of Gilad Atzmon or events that he is involved in."

Today, however, the PSC has distanced themselves from this statement, claiming, on twitter, "PSC has been misrepresented by Raise Your Banners. @PSCupdates does not work with Gilad Atzmon."

It would appear, given this latter statement, that RYB either exaggerated the PSC position, spoke to an individual who did not speak for the organisation or simply made the whole PSC claim up.

Either way, the key point is that the PSC approval was the main, if not sole, defence for Raise Your Banners organisers to ignore the protests. Now that has been swept aside will they change their position and withdraw the invitation?