Local Palestine Solidarity Campaign branch sends Holocaust denial tweet on eve of Holocaust Memorial Day
A local branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) shared an article on Twitter on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day that denied the extent of the Holocaust and breached the International Definition of Antisemitism in multiple ways.
The article, shared by the PSC’s Brixton chapter, claimed that “accounts vary regarding the number of Jewish victims who were killed as a result of the Nazi crimes during WWII. While some historians say the number reaches six million, others reduce it to hundreds of thousands.” The article went on to say that “it seems that the debate over the number of the victims of the Holocaust has nothing to do wtih logic or morality.” According to the Definition, “Denying the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of National Socialist Germany and its supporters and accomplices during World War II (the Holocaust)” is an example of antisemitism.
The article also stated that the “Zionist settler-colonial state of Israel…is a state based on racist ideology that despises human life”. According to the Definition, “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination (e.g. by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour)” is an example of antisemitism.
Further, the article also claims that “the ideology [of Zionism] that led to the Nakba practically aligns with the ideology that led to the Holocaust…[and] the pains of the victims are similar, whether in Auschwitz or in Deir Yassin.” According to the Definition, “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is antisemitic.
This is not the first time the PSC has been embroiled in a controversy over antisemitism. In 2019, an investigation by the Evening Standard found the organisation awash with antisemitic tropes, while a month-long investigation by Campaign Against Antisemitism in 2017 exposed extensive antisemitic bigotry amongst PSC supporters on social media.
Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the Labour Party, is facing calls again to stand down as a patron of PSC.
