On 14th February PSC held its Annual General Meeting in London. Last year we had our largest ever turnout at an AGM and this year we surpassed that once again, with activists travelling from as far afield as the Orkney Islands to take part. PSC members, affiliates, and observers joined together to reflect on the past 12 months of our campaigns and to collectively decide on our strategy for 2026. We also heard from an incredible range of speakers including Francesca Albanese and Jeremy Corbyn MP and hosted a panel discussion on kicking Israeli apartheid out of culture and sport.
Click here to see panel 1 and panel 2 of Julia Miranda’s illustrations created live at PSC’s AGM 2026. She describes herself as “an artist from a family with ties of solidarity to Palestine. I am inspired by the dedication of the PSC to galvanize support for families struggling against unconscionable pain and injustice in Gaza and the West Bank”. Julia captures meetings for a range of progressive organisations. You can find more of her work or get in touch with her through her website juliamiranda.uk.
Reports
The AGM was opened by PSC Chair Louise Regan who gave an overview of the current situation, including the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the atrocities committed against Palestinians across historic Palestine. She also noted the unprecedented scale of the demonstrations, as well as the repression of the solidarity movement. She concluded by mentioning the ruling from the High Court the previous day on Palestine Action.
Our treasurer John Ellis presented the Treasurer’s Report which confirmed that PSC finished the financial year with another healthy surplus. However, he warned that the organisation’s costs have significantly increased as we have escalated our campaigns in response to Israel’s genocide in Gaza and that we will need to invest more in our fundraising capacity to maintain levels of income that will keep PSC sustainable in the long term.
PSC Secretary Ben Soffa presented the Annual Report. He detailed the incredible number of events that we have been a part of this year, including 9 national demonstrations, and cultural events like the Together for Palestine concert and the release of Palestinian film From Ground Zero. We celebrated the massive progress made in our BDS campaigns, from 28 more councils making divestment commitments, to the decision of Co-op to stop stocking Israeli goods. In the political arena, Ben detailed the work that we have been doing in Parliament and the Senedd, as well as the central role that PSC played in getting the Labour Party conference to vote overwhelmingly to recognise that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza. Ben put these successes in the context of significant challenges we have faced this year including attempts to curtail and criminalise protest, but the movement has held its ground. We took action to try and stop the outrageous proscription of Palestine Action and stand in solidarity with the Defend our Juries actions.
PSC Deputy Director Ryvka Barnard then presented our Annual Plan for 2026, detailing the steps we are taking to expand our campaigns to pressure the British government to end all involvement with the Israeli government by building a strong, effective and strategic campaign across the country, as asked for by our Palestinian partners. We will continue our current campaigns and have a new focus on malign tech companies like Palantir. We will grow our political campaigns especially leading up to the local elections by putting Palestine on the ballot. We won’t lose sight of keeping the Palestinian people at the core of our campaigning.
Motions
This year saw an unprecedented number of motions submitted to the AGM, with members exercising their rights to shape the strategy of PSC for the year ahead. Due to the high volume of motions received we were unable to debate them all on the day, but every motion that fell off the agenda has been remitted to the Executive Committee (EC) for discussion at an upcoming meeting.
The full text of all proposed motions and amendments can be found here. The results of the votes on motions at the AGM were as follows:
Motion 1: Free Marwan Campaign – Passed with EC Amendment.
Motion 2: Zionism is Racism – Was remitted to the EC before the AGM by the proposers. Our chair Louise Regan reaffirmed to the meeting that PSC is an anti-Zionist organisation.
Motion 3: Palestinian Statehood Now! – Passed with EC Amendment.
Motion 4: Escalating campaigns to defend the right to protest and freedom of expression – Passed with EC Amendment.
Motion 5: Local Authorities Against Genocide and Apartheid – Passed with EC Amendment.
Motion 6: Building PSC’s Trade Union Network – Passed with EC Amendment.
Motion 7: Make Media Reform a Strategic Priority in PSC’s Annual Plans – Ran out of time to be heard, so was automatically remitted to the EC.
Motion 8: Free Movement between Palestine and the UK – Ran out of time to be heard, so was automatically remitted to the EC.
Motion 9: Examples of Anti-Palestinian Racism – Passed.
Motion 10: PSC to take a leading role in fighting Anti-Palestinian Racism – Remitted to the EC.
Motion 11: PSC and “TOGETHER – Against the Far Right” – Remitted to the EC.
Motion 12: Preserving The Record of Events – Ran out of time to be heard, so was automatically remitted to the EC.
Motion 13: Intersectionality with interlinked humanitarian crisis – Ran out of time to be heard, so was automatically remitted to the EC.
Emergency Motion: West Bank Annexation – Passed with EC amendment.
Elections
During the AGM we also elected a new Executive Committee to steer the direction of the organisation for the next 12 months, in line with the Annual Plan and the motions passed at the AGM. It was great to see healthy competition for the Ordinary Places this year, with members keen to get more involved in PSC.
The following were elected unopposed:
Chair: Louise Regan
Secretary: Ben Soffa
Vice Chairs: Neha Shah and Iyas Al Qasem
Treasurer: John Ellis
Trade Union Liaison Officer: Ed McNally
The following were elected as Ordinary Members after a contested election:
Alex Snowdon
Bernard Regan
Eldin Fahmy
Musarrat Yasmin
Rubina Rehman
Sheila Guhadasan
Simon Dubbins
Sybil Cock