The Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC) held its annual general meeting earlier this month in Dundee.
The meeting began with a report of the extensive campaigns and activities that SPSC have initiated in towns and cities across Scotland during the previous 12 months. A discussion on the political situation in Palestine, Israel and the wider Middle East laid the basis of the focus for SPSC’s work in the coming year.
Several resolutions were discussed. One entitled The 2-state solution is a delusion was unanimously agreed. The essence of this was that, due to the vast expansion of the settlements, a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza was inconceivable. In these circumstances, the SPSC is calling for the dismantling all the apartheid structures created by Zionist colonisation throughout Historic Palestine and for full rights for all Palestinians.
A second resolution agreed to support the call from Palestinian civil society to oppose normalisation under the apartheid regime of the Israeli state. These are projects that aim to bring Palestinians and Israelis together without recognising or acknowledging the reality of the Israeli occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people.
Following an incident last summer*, it was recognised that SPSC needed to add a complaints, disciplinary and appeal procedure to its constitution. At the AGM Interim National Secretary, Rab Paterson proposed a procedure that sought to deal with any complaints quickly, fairly and openly. It was accepted that any complaints needed to be handled sensitively and transparently. After a minor amendment about the investigating officer, the proposal was unanimously agreed.
The meeting concluded with the election of the new Coordinating Committee.
Nick Clarke (Dundee SPSC and RCN)
(see earlier report at:- RCN letter to the Scottish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign)