Our Patrons

Former Labour MP for Woolwich (1992 to 1997) and Erith and Thamesmead (1997 to 2010) John served as a member of the Commons Health Select Committee, and the (Commons/Lords) Joint Committee on Human Rights. His special interests are equal opportunities, human rights and foreign affairs. A former Joint Chair of CAABU, he has made several visits to Palestine, and frequently criticises Israel’s policy of colonisation and its violations of the Geneva Convention and UN resolutions as obstacles to the peace process.

Lowkey (Kareem Dennis), rapper, poet, playwright and activist, has produced a number of successful singles and albums since 2003.  His play Max and Beth, a modern take in rhyme on Macbeth, based on violent street culture and performed by teenage amateurs, was performed at the 2009 Edinburgh Festival. He toured Palestine in 2009 after Operation Cast Lead to raise funds for rebuilding in Gaza, and was detained by the Israeli police, but returned later with MI of Dead Prez to bring humanitarian and medical aid to the Palestinians. The resulting Long Live Palestine, Part 2 reached no 1 in the Amazon hip-hop download record chart, all profits from which go to Interpal and Islamic Relief. This single was recommended by Tony Benn as a ‘song (which) speaks to people about the struggle of the Palestinians and their fight for freedom’. Benjamin Zephaniah has called him a ‘poet of great genius’.

Actor and director Kika Markham has had a long career in television, film and theatre, with roles, amongst others, in TV’s Minder, Van der Valk, The Line of Beauty (in the role of Mrs Thatcher), Spooks, Midsomer Murders, Truffaut’s Anne et Muriel, Dennis Potter’s Double Dare, Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues, and Coward’s Song at Twilight, in which she starred with her late husband Corin Redgrave and for which she received an Oscar nomination. Tony Kushner’s Homebody/Kabul, originally written for her, was performed in 2002, and she appeared in Rowan Joffe’s TV film The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall in 2008. More recently she played Amira, an independent  journalist reporting from occupied Palestine in On the Record, a play ‘exploring human rights by performance’. She and her husband Corin were supporters of Viva Palestina, the humanitarian convoy to Gaza in 2010, and she is a sponsor of ‘Speak out against Racism’.

Professor Nur Masalha is a Palestinian academic and writer. He is Professor of Religion and Politics and Director of the Centre for Religion and History and the Holy Land Research Project at St. Mary’s University College, University of Surrey, England. He is currently also Professorial Research Associate, Department of History, School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London). Professor Masalha is also the editor of Holy Land Studies: A Multidisciplinary Journal, and the author of many books on Palestine-Israel, including “The Palestine Nakba: Decolonising History, Narrating the Subaltern, Reclaiming Memory” (January 2012); “The Bible and Zionism: Invented Traditions, Archaeology and Post-Colonialism in Palestine-Israel” (2007), “A Land Without a People” (1997); “Expulsion of the Palestinians: The Concept of “Transfer” in Zionist Political Thought, 1882-1948″ (1992); “Imperial Israel and the Palestinians: The Politics of Expansion” (2000) and “The Politics of Denial: Israel and the Palestinian Refugee Problem” (2003). Professor Masalha has also served as an honorary fellow in the Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, Durham University; Research Associate in the Department of Law at the School of Oriental and African Studies; and has taught at Birzeit University, Palestine. Professor Masalha is also the historian commentator in the award-winning documentary film “La Terre Parle Arabe” (the Land Speaks Arabic) (2007), directed by Maryse Gargour, which tells the story of the background and build-up to the expulsion and flight of the Palestinian Arabs in 1948 from the newly-created State of Israel.

Fellow in Politics at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, and university lecturer at Oxford University’s Department of Politics and International Relations. From 1977–90 she was a PLO representative at the United Nations, working in Beirut, Tunis, and the United Kingdom and, from 1991-1993, an advisory member of the Palestinian delegation to the peace talks in Washington. In her writings on Palestine she emphasises the centrality of the Palestinian refugee issue.

Born in Haifa, he was Senior Lecturer at Haifa University and held the chair of the Emil Touma Institute for Palestinian Studies in Israel before becoming  Professor of History and member of the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at Exeter University in 2008. He is well known for his resolutely anti-Zionist stance and his analysis of Israeli policies as essentially colonialist and racist. His most recent book, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine documents the planning and execution of the process from its pre-1948 beginnings to the present day.

Hilary Rose is Professor Emerita at the University of Bradford and Gresham College and currently Visiting Research Professor at the LSE. She has published widely in her specialist fields of the sociology of social policy and the feminist sociology of science, for which she was awarded an honorary doctorate from the university of Upsalla. She is currently researching the relation between social policy and biotechnological innovation. Her books include Love, Power and Knowledge: Towards a Feminist Transformation of the Sciences and she is co-author of many others, some with her husband, Steven Rose.

Steven Rose is Professor Emeritus at the Open University and Gresham College, and Visiting Professor at University College London, has had a distinguished research career in neuroscience, for which he has received many awards. His current research relates to a potential therapy for Alzheimers. Author of a number of successful books popularising science such as The Conscious Brain and The Making of Memory, and known to many for his probing questions on BBC 4’s ‘The Moral Maze’ and newspaper articles, he was awarded the Biochemical Society’s special medal for Science Communication.

Hilary and Steven Rose have produced together a number of important books linking their specialist fields, including Science and Society and Alas Poor Darwin: Arguments against Evolutionary Psychology. Their concern with the ethical, legal and social implications of scientific developments led to their founding of the British Society for Social Responsibility in Science in 1969. In 2002 they initiated the call for a Europe-wide moratorium on academic collaboration with Israeli universities in view of their active co-operation in the illegal occupation of the Palestinian Territories, until a just peace had been negotiated. As convenors of the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine in 2004, they have both campaigned vigorously in support of Palestinian universities and in opposition to Israel’s breaches of international conventions, especially with respect to the denial of Palestinian human rights under the occupation.

Dr Abu-Sitta has researched, published and lectured extensively on issues central to the history of Palestine: the Nakba, land ownership, the Right of Return for Refugees, the Occupation and ethnic cleansing. A refugee himself in 1948, his mission has been to amass documentation on the Nakba and to ensure that  “the memories and identity of the occupied homeland are never lost”.  Amongst his many publications are The Palestinian Nakba, Atlas of Palestine, 1948 and The Return Journey. He is a former member of the Palestine National Council, founder and President of the Palestine Land Society and co-ordinator of the Palestine Right of Return Coalition.

Actor, writer and comedian, Alexei Sayle was known initially for his creative role in the alternative comedy of the 1980s, such as The Comedy Store, The Young Ones, the Comic Strip and The Secret Policeman’s Other Ball.  He was awarded an Emmy for his TV series Alexei Sayle’s Stuff in 1989.  His stand-up style is surreal, abrasive and politically aware, in keeping with his Marxist background. His many other activities include straight acting for theatre and film, writing novels and short stories and press columns, graphic novels and children’s books. He was one of the first signatories of Jews for Justice for Palestinians and speaks frequently at rallies and meetings urging justice for the Palestinians.

Deputy General Secretary of UK’s public service workers’ union UNISON, Keith Sonnet has been particularly active in pressing for the boycott of Israeli goods by trades unions. A member of the TUC delegation to Israel and Palestine in 2003, he has since taken the issue to the international stage, believing that the union movement has a major role to play in resolving the conflict.

Egyptian-born novelist, journalist and political commentator, writing in both English and Arabic, her literary work has generated international acclaim, her novel The Map of Love being shortlisted for the Booker prize in 1999. She was one of the organisers of the May 2008 Palestine Festival of Literature and wrote a moving account of  the group’s experience for theGuardian. She has been a patron of PSC for some years and has lectured and written frequently on Palestinian issues. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a patron of Index on Censorship.

Partner in the long-established family firm of solicitors specialising in personal injury compensation, David Thompson is a Fellow of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers. His dedication and tenacity in obtaining justice for injured people have earned him respect within the profession and the gratitude of his clients and have also advanced the law in their favour. He became a patron of PSC after a visit to the West Bank in 2009 as part of a Trade Union delegation organised by the PSC.

Formerly Professor of Physics at the American University of Beirut, he is an eminent academic and consultant on science and techology policies, specialising in the promotion of appropriate policies in the Arab world. He has published many articles and books, some on Palestinian issues such as education, and the need for ‘A Vision of Independence’ if Palestine is to benefit from scientific and technological advances. A founder and trustee of the Center for Arab Unity Studies.

Honorary President, Betty Hunter, worked voluntarily as General Secretary of PSC for 10 years until January 2011, during which time the membership grew from 350 to over 5,000 with more than 40 branches around the country. She was a secondary school teacher and an active trade unionist in London for 30 years and has been politically committed and active against racism and injustice all her life. It was at NUT meetings in 1987/8 that she learned more about the first intifada and the plight of the Palestinians. Her decision to take early retirement coincided with the start of the second intifada and made her available to be a full time voluntary campaigner for Palestine. In 2001 Betty approached Tony Benn to become the first patron of PSC and since then she has won patrons from all walks of life to support the work of PSC. Betty is particularly proud of PSC being the first organisation to classify Israel’s policies as apartheid and to campaign for a Boycott of Israeli Goods in 2001.

Poet, playwright and novelist, Benjamin Zephaniah was offered, but declined an OBE for his ‘services to literature’ in 2003 and was included in The Times 2008 list of the top 50  British post-war writers, He has produced several collections of poetry, many with a powerful political thrust. His plays for stage, TV and radio have won BBC and Commission for Racial Equality awards. Rasta in Palestine, poems and travelogue, sprang from his experience of staying with both an Israeli and a Palestinian family, in Tel Aviv and Gaza, which opened his eyes to the vast disparity in living conditions, and convinced him of the necessity of Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories.

Tony Benn sadly died on 14 March 2014. One of the longest serving serving MPs, representing Bristol South East and then Chesterfield for Labour, and former Cabinet Minister, Tony has been described as ‘unofficial conscience to the nation’. He retired from his seat in the Commons in 2001 ‘to devote more time to politics’ which he believed must be based in grass-roots activism.

Rodney Bickerstaffe, lifelong and eminent trade unionist (General Secretary of NUPE, then of the merged unions forming UNISON), sadly died on 3rd October 2017. Rodney campaigned for better rights and fairer treatment for staff working in public services, notably in the introduction of the statutory minimum wage and the fair uprating of pensions.  He became President of the National Pensioners Convention in 2001 and, as President of War on Want in 2007, he visited Palestine with Clare Short to witness life under the Occupation. Rodney spoke out against house demolitions and was an active and vocal supporter of PSC for many years.

Bob Crow sadly died on 11 March 2014. General Secretary of the RMT union after the merger of the NUR and NUS in 1990, Bob was elected by a large majority of the RMT membership as General Secretary in 2002. A tough defender of workers’ rights and of the international union movement, he was a staunch supporter of the Palestinians and was a patron of PSC for a number of years.

Bruce Kent, Britain’s best known peace campaigner and former Chair of CND sadly died on 8 June 2022. Bruce devoted himself to promoting a vision of the world in which war and poverty are abolished through argument and practical action. He supported the case for justice for Palestine for many years and spoke regularly on the issue. In 2002 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate for his life’s work for peace by Middlesex University. Read obituary

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