US, Canada designate Samidoun ‘charity’ as terrorist front group

(JNS) The U.S. Treasury Department announced on Tuesday that it has designated the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network as a “sham charity” front for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist group.

The action was coordinated with Canada, which will list Samidoun as a terrorist entity under its criminal code.

Major development – US and Canadian govts designate Samidoun NGO as PFLP terror front (following Israel and Germany). As @NGOmonitor‘s detailed research and mapping shows, Samidoun is also a key organizer of campus hate mobs. All the other countries where Samidoun and similar…

— Prof Gerald M Steinberg (@GeraldNGOM) October 15, 2024

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“Organizations like Samidoun masquerade as charitable actors that claim to provide humanitarian support to those in need, yet in reality divert funds for much-needed assistance to support terrorist groups,” said Bradley Smith, acting under secretary of the treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence

The Treasury Department accuses Samidoun, ostensibly a support group for Palestinian prisoners and their families, of being a front for the PFLP, which Washington has listed as a foreign terrorist organization since 1997. The PFLP emerged in the 1960s with a spree of aircraft hijackings and orchestrated the 1972 Lod Airport massacre, in which 26 innocent people were killed, including 17 Americans. PFLP units also took part in the Hamas-led Oct. 7 assault in southern Israel, leaving 1,200 dead and 251 people taken hostage into the Gaza Strip.

In addition to its alleged financial support for the PFLP, Samidoun, which was founded in Vancouver, has been one of the leading groups behind anti-Israel protests in the United States and Canada.

Israel listed Samidoun as a terrorist organization and PFLP front in 2021, and Germany banned the group in 2023 shortly after the Oct. 7 attacks.

Tuesday’s sanctions announcement lists Samidoun founder Khaled Barakat, a Canadian citizen, as part of the PFLP’s overseas leadership.

The group’s “international coordinator,” Charlotte Kates, was arrested in Canada in April on hate speech charges after she led a crowd to cheer “long live Oct. 7” and called Hamas and other terrorist organizations “heroes.” Prosecutors have yet to bring a case against her.

Canadian and Israeli politicians and advocates of the Jewish state welcomed Samidoun’s designation as a PFLP front on Tuesday.

“Listing Samidoun as a terrorist entity was one of my four key priorities when announced as the prime minister’s special advisor on Jewish community issues,” wrote Anthony Housefather, a Liberal Party member of Parliament for Mount Royal. “It keeps Canadians and Americans safer.”

Canadian opposition leader Pierre Poilievre, who is running against Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, wrote that “Trudeau buckled under pressure from common sense Conservative demands to ban the terrorist group Samidoun in Canada but is still refusing to ban the Houthis from operating on Canadian soil.”

Poilievre noted that hate crimes are up 251% and violent crime is up 51% “after nine years of New Democratic Party-Liberals failing to protect our people.” He added, “Our plan: Ban the terrorists. Secure our borders. Lock up criminals. Bring home safe streets.”

‘One of foremost drivers of most vicious antisemitism’

Amichai Chikli, the Israeli diaspora affairs minister, wrote that it was a “dramatic decision by Canada and the United States to designate the organization Samidoun, which operated under the guise of a civil society organization as a terrorist entity affiliated with PFLP.”

“This decision follows the actions of Germany and Israel, and we at the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and the Fight Against Antisemitism will continue to expose the various terror networks that hide behind a progressive civil façade,” he added.

“Hallelujah,” wrote Ohad Nakash Kaynar, director of the Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry’s European Organizations Department. “Four years ago, this seemed impossible. It appeared that logic was never going to prevail. No matter where we turned, showing clear evidence of Samidoun’s terror links, violence and its danger to the Jewish community—we found ourselves rebuffed.”

“The injustice of it had me even more set on seeing this day come,” he added. “Samidoun is a major part of the Palestinian death cult. A key player in the normalization of terrorism as a mainstream and commonplace event, and a proven promoter of violence in the Middle East and abroad. Good riddance.”

“We did it. Samidoun has been listed as a terror entity,” wrote Kevin Vuong, a Canadian parliamentarian who represents Toronto. “Samidoun can no longer use Canada as a base to promote hatred and violence. Supporting a terror organization is a criminal offense.”

Arsen Ostrovsky, CEO of the International Legal Forum, a pro-Israel nonprofit that has long advocated for Samidoun’s designation, welcomed the announcement. The group is not only “an inseparable arm of PFLP, with connections to the Islamic Republic of Iran,” but it is also guilty of “masquerading as a charitable organization, raising funds for the purposes of providing material support for terror around the world,” Ostrovsky stated.

“Since the Oct. 7 massacre, Samidoun has also been advocating on behalf of Hamas, and being one of the foremost drivers of the most vicious antisemitism, violence against Jewish communities in North America and Europe, as well as calls for genocide,” he added. “As a result of today’s designation, Samidoun will no longer be able to cause harm.”