US-Canada jointly target pro-Palestinian Samidoun, labelling it a 'sham charity'
The US and Canada have called The Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network a “sham charity” and declared that anyone doing business with or donating to the group could face criminal charges.
The US Treasury Department announced the joint move on Tuesday, with the US sanctioning the group and Canada designating it a terrorist entity. The US called it a "front" for the banned Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
Samidoun is based in Vancouver, Canada, and has chapters in several cities in Europe, as well as the United Kingdom.
Israel and the Netherlands have listed it as a terror organisation and Germany banned the group in November 2023.
"In coordination with Canada, OFAC is targeting a sham fundraiser whose efforts have supported terrorism," the Treasury announcement said.
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Samidoun (meaning steadfast in Arabic) was formed in support of the 2011 hunger strike by Palestinians in Israeli prisons. At the time, there were fewer than 5,000 in indefinite “administrative detention” - effectively in limbo and held without charge.
Now, according to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, there are about 9,500 such prisoners. And for researchers and activists, Samidoun has been a resource in the campaigns to free these detainees.
Samidoun's website describes the group as "an international network of organizers and activists working to build solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in their struggle for freedom".
In 2022, the US State Department cited Samidoun as a source in its annual human rights report for the West Bank and Gaza. That report is still available on the site.
The group has long expressed public support for armed resistance in occupied Palestinian territories - a stance which has been dramatically amplified since Israel's war on Gaza following the 7 October attacks on southern Israel.
But a year into the war, Samidoun finds itself on a blacklist alongside Hamas and Hezbollah.
Samidoun denies terror links
“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,” Bradley T Smith, acting under secretary of the US Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said in the designation announcement.
The alleged diversion of funds concerns the PFLP, the Marxist group founded in 1967 by George Habash. It was designated as a terrorist entity in the US in 1997 and in Canada in 2003. The PFLP is a feeder group for the Palestine Liberation Organisation, dominated by Fatah, and takes a more hardline stance than Fatah, which controls the Palestinian Authority.
PFLP’s armed wing, the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, is currently engaged in ground combat alongside Hamas and other Palestinian factions in Gaza.
Khaled Barakat, a Canadian whose wife is one of the leaders of Samidoun, was also sanctioned by the US and Canada, for being “a member of the PFLP [and] part of the group’s leadership abroad”.
Samidoun released a statement on Wednesday denying that they have any material or organisational ties to the entities listed on the terrorist lists of the US, Canada or European Union.
"This designation and sanctions should be of serious concern to all who carry out political work, especially for Palestinian liberation, just like the banning of Samidoun in Germany in November 2023,” the group said in a statement.
"It is meant to introduce a norm in which organizations may be designated as 'terrorist' for organizing demonstrations, lectures, publishing posters and engaging in entirely public and political work that challenges imperialist states’ complicity in Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ongoing genocide in Gaza."
Protest fallout
Middle East Eye spoke to a senior leader at one of Canada’s foremost advocacy organisations for Palestinians. The individual asked to remain unnamed and said that the highly influential pro-Israel lobby in Canada as well as the Conservative Party have been pushing to put Samidoun on the terror list for weeks.
“All of the pro-Israel voices have really been going hard after them - really singling them out and trying to sort of portray them as the key organisers of the Palestine solidarity movement in Canada, which was really isn't true,” the individual told MEE.
“I mean, they're a very small organisation. They have maybe a heightened profile. They put their name on everything. They're very vocal, but they're very small.”
Earlier this month at a demonstration that included Samidoun in Vancouver, British Columbia, a protester shouted, “Death to Canada, death to the United States, and death to Israel.”
Others then set fire to the Canadian flag.
Canadian lawmakers roundly condemned the act, and Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre vowed to go after Samidoun.
Samidoun’s international coordinator, Charlotte Kates, Barakat’s wife, was arrested in the spring for allegedly praising Hamas in a speech. She is no longer allowed to participate in protests.
The move has created a chilling effect across organisations that advocate for Palestinians.
“It opens the door to other organisations being considered terrorists for other political support,” the advocacy leader told MEE.
“Because of the ambiguity around the circumstances, it really does create a lot of questions about how political views are going to be translated,” the individual said.
Neither the US nor Canadian governments have detailed how funding was funnelled to the PFLP from Samidoun.
On Wednesday, the US unveiled a fresh round of sanctions on individuals and companies that it says generate revenue for Hezbollah. Three of these individuals are alleged to be trafficking Captagon - a highly addictive amphetamine.
“[This] harms communities and countries across the region and beyond and is a source of funding for the Syrian regime and its backers, including Hezbollah,” the State Department said.
The announcement follows major sanctions announced last week on Iran’s oil sector, which included multiple shipping companies registered in the United Arab Emirates.
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