October 11, 2024 | Flash Brief

Dutch Parliament Votes to Designate PFLP Front Samidoun as a Terrorist Group

October 11, 2024 | Flash Brief

Dutch Parliament Votes to Designate PFLP Front Samidoun as a Terrorist Group

Latest Developments

The Dutch parliament voted overwhelmingly on October 10 to call for Samidoun, a Canada-based group believed to be a front for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), to be designated a terrorist organization. The legislation, introduced by the Reformed Political Party (SGP) and passed in a 100-50 vote, would make the Netherlands the third country to designate Samidoun as a terrorist organization after Israel, which designated the group in 2021, and Germany, which did the same in October 2023.

Samidoun describes itself as a solidarity network of organizers and activists for Palestinian inmates in Israeli prisons, with chapters in North America, Europe, and South America. The group formed in the wake of a prisoner hunger strike coordinated by PFLP in 2011 and registered as a not-for-profit corporation in Canada in March 2021. The group cosponsors and helps organize pro-Palestine protests and seminars in the United States and abroad that glorify terrorist groups and their actions.

Samidoun is fiscally sponsored by the Alliance for Global Justice (AGJ), an “anti-capitalist” 501(c)(3) charity based in Arizona, which collects tax-exempt donations and transfers them to the group. Some financial platforms, including American Express, PayPal, Donorbox, Plaid, and Discover, reportedly stopped processing funding for Samidoun and AGJ due to its proximity to terrorist groups.

Its international coordinator, Charlotte Kates, lives in Vancouver with her husband, Khaled Barakat. Barakat is reportedly a PFLP Central Committee member and leader who is a frequent featured speaker at Samidoun’s events but has no officially acknowledged role within the organization, which typically describes him as a “Palestinian writer and activist.” The PFLP is a designated terrorist organization in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the European Union. In April 2024, Kates called Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre in Israel “heroic and brave” during a protest and was arrested by Canadian police, who launched a hate crime investigation into her statements. A post in response to the arrest on Samidoun’s website lauded the October 7 attack as a “heroic operation,” with a graphic stating “Long Live October 7th” written in Arabic and English. During a protest organized by Samidoun in Vancouver on the anniversary of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre, protestors chanted “death to Canada, death to the United States, and death to Israel,” with some burning Canadian flags. In an October 9 press conference, Canadian Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre called for the Canadian government to designate Samidoun as a terrorist group.

Expert Analysis

“The decision of the Dutch parliament is a signal to those other European countries where Samidoun operates — among them France, Switzerland, Spain, Belgium, Greece, and Sweden — to follow suit by designating this sham NGO as a terrorist front.” — Ben CohenFDD Senior Analyst and Rapid Response Manager  

“Samidoun is part of a constellation of Palestinian supposed nonprofits that are actually fronts for terrorist groups. The United States should follow The Hague and Berlin’s examples and designate Samidoun. These advocates of violence and terrorism do not belong in the United States — certainly, not on our campuses.” — David May, FDD Research Manager and Senior Research Analyst

6 Things to Know About Samidoun, the ‘Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network,’” FDD Insight

The Fundraising Shortcut Ripe for Abuse,” by David May and Melissa Sacks

The most recent PFLP Hijacking: The European Parliament,” by David May

Issues:

Issues:

Israel Israel at War Palestinian Politics

Topics:

Topics:

Arabic Belgium Canada English Europe European Union France Germany Greece Hamas Israel Netherlands Palestinians PayPal Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine South America Spain Sweden Switzerland The Hague United Kingdom Vancouver