Treasury Sanctioned Palestinian Terror Group Masar Badil. Its Allies Should Be the Next Targets.

Sanctioning a terrorist front accomplishes little if the same network can operate through the work of its allies. On August 26, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Masar Badil — also known as the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement — as a front for Samidoun, itself a front for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Founded in 1967, the PFLP is a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization whose armed wing took part in the October 7, 2023, attack. Treasury also sanctioned two of Masar Badil’s leaders, Germany-based Zaid Abdulnasser and Brazil-based Rawa Alsagheer. 

The action closes a gap left open when the United States and Canada jointly sanctioned Samidoun in October 2024. Rather than disbanding, Samidoun migrated its work to Masar Badil, a newer, undesignated vehicle founded in 2021 by figures including PFLP leader and U.S.-designated terrorist Khaled Barakat. Treasury now describes Masar Badil and Samidoun as “inextricably linked,” sharing fundraising mechanisms and overlapping executive committees. Blacklisting a name did not dismantle the network. 

Masar Badil’s Presence on U.S. Soil 

In July 2025, a Masar Badil-led delegation visited Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York in a demonstration of solidarity following Tehran’s 12-Day War with Israel. Masar Badil’s youth and student arm, Tariq el-Tahrir, organizes on U.S. campuses. In June, its Seattle chapter hosted the son of slain Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh, who praised his father’s role in the 1983 Beirut bombing that killed 241 U.S. service members. After two Israeli embassy staffers were murdered in Washington in May 2025, Tariq el-Tahrir organized an open letter signed by 21 organizations praising the murders as “fully justified” and “morally righteous.” 

Treasury Action Does Not Explicitly Address Group’s Youth Wing, Allies  

In its designation of Masar Badil, Treasury identifies neither Tariq el-Tahrir nor allies, such as Nidal and Al-Ahrar, as part of the group. Nidal is active in Seattle and New York while Al-Ahrar has a presence in New York, New Jersey, and Toronto. Also absent from Treasury’s announcement were two figures central to Masar Badil’s U.S. operations — Bissan Barghouti, who led Samidoun Seattle and now runs Nidal Seattle, and Barakat’s wife, Samidoun coordinator Charlotte Kates.  

Enforcing the Sanctions 

OFAC has generally refrained in recent practice from designating U.S. persons — though no statute or published policy forbids it, which may explain Treasury’s omission of Barghouti and Kates. Other tools remain. Both individuals fall within U.S. jurisdiction: sanctions rules define a “U.S. person” to include U.S. citizens and permanent residents wherever located, U.S.-organized entities, and anyone located in the United States. As noted, Barghouti runs Nidal Seattle, while NBC News describes Kates as a New Jersey native and Rutgers Law School graduate who lives in Vancouver. 

Violating sanctions carries civil penalties, and criminal ones when willful. Separately, providing material support to the PFLP or Hezbollah (both designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations) is a federal crime, and that liability attaches to conduct here regardless of nationality. In April, SUPER UW, a student group that promotes events alongside Nidal Seattle, urged supporters to “materially support” the “Lebanese resistance,” a phrase that usually refers to Hezbollah (although SUPER UW denied this). Thanks to Treasury’s designation, providing funds or services to Masar Badil now exposes allied groups and individuals like Barghouti and Kates to civil penalties and, where violations are willful, criminal prosecution. Canada should also investigate whether the Vancouver-based Kates has violated its terror laws. Although these groups are not themselves designated, universities and payment processors should be cautious about transacting with them, ensuring that the funds they handle and the events they host do not benefit a blocked entity. The next test of Ottawa’s determination is imminent: Masar Badil is convening a conference in Toronto this November to mark the third anniversary of October 7. Washington should make clear to its northern neighbor that vigilance is essential. A designation is only as strong as the enforcement behind it. 

Ryan Wohl is a research associate at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). Brandy Shufutinsky is director of the Education and National Security Program at FDD. For more analysis from the authors and FDD, please subscribe HERE. Follow FDD on X @FDD. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.