October 16, 2024 | Policy Brief
U.S., Canada Designate Samidoun a Sham Charity Front for the PFLP Terrorist Group
October 16, 2024 | Policy Brief
U.S., Canada Designate Samidoun a Sham Charity Front for the PFLP Terrorist Group
The U.S. Department of the Treasury, in a joint action with the Canadian government, designated the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network and Khaled Barakat on October 15 for raising funds on behalf of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a U.S.-designated terrorist group. The move begins to address the serious concern of Palestinian terrorist groups using nonprofit organizations to advance their agenda, to include promoting anti-Israel protests on American campuses.
Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley Smith explained, “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.”
The joint action came five days after the Dutch Parliament voted to designate Samidoun as a terrorist organization. Israel designated Samidoun in 2021, and Germany did the same in 2023.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser banned Samidoun because it “endorses the use of violence as a means for achieving its political objectives and incites such violence” and “supports organizations which initiate, endorse or threaten attacks on individuals or property.” Faeser called Samidoun “inhumane” and “disgusting” after it publicly praised Hamas and organized celebratory demonstrations in German cities following Hamas’s October 7 massacre. Samidoun’s branches in Spain and Seattle similarly praised the massacre.
Samidoun registered as a nonprofit corporation in Canada in March 2021. In April 2024, Barakat’s wife, Charlotte Kates, who holds the position of Samidoun International Coordinator, called Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel “heroic and brave.” After those remarks, Canadian police arrested her as part of a hate crime investigation. A post on Samidoun’s website decrying the Canadian government’s actions openly refers to the October 7 massacre as a “heroic operation” and features a graphic that says, “Long Live October 7th,” written in Arabic and English.
Barakat, described in the Treasury announcement as “a member of the PFLP’s leadership,” 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.” Palestinian outlets refer to other Samidoun leaders, including Samidoun’s Europe coordinator, Mohammad al-Khatib, as PFLP members. Israel arrested Belgian Samidoun activist Mustapha Awad in 2018, accusing him of receiving training from Hezbollah and wiring money to Barakat from Lebanon and Syria at the PFLP’s direction.
Samidoun has cosponsored and helped organize campus protests and events throughout the United States and abroad. In March 2024, Samidoun and Columbia University’s branch of Students for Justice in Palestine hosted a webinar titled “Resistance 101.” During the webinar, Kates and Barakat repeatedly praised “resistance” and referred to their “friends and brothers in Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the PFLP.”
In May, Samidoun’s Mohammad al-Khatib helped lead protests against Israel at the University of Amsterdam. At the Samidoun-endorsed protest, activists hurled gas tanks and beat a person with wooden planks.
Samidoun is a fiscally sponsored project of the Alliance for Global Justice (AGJ), an “anti-capitalist” 501(c)(3) charity based in Arizona. Through this arrangement, AGJ collects tax-exempt donations on Samidoun’s behalf and transfers them to Samidoun. In 2023, AGJ came under congressional scrutiny and legal pressure for its ties to the PFLP. Because of AGJ’s affiliations, payment processing companies PayPal, Stripe, Salsa Labs, and Deluxe stopped working with AGJ out of fear they would be providing “material support” to terrorism. AGJ blamed the “Zionist media” for the actions against Samidoun.
The PFLP and other terrorist organizations use the nonprofit space to raise funds and achieve their objectives. These organizations also attempt to influence students and spread extremist ideologies under the guise of activism, potentially sowing seeds of radicalization within educational institutions. The United States, Canada, and other countries should collaborate and develop comprehensive strategies that not only target the financial underpinnings of these organizations but also address their broader influence within society.
David May is a research manager and senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy, where Pavak Patel is a senior network mapping and data analyst. Follow David on X @DavidSamuelMay. Follow Pavak on X @PavakPatel. Follow FDD on X @FDD.