A Terrorist Group in Canada, Raising Funds for Islamist Jihad
A Palestinian girl stands near a poster of Ibrahim al-Nabulsi, a commander of the
Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, one of the main terrorist groups present in
the West Bank operating under the ruling Fatah party, who was killed by
Israeli troops in August 2022. The poster bears the Samidoun logo.
(Photo by JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP via Getty Images)
"Whereas the RCMP announced they had arrested two
suspects in Toronto as they were allegedly about to commit a terrorist
attack for ISIS."
"Whereas Trudeau’s government gave citizenship to an
alleged terrorist with blood on his hands who allegedly dismembered a
body for an ISIS film."
"Whereas Trudeau waited far too long to ban pro-terror
groups like the IRGC, who are responsible for the deaths of thousands
of innocents, including 85 people who called Canada home, and Samidoun,
who are affiliated with and support listed terrorist organizations like
Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
(PFLP)."
"Whereas Houthi terrorists are still currently allowed to operate, organize, and fundraise in Canada."
"And whereas Justin Trudeau is not serious about
Canada’s national security and disregards the safety of our citizens and
it is now impossible for Canadians to have any faith in the Liberals’
ability to protect our country."
"Therefore, we the undersigned support Pierre
Poilievre and common sense Conservatives in their commitment to secure
our borders, ban pro-terror groups, and keep dangerous terrorists out of
our country."
Parliamentary Opposition Conservative Party of Canada
The
group Samidoun was added to Canada's list of terrorist groups in
October of 2024 under the Criminal Code of Canada. This move by the-then
Liberal government of Justin Trudeau was finally forced on the
government when Canadian flags were being burned at a Samidoun Vancouver
rally honouring the Hamas terrorist group following the Palestinian
terrorist invasion of southern Israel that produced an orgy of sadistic
savagery, raping, mutilating and slaughtering Jewish children, women and
men.
Investigators
and Jewish groups pointed out to the Liberal government Samidoun's ties
to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, one of Samidoun's
founding members being a leading figure in the PFLP which was already
outlawed and on Canada's terror list. Samidoun leading a demonstration
chanting "Death to Canada"
while burning a Canadian flag did not endear the group to Canadians
other than those who found merit in lionizing Palestinian terrorism.
What
is inexplicable is that some eight months have passed since Samidoun
was placed on the terrorist list, but the group, based in Vancouver and
linked to other groups which have roiled the streets of Canada's cities
in ongoing violent displays of anti-Israel, pro-Hamas support, taking
over major intersections in mass prayer sessions symbolic of Islamist
conquest, have continued their hateful messages of Intifada, 'From the
River to the Sea', and 'Final Solution', without restraint by any
government agency or regional police forces.
A photo shows a flag of the organization 'Samidoun' during a
"in solidarity with Gaza" demonstration in Duisburg, western Germany,
on October 9, 2023. (Photo by INA FASSBENDER/AFP via Getty Images
And
nor has the group's registration as a non-profit, able to continue
raising charitable funds for Islamist terror groups like the PLFP and
Hamas been interrupted. Continuing to operate openly in Canada despite
its affiliations and activities, Samidoun makes a mockery of Canadian
law. Its key figures such as co-founders Charlotte Kates and her husband
Khaled Barakat go about their business of leading protests in honour of
October 7 and the courageous terrorists who murdered 1,200 Jews, as
'revolutionaries' against the 'occupation' of Palestine by Israel whom
they label criminal genocidaires.
Despite publicly declaring "I am here to express the views of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine",
no legal action has been taken against Khaled Barakat who has been
instrumental in establishing terrorist cells in the West Bank and areas
of the West. Proudly and publicly lauding Hamas as "heroic and brave",
his wife Kates attended the funeral of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah
in Beirut last year. The visited Iran where she was bestowed with a
'humanitarian' medal in recognition of her work on behalf of the Islamic
Republic.
During
the October 7 slaughter of Israelis in southern Israel, some Canadians
were victims of the Hamas incursion. Family members of October 7 victims
in Canada filed a lawsuit against terrorists, one that includes
Samidoun, Kates and Barakat. Samidoun is labelled a sham charity in the
U.S., outlawed in Germany and the Netherlands, yet the government of
Canada, while performatively placing it on a terror list, allows it
continued charitable status, to fundraise in support of Hamas, in
Canada.
Charlotte
Kates, a co-founder of Vancouver-based Samidoun, which has been
declared a terrorist entity by the Canadian government, poses for a
photo at the funeral of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon in
February 2025.Photo by @charlottekates/X
In Its Own Words: Hamas is a Palestinian Islamic Liberation and Resistance Movement Whose Goal is to Liberate Palestine and Confront the Zionist Project
"It's
an honour to have contributed to this critically important application
... against the criminalization of Palestinian resistance in Britain,
the imperial power responsible for Zionist colonialism in Palestine."
"[Aiding and assisting on request an application to de-list Hamas in the U.K. as a] proscribed/banned [terror group]."
Charlotte Kates, leader, Samidoun
"The British government’s decision to proscribe Hamas is an unjust one
that is symptomatic of its unwavering support for Zionism, apartheid,
occupation, and ethnic cleansing in Palestine for over a century."
"Hamas does not and never has posed a threat to Britain,
despite the latter’s ongoing complicity in the genocide of our people."
"Hamas
is] a Palestinian Islamic liberation and resistance movement whose goal
is to liberate Palestine and confront the Zionist project."
Legal Petition to the United Kingdom by Hamas
"The legal profession is being damaged by ideologues exploiting their
status to platform extremism."
"This isn’t about free speech. It’s about a man [Riverway Law attorney Fahad Ansari], who
repeatedly crosses the line into open support for terrorism — all while
the authorities look away."
British Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick
"They pose an ongoing threat to our security and to the peace and
stability of the Middle East and have weapons and training facilities
that put lives at risk and threaten our interests."
"They show no respect for human rights, life, and dignity and
have oppressed people living in Gaza for too long."
"Those campaigning to end the proscription of Hamas fail to
understand the seriousness of the threats this terrorist organization
poses."
"[Hamas is an] evil Iranian-backed terrorist organization, which kidnaps,
tortures, and murders people, including British nationals."
Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel
Demonstrators hold Israeli and British flags outside the Law Courts,
during a march against antisemitism, after an increase in the UK, during
a temporary truce between the Palestinian Islamist terrorists Hamas and
Israel, in London, Britain, Nov. 26, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Susannah
Ireland
The
United Kingdom classified the 'military wing' of Hamas as a terror
organization in 2001; a definition expanded two decades later to
encompass the entire organization, including the political arm. Hamas
encourages the West to think of it as a legitimate group fighting
oppression, with distinct arms: a Health Authority, a political wing, a
military wing and an executive body. In reality Hamas itself scoffs
derisively at the very thought that there are such executive divisions;
they consider the entire group as single-mindedly focused and engaged in
its singular purpose: the destruction of the State of Israel.
A
legal group by the name of Riverway Law which is supporting Hamas in
its application to the U.K. government for the terrorist designation to
be rescinded, contacted Charlotte Kates, herself head of a
Vancouver-based outfit that advertises itself as a support for
Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, and which advocates as well
for the legalization of Hamas and other terrorist groups as 'freedom
fighters' and is part of a group proscribed in Canada as a terrorist
entity.
One
of Samidoun's leaders, Kates's husband, has direct links to the Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine as a leading figure within it,
another terrorist group that is proscribed as such in Canada. Riverway
Law contacted Kates with a request for an "expert report" representing
Samidoun that she and her husband co-founded, and Kates we happy to
comply, as an ardent supporter of Hamas in Canada. Notorious for leading
public chants of "Long Live October 7!"
It
is such an honor to be here in Beirut today, one among a sea of over a
million people in collective tribute, mourning, love and commitment to
the road of resistance and liberation exemplified by Sayyed Hassan
Nasrallah and Sayyed Hisham Safieddine. Kates on X
According to Kates, the savage atrocities in Israel were "heroic and brave".
So committed is she that she attended Hezbollah leader Hassan
Nasrallah's public funeral that took place in Lebanon in February,
memorializing him as a "great
anti-imperialist leader of our day, the great Arab and international
revolutionary, the beloved speaker of truth and warrior of justice".
A Hamas political leader, Mousa Abu Marzouk, who lives in Qatar, rejected charges of antisemitism: "Our
struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious. Our struggle
is not against Jewish people because of their religion but against the
Zionists who occupy Palestine. Hamas is of the view that the Jewish
problem of antisemitism and the persecution of the Jews are phenomena
fundamentally linked to European history and not to the history of the
Arabs and the Muslims or to their heritage", he wrote in a witness statement to the Riverway application.
"[Hamas's
terror listing runs]contrary to the European Court of Human Rights [and
is] disproportionate" , wrote the Riverway Law application addressed to
U.K. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper as they were "instructed by Hamas" to do. "The reality is that [Hamas] poses no threat to the U.K. people and have been explicit about this" -- handily bypassing the 15 British nationals who were slaughtered in the October 7 southern Israel attack in 2023.
"A
whole host of legal and mental gymnastics were provided by the head of
the law firm to explain why their actions are legitimate and how this is
somehow a valid pathway to ending the bloodshed in Gaza and responding
to the daily scenes of murdered Palestinian children."
"None
of these individuals, including those at the law firm, bothered to
understand that Hamas is the very root of the destruction of Gaza and
the collapse of the Palestinian national project, having served the
interests of the far right and the anti-Palestinian forces within
Israeli politics and society."
Palestinian American researcher Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib
"I can't ask for more." Non-Extradition, Hassan Diab
"After 43 years of judicial wandering, justice is finally served for this deadly antisemitic attack."
"Everything
must now be done to enforce the international arrest warrant."
"CRIF calls on Canada to cooperate with French justice."
Yonathan Arfi, president, Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF)
"The
course puts central emphasis on miscarriages of justice in the context
of Canadian extradition law, with close examination of a high-profile
extradition case that highlights the pertinent issues."
"[The]
'high-profile extradition case' focuses on Hassan Diab's own [trials
and tribulations as an innocent man unjustly accused of being a member
of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who was
responsible for a deadly explosion in 1980 in Paris, at the Rue Copernic
synagogue]."
Carleton University course outline in social justice
A
French court has found Ottawa academic Hassan Diab guilty in absentia
on terrorism charges related to a 1980 synagogue bombing. The question
now is will Canada extradite him to face a life sentence? CBC
A
year ago Palestinian-Canadian Hassan Diab was found by a French court
to be guilty of charges that he committed a criminal offence in his
involvement with the bombing of the Rue Copernic synagogue. Groups as
disparate -- yet linked by their concerns for 'human rights' -- as the
Quakers, Amnesty International, Carleton University itself and scores of
other groups have called on the federal government not to respond to
France's extradition request following Dr. Diab's conviction.
This
would be a second extradition; the first one returning him to France
had him incarcerated for several years awaiting a trial that was
postponed during the search to continue gathering plausible evidence
against the man's involvement in a crime that killed four people and
injured many others; a deadly attack against French Jews, marking a new
era of violence committed by Palestinian or Islamist terrorists in
France.
Before
his arrest in Canada in 2008, when he was placed under strict bail
conditions until he was returned to France in 2018, Diab had taught
courses on human rights as a sessional lecturer at Carleton University.
From that time in 2006 forward, to the present he is now once again
teaching at Carleton University; a third-year course on social justice
in action. The action related to social justice is entirely his own
experience, emphasizing how an 'innocent man' can be caught up in a web
of false intrigues.
Addressed
to Carleton University president Jerry Tomberlin, an open letter by
B'nai Brith was sent demanding Diab's dismissal. His continued
employment at the university, the letter pointed out, "raises significant questions regarding Carleton's dedication to the safety and well-being of its students and staff." The university is well aware of Diab's conviction, and it has voiced their championship of his innocence.
Arriving
in Canada in 1993, Diab claims to have been a victim of erroneous
identity, that he had no involvement whatever in the bombing; a claim
his colleagues at the department of sociology and anthropology at
Carleton fully endorse in solidarity with the man they know only as one
of their own. In the immediate aftermath of the French conviction last
April, Carleton's department of sociology and anthropology sent a
communique demanding that Diab's extradition be blocked by the federal
Liberal government.
A
rally was organized by the department the year before Diab's
conviction, for the purpose of claiming that French justice authorities
were involved in a sham case against their colleague: "Hassan Diab was not involved at all in that bombing that took place in 1980", an event listing claimed, with the authority of the convinced. It took until the 1990s before Diab became a suspect.
Major
areas of circumstantial evidence propelled him into the role of primary
suspect; his passport revealed that he entered and exited Europe
immediately prior to and following the bombing. Testimony from friends
in the hands of French authorities claimed that Diab had connections
with the terror group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. A
fiction figure by the name of "Alexander Panadriyu who purportedly
planted the bomb, matched descriptions of Diab himself.
Firemen standing by the wreckage of a car and motorcycle after a bomb
attack at a Paris synagogue on October 3, 1980 that killed four people. (AFP/Getty Images)
Other
contentious evidence came down to French handwriting analysts finding
similarities between Diab's writing style with the fictional Panadriyu
on a hotel registration card. On Diab's first extradition in 2014
following a lengthy extradition process when a judge examining the
extradition request and allied circumstantial evidence when the
handwriting similarity was called into question, failure to proceed to
trial after years in prison cast doubt on the extradition and the
process of French justice by Canadian authorities.
Released
from three years of prison without trial on the ruling of insufficient
evidence to proceed, Diab returned to Canada. Finally, in 2021 a
decision by the French Supreme Court ordered a re-opening of the case,
but Canada was reluctant to extradite him once more; an external review
of the case ordered by the federal government left the impression that
Canada had erred in acceding to the French request for extradition,
given the preceding circumstances.
That
report concluded that there was "discomfort" in repeating the
extradition process when the original process concluded with his
dismissal without charges following three years of detention in a French
prison. "He
was legally extradited having been afforded all appropriate procedural
protections. The fact that he was not convicted in France does not
render the extradition process flawed", the report concluded.
The
fact does remain: this is a man who steadfastly contends his innocence,
charging mistaken identity was at the core of his ordeal. Yet,
unmistakably, he was found guilty of involvement in a terrorist act by a
French court of justice. On the basis of circumstantial evidence
considered reliable enough to implicate him in the death of four people
by terrorist action. By association and the conviction he is labelled a
terrorist with past connection to the terror group PLFP.
As
such, honouring him as a man of authority on human rights and
miscarriages of justice with an academic platform to pursue his personal
goal of clearing his name as an innocent beleaguered by an
inefficient
French system of justice that sought to placate the rage of French Jews
over the actions of violent Islamists and Palestinian terrorists
terrorizing and murdering Jews, in a case that has for so long defied
solving and closure he is able to manipulate public opinion as a victim
of injustice.
"[It's] still devastating to know they [French justice] pursued that biased road which
led to the unfortunate decision."
"It was not easy on me or on supporters and [my] family in general."
"[Calling
on Trudeau to honour his sentiments that what happened to Diab should
not have happened and should never happen again]. That's the simplest
and easiest and shortest thing."
"I can't ask for more."
Hassan Diab
Hassan Diab in Ottawa on Friday April 21, 2023. A French court found Diab
guilty on Friday in relation to a 1980 bombing of a Paris Synagogue. (Michel Aspirot/CBC)
Samidoun: Offended It is Recognized as a Terrorist Group
"[Between
the three politicians [Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre]
recklessly and maliciously [accusing Samidoun as a terrorist entity
owing a retraction and apology, a lawsuit has gone forward]."
"The suit will force the biggest mouths in government to actually show proof of the allegation of terrorist activity."
"It
is very dangerous if we allow a government to decide who gets to enjoy
full rights and who doesn't without showing actual proof."
Toronto lawyer Stephen Ellis
"The Liberals cannot legislate away our right to free speech."
"If they contend we are terrorists, let them prove it in court."
Charlotte Kates, co founder, Samidoun
"Samidoun
does not have any material or organizational ties to entities listed on
the terrorist lists of the United States, Canada or the European
Union."
Samidoun statement
Anti-Israel demonstrators march in Ottawa on March 9,
2024. Samidoun, a group listed in Israel as a terror organization and
banned outright in Germany, is one of the main groups organizing
pro-Palestinian protests in Canada.Photo by Ashley Fraser / Postmedia
Vancouver-based
Samidoun established a global network of support branches to which they
give direction in the promulgation of 'public relations' announcements
and protests in support of Palestinian 'rights' and entitlements in a
world where Palestinian terrorism wreaks havoc as it mounts terrorist
assaults against Jews universally and within Israel in particular,
exacting a penalty of murder as the price it feels Israel must pay for
its insistence that it has a right to exist on its own ancestral land.
Palestinian
terrorism is geared toward penalizing Israel and Jews through a
never-ending devotion to lethal assaults against their 'oppressor'.
Portraying themselves as victims seeking restitution of land they claim
as theirs despite that it is historically Judean land, and Jews the
original inhabitants native to the land, those identifying themselves as
'Palestinians' are in fact looting from the indigenous Jewish
population the heritage that was never theirs.
There
is, and never has been, a shortage of militant terrorism among the Arab
Palestinian population. Among the earliest and most barbaric has been
the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, involved in plane and
sea-going vessel hijacking, hostage-taking and murderous assaults.
Samidoun is a later, public-relations manifestation of Palestinian
terrorism's realization of what can be accomplished when slanderous lies
are repeated frequently enough to seem believable to the
history-ignorant West.
Samidoun,
ostensibly created to speak for the rights of Palestinians in Israeli
prisons serving sentences for violent crimes against Israelis -- to
agitate for their recognition as 'freedom fighters' eligible for release
by virtue of the fact that whatever crimes were committed were in
defense of their right to 'struggle against' their colonialist
oppressors -- is committed to portraying violent criminals as merely
asserting their humanitarian right to free themselves from imperialist
colonizers.
Protesters from the
Samidoun organization gather in front of the Muelheim train
station in Cologne, Germany, on April 15, 2023, to commemorate
Palestinian Prisoners' Day (Ying Tang / NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Those
like Charlotte Kates preach to a public in the West for whom
antisemitism is not unknown, that there is a connection between
colonizers of the past and those of the present, as despised,
indigenous-injurious exploiters of original, authentic territorial
populations. Not only do they promote chants of 'death to Israel', but
also 'death to Canada', tarred with the same colonizing brush as Israel.
Samidoun portrays itself as a human-rights group seeking justice for
all disentitled people, with a special emphasis on Jews and Israel, its
first and foremost agenda.
Its
links with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine are
obvious enough, not least since the other of its co-founders, Kates's
husband Khaled Barakat, is a prominent leader in the PFLP. Kates has run
afoul of Canada's hate-speech prohibitions in law, with Vancouver
Police leading an investigation following on her having fulsomely
praised the savage Hamas attack in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
Jewish groups in Canada have identified Samidoun for what it is,
lobbying government to have it recognized as a hate group and enabler of
terrorism; linked in its formation and purpose with an already-listed
terror group, the PFLP.
Several
weeks back, no longer able to ignore the reality of Samidoun's purpose,
linkages and incitements the federal government finally relented and
announced its decision to place Samidoun on the country's terror list.
With the kind of impudent, defiant arrogance recognizable as a hallmark
of Samidoun, it now portrays itself as ill done by, a victim of
government over-reach, and should apologies not be forthcoming, a
full-scale lawsuit is to be mounted.
The
leader of the official opposition in Parliament, Pierre Poilievre, had
called on the Liberals to designate Samidoun as a terror entity,
emphasizing that the group had "clear and direct ties"
to designated terror groups abroad. Mr. Poilievre stated, before the
official announcement of its designation, that prime minister Trudeau
and the federal New Democratic Party "have allowed terrorist organizations to operate freely across Canada", which qualified him a place alongside Canada's public safety minister and prime minister in the pending lawsuit.
A screenshot of the Samidoun-led anti-Israel protest
outside the Vancouver Art Gallery where Charlotte Kates was arrested,
April 26, 2024.Photo by freepalestinetricitiesbc/Instagram
Finally Placing Samidoun on the U.S./Canada Terror List
"His
[Khaled Barakat, Samidoun founder] fundraising and recruitment efforts
support the PFLP's terrorist activity against Israel."
"[The
United States is designating Samidoun a] sham charity that serves as an
international fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine [PFLP] terrorist organization."
"The
PFLP, which was designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and a
Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the U.S. Department of State in
October 1997 and October 2001, respectively, uses Samidoun to maintain
fundraising operations in both Europe and North America."
U.S. State Department press release
"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."
Acting Under-Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Bradley T. Smith
Charlotte Kates, in Tehran two weeks ago, accepts the Iranian human right award Iran International
The
Vancouver-based anti-Israel organization has finally been listed by
Canada, after much campaigning by Canadian Jewish groups, some
pro-Israel-supporting Members of Parliament and editorials in a number
of Canadian newspapers. What finally forced the Trudeau Liberal
government to act was not the terrorist charity's organization of
hundreds of rallies and protests decrying Israel's very existence while
making life dangerous for Jews in Canada through its incitements of
hate, but the over-reach by Samidoun revealing the scope of its program.
When
the hate group encouraged and guided its followers to declare
themselves fully in support of Hamas and Hezbollah, declaring fealty to
the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Houthis, Hamas, Hezbollah and other
non-government terrorist militias from Iraq and Syria to Lebanon and
Gaza, insisting that 'imperial-colonialist' Canada must be defeated, and
burning a Canadian flag to emphasize their point, prime minister Justin
Trudeau no longer had any excuse to hide behind failing to recognize
them for what they are.
"The
listing of Samidoun as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code sends
a strong message that Canada will not tolerate this type of activity,
and will do everything in its power to counter the ongoing threat to
Canada's national security and all people in Canada",
announced Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc. It remains to be seen
just how strenuously committed this government will be to 'do everything
in its power' to destroy the malevolent effect this terror group has
succeeded in producing in Canada, in its goal of destabilization and
conquest.
Unbelievably,
the group has enjoyed charitable status in Canada for years, long after
it was repeatedly brought to the attention of the government that their
activities created stark and dangerous divisions within Canadian
society with no end in sight to their ambitious agenda of making Canada
terror-central to the Palestinian networks of demonizing Israel, calling
for its destruction, and hounding Jewish Canadians in public, while
inciting to violence against Jewish institutions in Canada.
The
US. government went a step further than Canada, in designating
Barakat's wife Charlotte Kates, a director of Samidoun, a terrorist,
while Khaled Barakat himself has been identified as a ranking
leadership member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
These Palestinian terrorist stalwarts last week organized a rally on the
one-year anniversary of the October 7 terror attacks where attendees
chanted "death to Canada", to which Samidoun later announced "we at Samidoun stand by this phrase as the call to action that it is".
Masked protesters set a Canadian flag on fire at the event, while a woman led chants of "We are Hezbollah and we are Hamas";
identifying with Lebanon and Gaza. The PFLP has been listed by Canada
as a terrorist organization since 2003. Groups with a terrorist
designation are prohibited from receiving financial services, donations
of money, or property.
Kates,
who directly following the October 7 southern Israel atrocities
perpetrated by Palestinian terrorists led by Hamas, praised the Hamas
and Islamic Jihad savages at a rally: "We stand with the Palestinian resistance and their heroic brave action on October 7",
she crowed. The Vancouver Police Department launched a hate-speech
investigation as a follow-up to that event. It has been over year that
the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs lobbied government for Samidoun
to be declared a terrorist organization, launching a petition with
B'nai Brith Canada to have Kates and Barakat deported.
Screenshot showing the Facebook page of Samidoun Deutschland. November 03, 2023. (credit: SEAN GALLUP/GETTY IMAGES
"This
process has not been tested in Canadian courts. A lot of the reason for
that is because we are designating, for the most part, foreign
entities. This is one of the only cases where I've seen a direct
Canadian tie and a direct Canadian leader ... who will be directly
affected by a terrorist listing."
"In
the case of an organization like Samidoun, or really any listed
terrorist entity, the question comes down to what the people are doing
to support the organization."
"Just
being a member of an organization is not a criminal offence in Canada.
However, as soon as you cross the line into conducting any kind of
support or sort of advancement activities that are fairly concrete,
then you come very close to facilitation [of a terrorist activity] and
some of those activities."
Jessica Davis, counterterrorism expert, Carleton University
"Is
it possible that if they are lying about these events and creating a
false genocide, it is likely they may have lied about certain details of
a previous big genocide [Holocaust] that may have occurred?"
Toronto4Palestine
"In the last several days, we have witnessed the active decolonization of Palestinian land led by the Palestinian resistance."
"May the memory of our martyrs continue to guide us on the steadfast path to liberation."
Palestinian Youth Movement
"The
most prolific organizer [of 'pro-Palestinian' solidarity marches in the
wake of the October 7 attack on southern Israel] has been the
Palestinian Youth Movement, a group active in both the United States and
Canada. It was the PYM that marshalled the first wave of celebratory
"All Out for Gaza" marches that appeared in all of Canada's major cities
in the immediate hours after the October 7 massacres."
"And
in the dozens of events held since, the protests have included
everything from displays of the swastika to children leading open calls
for "intifada" as the "only solution."
Tristin Hopper, journalist, National Post
A rally in Montreal on Nov. 12, 2023.Photo by THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
It
is well enough known that the terrorist Palestinian group Hamas which
governs Gaza orchestrated a savagely sadistic day of slaughter in
southern Israel on October 7, when its operatives flooded into Israel at
the Gaza border to begin a massacre of Israeli civilians, mass rape of
girls and women, killing of infants and children in a sadistic orgy of
psychopathic hatred. Then it was revealed unsurprisingly, that
Palestinian Islamic Jihad was also involved.
And
finally came the realization of ordinary Palestinian civilians
opportuning themselves by following the terrorists into the breaches of
the separating walls at the border to commit their own atrocities on
Jewish families in the border towns, villages and kibbutzim. While
Israel has been induced to commit to a temporary ceasefire in the hopes
of having at the very least women and child hostages returned to Israel,
the plight of a ten-month-old baby, his 4-year-old sibling and their
mother gripped the nation.
The
three were to have been returned to Israel in an exchange of hostages
for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Hamas informed Israel they
were unable to locate the three. They followed that up with saying they
were in the hands of another terror group. And finally, that they were
dead. That other group was the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine, notorious decades ago for its plane hijacking and murders of
Jews. The family, it appeared, died at their hands. Their father, taken
hostage separately, was forced to watch a video of his family's death.
Finally,
Hamas refused to release any more of the Israeli women, some ten in
number along with several children. Speculation is that they are either
dead or close to death; the terrorists gang-raped women to death,
breaking the pelvic bones of some and others taken hostage for use as
'sex slaves'. None of this happened, however, according to Palestinians
in Canada, organizing mass protests in the streets of Canadian cities,
accusing Israel of genocide and celebrating the courage of Hamas and
others.
Now
it has been revealed that affiliates of the PLFP have been directly
involved in many "ceasefire" and "stop the genocide" mass rallies
clogging Canadian streets. Bearing in mind that Hamas, PIJ and PLFP are
listed terrorist groups in Canada. The Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner
Solidarity Network headquartered in Vancouver and founded by Khaled
Barakat, a leader in the PFLP's Central Committee has been actively
arranging protests.
Germany,
following Israel's example, listed Samidoun as a terrorist entity
amidst a nationwide crackdown on 'pro-Hamas' organizations. German
Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser spoke of Samidoun as having an "antisemitic, inhuman world view, particularly repugnant".
Yet in Canada the group has achieved federal non-profit status as a
charity. In May they posted images of protesters in Vancouver there to
affirm "the right of Palestinians to carry out popular and armed struggle to liberate Palestine from the river to the sea".
It
has also been busy as a key organizer of Canadian anti-Israel rallies
following the very first hours after the October 7 attacks. Former B.C.
Civil Liberties Association head Harsha Walia praised the "Palestinians on hang-gliders"
responsible for the massacre of over 200 young people attending a
musical festival close to the Gaza border, in Israel. Other groups have
been organizing waves of "ceasefire" and "stop the genocide" mass
rallies.
Social
media channels have been rife with such groups posting open praise for
terrorism in the months leading up to October 7, followed by ecstatic
celebrations as the initial details of the massacres reached the public.
A frequent organizer in the Greater Toronto Area, Toronto4Palestine
hailed news of the October 7 terror attacks as acts of "heroic resistance", that "has shaped a new precedent for our national liberation struggle".
And
the Palestinian Youth Movement ranks as the most influentially busy of
the groups in organizing events publicized as "ceasefire" or "peace"
rallies, while at the very same time the group has openly supported
Palestinian terrorism; their ultimate goal to see Israel violently
destroyed; a carbon copy of the Hamas manifesto of its reason for
existence as a death cult.
And
the federal government in Ottawa, of Justin Trudeau? Well it hesitates
to 'take sides', deploring the horrific atrocities committed by
Palestinians against Israeli Jews, while at the same time warning Israel
that its response to the constant threats, attacks and this final
barbaric episode, must be measured, that the lives of Palestinians must
be held as sacrosanct as those of Jews were not.
So
no action to stop the constant rallies in support of Hamas and other
Palestinian terror groups which fly the flags of fascist terror groups
outlawed in Canada (wink-wink), for fear of alienating a large
voting bloc. In view of which, Canadians will perhaps eventually get
around to asking themselves and then posing the question to their
government:
Why has
Canada permitted the importation into the country of people as
immigrants, migrants and refugees who bring with them these hateful
ideologies, and why are they allowed to air them so aggressively in
public?
Oh,
right, I plumb forgot! A majority of Canadians has expressed -- through
several nationwide polls -- their extreme concerns over the situation
of citizens, presuming to be Canadian and expressing and acting on these
issues in a morally indefensible way, not reflective of the general
Canadian feelings that there are indeed two sides; one a nation of
democratic values that upholds universal laws of justice, the other an
uncivilized, barbaric rabble for whom crimes against humanity is just
business as usual.
"As
the morning dawns on 7 October 2023, the resistance is rising
throughout occupied Palestine, smashing the siege on Gaza with a
comprehensive offensive confronting the occupier by land, air and sea,
the resistance fighting to advance return and the liberation of
Palestine."
Terrorist Group and Don't Know Where to Peddle Your Wares? Try Canada!
"Enough
is enough. Samidoun's ties to the PFLP [Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine] terrorist entity are self-proclaimed and
explicit. The group does not even attempt to hide them."
"What is unclear is why the [Liberal] government has yet to take action to outlaw the group's activities in Canada."
Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, (CIJA) Canada
"We
have long alerted the government to Samidoun's incitement to hatred
against Canada's Jewish community and affiliation with the PFLP."
"Emboldened
by impunity and inaction, Samidoun is now hosting its first major North
American demonstration, here in the capital [Ottawa] of our country."
Shimon Koffler Fogel, president, CIJA
"This conference is not organized by Samidoun."
"Throughout
my years here, and I've been here for almost a decade, any kind of
Palestinian-themed event here meets some sort of resistance, from either
B'nai Brith or other organizations, so we've come to hear all kinds of
complaints."
"We work with all kinds of progressive movements here in the city."
Jason St-Laurent, SAW curator
Samidoun
Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network is honoured to join with the
Masar Badil, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement,
in calling all activists, organizers and supporters of Palestine in
North America to join us in Ottawa on Algonquin Anishinaabe Land, April
28-30, 2023, for the Liberation Conference. Samidoun Website
The
tip-off is the 'progressive' designation and affiliation. The PFLP is a
recognized terrorist organization, infamous for its plane highjackings
and other high-profile stunts to draw attention to the existence of a
'Palestinian' extremist group whose purpose is the destruction of the
State of Israel. As a terrorist entity Canada, among other democratic
nations of the world have placed the group on a terrorist list forbidden
entry to those countries.
Jewish
groups, in view of the NGO group calling itself Samidoun, heavily
affiliated with the PFLP which purportedly defends the human rights of
Palestinians in Israeli prisons (where conditions are such that
prisoners may pursue academic upgrades among other 'progressive'-welfare
conditions of their imprisonment for major terrorism events) and
for whom propaganda slandering Israel and Jews is a major activity --
call on the government to investigate it under Section 83.05(1)(b) of
the Criminal Code for acting on behalf of and/or associating with a
listed terrorist entity, the PFLP.
The
SAW Centre is an avant-garde Ottawa arts centre, preparing to play host
to an international conference organized by a shadowy terror-affiliated
network whose purpose is defaming Israel preparatory to its
destruction. It has wide appeal among 'progressives' and those for whom
antisemitism is a natural reaction to the presence of Jews. Yet Public
Safety Canada is disinterested in acting in any capacity, whether it be
an investigation of the presence of these outlawed terror groups or
their purpose harmful to the Canadian-Jewish community in inciting
against Jews and Israel.
According
to the SAW Centre, the Jewish Federation of Ottawa is busy spreading a
"fallacy" about the central role that Samidoun has taken in the
conference organization. The Ontario Public Interest Research Group at
Carleton University booked the SAW venue, Samidoun simply an endorser of
the conference among about 30 "antiwar" and "anti-imperialist" groups
organizing and attending the conference whose focus is the victimhood of
Palestinians.
From its inception in 1973, the artist-run centre SAW has supported
politically and socially engaged art, focusing on the performance and
media arts. SAW Website
The
website for the conference is festooned with Samidoun flags; its
European coordinator announced the plans for the event months earlier,
the first such conference in North America of "the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement".
A fairly new group of Palestinian militants, Masar Badil, who reject
Palestinian Authority legitimacy, oppose peace talks with Israel and
call for a resumption of the intifada of 1987. After the intifadeh that
saw the deaths of both Israelis and Palestinians, 822 Palestinians were
executed by their leaders, who charged them with collaborating with
Israel.
The
co-founder of the group is Khaled Barakat, key in the rejectionist
militant movement, who has been resident in Canada off and on for
several decades; a ubiquitous figure at Samidoun events globally.
According to Israeli intelligence, Barakat is a high-ranking PFLP
member, and Samidoun the PFLP's overseas fund-raising and recruitment
proxy. Fund raising is vital to Samidoun and they've run into
constraints since Visa and MasterCard cut the group off.
Three
days before Samidoun was registered as a charitable group with
Corporations Canada as a non-profit corporation, Israeli authorities
listed Samidoun as a terrorist entity, given its PFLP connections. The
event taking place at the SAW Centre this weekend describes itself as
focusing on "building the liberation struggle in North America", linking with Indigenous and Black "liberation movements".
Sessions
at the conference include: Anti-Imperialism and the International
People's tribunal on U.S. Imperialism; Palestinian Prisoners and the
Resistance; Organizing for Return to Palestine; Building the Boycott
Movement; and Anti-Zionism: An Anti-Colonial Struggle.
Members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine stand guard during an Al-Quds Day parade in Beirut on April 14.Photo by Mohamed Azakir/Reuters
"Representatives
of the organization are active in many countries in Europe and North
America, led by Khaled Barakat, who is part of the leadership of the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) abroad."
"Barakat is involved with establishing militant cells and motivating terrorist activity in Judea & Samaria and abroad."
National Bureau for Counter-Terror Financing report, Israel
"It's
highly alarming that modern terror organizations, in their tactics of
concealment and disguise, have methodically adopted pseudonyms from the
world of human rights and civil society organizations to hide behind."
Israeli Ambassador to Canada, Ronen Hoffman
"The
links between the PFLP, a listed terrorist entity in Canada and
Samidoun are clear. We are deeply troubled that the funder and leader of
Samidoun, Khaled Barakat, and his wife Charlotte Kates are able to lead
Samidoun from Canada with apparent impunity."
"This should be shocking to all Canadians."
Shimon Fogel, president, CEO, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, Canada
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! interviewed Khaled Barakat,
and
Charlotte Kates, co-ordinator of the Samidoun Palestinian prisoners’
solidarity network.
Many
of questionable character have found themselves a comfortable niche in
Canada, far from the turmoil of the geographic locations abroad that
represent the focus of their activities, generally actions engaged in
that result in turmoil, threat and murder of those whose ideologies or
sectarian choices or, in the case of Israel and the Palestinian
diaspora, an antipathy to the very location of a historical homeland
restored to the rightful inheritors, to the murderous rage of usurpers
claiming the land as their own.
Again,
in the case of Palestinians, there is a propensity to migrate abroad
and from their new perches plan and execute atrocities to take place
that target the Jewish state or Jews in general as symbols of the
self-imposed 'victimhood' of Arabs who saw fit to 'inherit' the
identity-nomenclature of the original inhabitants; Jewish Palestinians
denoting a Roman-era designation for Judea and Judeans. Where not only
have those Arabs taken possession of the name of Palestinian but they
are claimants to all symbolic and real religious sites aligned with
Judaism.
Young
Palestinians in Canada on study visas are enabled to become landed
immigrants and eventually citizens, while others immigrate with full
families to make a place for themselves within Canadian society. Yet
rather than accepting the prevailing Canadian culture and values they
bring with them venomous hatred of Israel and of Jews, fulminating
against both as usurpers in their very land of ancestral inheritance.
Palestinian
Khaled Barakat, now 51, has lived in Canada posing as a Palestinian
rights activist and freelance writer for the last 20 years. He and his
defenders claim he is a victim of Israeli intimidation and persecution
simply because he is a voice for Palestinians in exile from 'their'
land. In fact he is an active and senior member of the Popular Front for
the Liberation of Palestine, a terrorist group, listed as such in North
America, the European Union, Japan and Australia.
In Palestinian news websites the man is described as a "leader of the PFLP",
and sometimes as a member of the PFLP's governing central committee.
According to Israeli intelligence, PFLP documents identifying him as a
key operative in their organization have been intercepted, completely
validating identifying him as a covert terrorist living freely in
Canada. His true identity is fully known by Canadian intelligence
agencies, law-enforcement authorities and senior federal politicians.
Many of Samidoun’s activists are also members and leaders of pro-BDS organizations in the United States.
Khaled Barakat,
coordinator of Samidoun, is also a member of the Al-Awda Palestine
Right to Return Coalition, an organization that supports BDS.
Khaled Barakat (shown in a photo that appears on the
Samidoun website).Photo by Aage Christensen/samidoun.net
Charlotte Kates,
co-manager of Samidoun, is a member of the “Organizing Collective” of
the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI)
and was previously an activist with New Jersey Solidarity Activists for
the Liberation of Palestine (NJS), an organization that called for the
destruction of Israel.
NGO Monitor
He
has appeared for years at rallies and meetings across Canada and
travelled widely in Europe. In 2019 he was detained in Berlin and
deported for what German authorities spoke of as violent, antisemitic
rhetoric. The PFLP's major financial and political backers are the
regime in Damascus, Khomeini's Iran and Hezbollah, in Lebanon. Barakat
himself is involved with an organization called the Samidoun Palestinian
Prisoner Solidarity Network that Israeli intelligence identify as a
PFLP "proxy" functioning as the group's overseas recruitment,
fundraising and propaganda arm.
Samidoun
was designated last year as a terrorist organization in Israel, with
Barakat identified as central to its operations. Shortly afterward, the
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network was formally registered
by the federal Corporations Canada agency under the Canada
Not-for-Profit Corporations Act. Alarmed, under information-sharing
terms of the 2014 Canada-Israel strategic partnership agreement (signed under the previous Harper Conservative government)m\, Israel proposed a briefing spurred by the PFLP having "inexplicably been allowed to set up shop in this country".
A meeting between Israeli and Canadian officials, including representatives from Canada's CSIS (security intelligence establishment),
the RCMP and the Canadian Border Service Agency was arranged. Nothing
of any substance came of the meeting. Samidoun's registry was not
revoked and nor was the organization dissolved in Canada. B'nai Brith's
chief executive wrote to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pointing out that
the government's inattention was "inexcusable".
"This
hate rally [Al Quds march taking place in Canada on April 30] is
particularly troubling given that later this week, Jewish communities
around the world will pause to mark Yom HaShoah [the Holocaust
anniversary]."
"We are equally alarmed by the apparent involvement [in the Al-Quds parage] of terror-tied organizations, like Samidoun."
This represents a general opinion site for its author. It also offers a space for the author to record her experiences and perceptions,both personal and public. This is rendered obvious by the content contained in the blog, but the space is here inviting me to write. And so I do.