by Irina Park
On October 15, the United States Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned the Palestinian prisoner support network Samidoun (meaning “those who are steadfast” in Arabic), freezing their assets and preventing business exchanges. In a statement released on Tuesday, OFAC denominated Samidoun as a “sham charity that serves as an international fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization.” Palestinian activist Khaled Barakat, a Canadian citizen, was also sanctioned for his alleged “fundraising and recruitment efforts [that] support the PFLP’s terrorist activities against Israel.” Canada listed Samidoun as a terrorist entity in concert with OFAC, days after the Dutch parliament made the same decision.
In a statement in response to the ban, Samidoun wrote: “[The ban] is a coordinated attempt by the enemies of the Palestinian people to stop every form of solidarity with the Palestinian people and political organizing efforts to end Israel’s genocide, crimes against humanity and occupation.
“Our response to this designation is clear: we will keep struggling to stop the genocide, stop imperialist support for Israel, until the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea.”
Samidoun emerged in 2011 out of the September-October hunger strike of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, establishing a dedicated network to raise awareness and provide resources about Palestinian prisoners and organize campaigns for political change and advocacy of Palestinian prisoners. The organization is based in Canada and has chapters there as well as the US, Europe, Brazil, and occupied Palestine.
Israel led the charge in repressing the group in 2021, with Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz designating Samidoun as a “terrorist organization”. In November 2023, following the renewal of the Palestine Solidarity Movement in the aftermath of Operation al-Aqsa Flood, Germany banned Samidoun, claiming it allegedly “supported and glorified various foreign terrorist organizations, including HAMAS.” Under the guise of antisemitism, Germany has banned demonstrations in solidarity with Palestine, unleashed police violence on people wearing keffiyehs and waving Palestinian flags, banning the chant “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” and threatening activists with imprisonment and deportation. The German ruling class stumbles from one genocide to another, using its former holocaust to justify the latest one.
Despite the intense repression, Samidoun’s ties to banned resistance organizations have yet to be proven. The Israel-based NGO Monitor offers a list of “Samidoun Ties to Terrorism”, but cites only the unsubstantiated claims of Israel and Germany, as well as a list of speeches and rallies they have held in defense of Palestine.
The freedoms of speech and assembly in the US are limited to the interests of the ruling class while promoting the illusion of democracy and equality among all people. Such limitations are enforced by the many laws used to crackdown on democratic rights: the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 aimed at restricting and surveilling Communist activity, the material support for terrorism crime restricting support for liberation struggles of the Third World, and Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) charges that have recently been aimed at alleged Stop Cop City activists and are used to target large numbers of individuals under the guise of “criminal plots.”
The ban comes at a time when the right-wing of the Palestine Solidarity Movement has urged people to vote for Harris-Walz, arguing that Trump-Vance would crackdown even harder on the protests and deport activists. Such work has already begun, not only with students facing deportations for their involvement with the PSM on campuses, but now with banning Samidoun and threatening its members. Samidoun also notably helped organize one of the only militant protests during the Democratic National Convention, which had in the main been characterized by tame protests under the control of Democrat-adjacent nonprofits. While the Biden-Harris administration bans a Palestine solidarity organization for alleged “terrorism,” it has provided $22.76 billion for the US-Israel genocide since October 2023 alone.
According to Samidoun’s statement, the ban “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…. The repression is a sign of strength for the Palestinian movement and the international solidarity movement.”
You can read the full statement by Samidoun here.
Photo: Rally in solidarity with Samidoun following their ban in Germany in 2023. Retrieved from Samidoun wesbite.
