‘SHAM CHARITY’: Supposed pro-Palestinian charity group with campus involvement marked as terrorist front by US
The U.S. has labeled Samidoun as a ‘sham charity’ that serves a Palestinian Marxist terrorist group.
Columbia University previously held an event featuring Samidoun at which one of the speakers praised Hamas and the Oct. 7 massacre.
The U.S. Department of Treasury has designated a supposed charity organization for Palestinians as a front for a terrorist group.
On Tuesday, the Department of Treasury issued a press release announcing that its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated “the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, or ‘Samidoun,’ a sham charity that serves as an international fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization.”
The PFLP is a Marxist-Leninist terrorist movement that is guilty of several plane hijackings and murders. The group has been considered a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. since 1997.
Samidoun has planned anti-Israel activities at several colleges, such as a pro-divestment protest at Princeton University, National Review reported.
Campus Reform also reported that Columbia University hosted an event with Samidoun in March called “Resistance 101.” A PFLP leader, Khaled Barakat, spoke at the event, referencing his “friends in Islamic Jihad,” another terrorist group, and his wife spoke in praise of Hamas. She called Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre a “necessary action” and “earth-shattering.”
Germany also banned Samidoun on Nov. 2, and Israel labeled Samidoun as a terrorist group in 2021.
“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,” said Bradley T. Smith, Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.
OFAC’s decision was coordinated together with Canada, which also designated Samidoun as a “terrorist entity.” Samidoun is based in Vancouver, Canada.
“While the organization ostensibly supports Palestinian prisoners and their family members, in practice Samidoun provides financial support to the sanctioned PFLP,” the Treasury Department wrote.
As a result of OFAC’s designation, “all property and interests in property” of Samidoun–as well as of Barakat’s–are “blocked and must be reported to OFAC.”
Samidoun shot back at the Treasury Department’s designation, calling it 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.”
Campus Reform has contacted the U.S. Department of the Treasury and Columbia University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
