The US Sanctioned an Anti-Israel Group for Backing Terrorists. Months Ago, Its Leaders Were Hobnobbing With Columbia University Students.

The U.S. Department of Treasury, in a joint action with the Canadian government, sanctioned the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network and one of its leaders for providing material support to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a terrorist organization that participated in the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack. The move likely spells trouble for Samidoun's U.S. collaborators, which include student activists and a major left-wing activist network, experts told the Washington Free Beacon.

The sanctions, unveiled on Tuesday, describe Samidoun as "a sham charity that serves as an international fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization." They mark the most severe action to date against the group, cutting off its ability to fundraise across North America.

All U.S. citizens are now barred from doing business with Samidoun, and the group must forfeit any properties held in the country. That could prove costly for the U.S. activist groups that have embraced it.

Samidoun, for example, has maintained a strong relationship with anti-Israel student groups, most notably Columbia University Apartheid Divest, which invited Samidoun to teach a March lecture on "Palestinian resistance" and the "fight for liberation." During the event, Samidoun leaders Charlotte Kates and her husband, Khaled Barakat, explicitly endorsed terrorism against Jews. The United States also slapped sanctions on Barakat for engaging in "fundraising and recruitment" efforts for the PFLP's "terrorist activity against Israel."

Samidoun, as a legal subsidiary of the left-wing nonprofit Alliance for Global Justice, is also part of an American dark money network funded by progressive billionaires, the Free Beacon reported last year. Liberal dark money behemoths such as the New Venture Fund, the Tides Center, and the Tides Foundation gave the alliance more than $9 million in 2021.

The new sanctions leveled against Samidoun should put those groups on notice, said Anne Herzberg, a human rights lawyer and NGO Monitor legal adviser.

"Despite the well-known PFLP connections and its activities, Samidoun was embraced by universities, faculty, student groups, and activist organizations," Herzberg told the Free Beacon. "As such, it is possible these groups and individuals may also bear liability for material support for terrorism."

"They are certainly on notice going forward that any cooperation with Samidoun or its leader Khaled Barakat could lead to serious sanctions and criminal penalties."

Samidoun and the Alliance for Global Justice did not respond to a request for comment.

The PFLP, a notorious terrorist organization known for hijacking and opening fire on commercial airplanes in the late 1960s and early '70s, "uses Samidoun to maintain fundraising operations in both Europe and North America," according to the Treasury Department, which maintains that Samidoun is effectively controlled by the terror group and acts as its proxy in countries where the PFLP is banned.

"Samidoun serves as a front for the group in countries where the PFLP is declared a terrorist organization," according to the designation published by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. "While the organization ostensibly supports Palestinian prisoners and their family members, in practice Samidoun provides financial support to the sanctioned PFLP."

The United States also applied fresh sanctions on Barakat, a Canadian citizen and PFLP member who serves as part of the terror group’s foreign leadership. In Canada, Samidoun is now designated as a "terrorist entity" under the country’s criminal code, which also prohibits it from engaging in fundraising activity.

One senior U.S. official briefed on the matter said further action is likely to disrupt Samidoun’s funding networks and cut off the PFLP’s access to cash.

"We will continue to track and target them—and it doesn’t end with today’s announcement," said the official, who spoke on background to discuss future punitive measures. "We will target their funding sources and international financial channels to ensure they are blocked from accessing their blood stained money. Creating a sham charity to whitewash palling around with terrorists like the PFLP will not save you from being designated by the United States and our allies."

Samidoun has long backed anti-Israel activism at Columbia, regularly promoting student protests and statements online. Students at Columbia have displayed pro-PFLP Samidoun signs and recently joined a violent protest on the one-year anniversary of Oct. 7 that featured a Samidoun flag with the caption "Long live Oct. 7th." Both Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine and Samidoun endorsed the march.

Asked whether Columbia would take any steps to prevent Samidoun from affiliating with its students, a spokeswoman pointed the Free Beacon to a Wednesday statement from interim president Katrina Armstrong saying that "calls for violence have no place at Columbia." Asked whether Columbia would take action against Samidoun-affiliated students, the spokeswoman did not respond.

The organization has supported similar activism on other college campuses, frequently advertising protests online and encouraging participants to "escalate," including at the University of California, Berkeley, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, George Washington University, the City University of New York, and the City College of New York.

Samidoun’s protest materials have been spotted at Princeton University, New York University, and Rutgers University.

In the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, Samidoun also began advocating on behalf of the Gaza-based terror group, further solidifying concerns about its connections to Iran’s top terror proxies.

A 2023 investigation by the International Legal Foundation found that Samidoun "has both direct and indirect ties to the Islamic Republic of Iran." It maintains a chapter in Tehran, according to the report, and some of its senior leaders have been "trained by operatives of Iranian terror group Hezbollah and via the direct transfer of funds to Samidoun, for the purposes of carrying out terrorist activities in Europe and Israel." The organization has several chapters across the world, with American chapters in New York/New Jersey, Seattle, and New Mexico.

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