Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz signed an order designating the Palestinian NGO Samidoun as a terrorist organization, the Ministry announced on Sunday. Gantz accused Samidoun of acting as the international branch of the far-left Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
The PFLP has orchestrated several terror attacks globally, as well as many targeting Israeli civilians and soldiers, and has thus been designated as a terrorist organization by Israel (1986), the United States (1997), the European Union (2002), Canada (2013), and several other countries.
Meanwhile, the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, founded in 2012, is active in Europe and North America, where it purportedly tries to “build solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in their struggle for freedom.” As such, journalists have used Samidoun’s purported expertise in articles about incarcerated Palestinians. In reality, Israeli research has repeatedly shown that the group acts as a front for the PFLP.
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“Terrorists In Suits”
In 2019, Israel’s Strategic Affairs Ministry released the Terrorists in Suits report, highlighting the close ties between various NGOs and terrorist groups. The publication included several examples of cooperation between Samidoun and the PFLP, including a Samidoun activist who received Hezbollah training in Lebanon and subsequently smuggled funds from Lebanon and Syria to PFLP proponents in Belgium. It also noted that several senior Samidoun officials double as PFLP operatives, in accordance with previous research by NGO Monitor.
Fast forward to 2021. The blacklisting of Samidoun was made following the recommendation of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and the National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing. The decision also applies Samidoun’s offshoots in Europe.
Amongst others, Gantz’s order singles out the Dutch chapter of Samidoun. That body has become increasingly active in Amsterdam over the past few months, organizing campaigns calling for the release of prominent PFLP members like its current leader, Ahmad Sa’adat. The PFLP Secretary-General is serving a 30-year prison sentence in Israel for ordering and directing several terror attacks.
In July, Samidoun organized a rally in the Dutch capital against Israel’s plans to annex certain parts of disputed territories in the West Bank. The invitation on Facebook, which featured a Palestinian stone-thrower, called for “the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea” and glorified “the martyrs and the Palestinian resistance.” Meanwhile, marches were staged in North America and Europe to mark the anniversary of the death of one of the PFLP’s senior political bureau officials.
Two years ago, Samidoun organized an anti-Israel rally with PFLP terrorist Rasmea Odeh in Berlin. Odeh was convicted in 1970 of facilitating two bombings in Jerusalem, including one that killed two Jewish students at a supermarket. After public pressure, the German authorities banned Odeh from taking part in political activities and revoked her visa.
Related Reading: Reign of Terror: The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Yet, the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle at the time described Odeh merely as a “controversial Palestinian activist,” saying that “Israel regards her as a terrorist.” The newspaper also failed to mention the links between Samidoun and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which were known at that time.
Additionally, major media outlets like The Guardian have cited reports by Samidoun, while detailing its rallies against Israel’s now-shelved plan to apply sovereignty to parts of the West Bank in accordance with the former US administration’s peace plan.
This, without mentioning the organization’s ties to the PFLP.
The media’s response to Israel’s terror designation of Samidoun was silence, as Gantz’s decision was only reported in Israeli press. Hopefully, media that in the past cited the organization will now think twice before using it as a source.
