Thursday, October 17, 2024
U.S. and Canada's Criminalization of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Aim of Terrorism Charges
Vancouver, demonstration marking one year of genocide, one year
of resistance,
October 5,
2024.
• Statement of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
U.S. and Canada's Criminalization of Samidoun
Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Aim of Terrorism Charges
On October 15, the U.S. designated Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner
Solidarity Network as a "terrorist" organization, freezing all
its
assets and those of individuals in the U.S. and abroad it claims
are
associated with Samidoun. Canada followed in lockstep the same
day,
designating Samidoun as a
"terrorist entity."
Both countries claimed Samidoun was a "sham charity," associated with "terrorists." No specific examples were given, no listing of "sham" fundraising, not a shred of evidence.
The U.S. provided nothing but the assertion that Samidoun is "an international fundraiser" associated with organizations the U.S. has designated as "terrorist," such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
Canada repeated the same. Canadian citizen Khaled Barakat was also branded a supporter of terrorism. Dominic LeBlanc, Canada's Minister of Public Safety, Democratic Institutions, and Intergovernmental Affairs, said "Violent extremism, acts of terrorism or terrorist financing have no place in Canadian society or abroad."
Again, no facts, no evidence given. Parroting the U.S., he justified the attack in the name of countering "the ongoing threat to Canada's national security and all people in Canada."
This latest action follows similar U.S. sanctions and freezing of assets since October 7, 2023 against those the U.S. decided were associated with Hamas. It included targeting a bank in Gaza that operates independent of the U.S. financial system and provides for the people of Gaza.
The sanctions also mean that "non-U.S. financial institutions and other persons that engage" in "activities with sanctioned entities" face sanctions themselves.
It is the U.S. that makes these "terrorist" designations
whenever it
wants to silence and discredit political organizing against its
wars
and genocide, at home and abroad. Hamas, the PFLP, the Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO) are all recognized internationally
as
political organizations with armed wings. Both the political
wings and
the armed wings are necessary and approved by international law
for a
people that are occupied and colonized.
Another aim is to
destroy the infrastructure within a country under seige so as to
facilitate U.S. takeover once the civic links between the people
and
the organizations designated as terrorist are broken.
This "terrorist" designation by the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is done based on an executive order given in 2001 by then President George W. Bush. It was part of the notorious "War on Terror," with its unjust wars, torture, "kill lists," the horror of illegal Guantanamo detentions, black ops, and more.
Few have forgotten, especially among the many Muslim organizations and forces standing up for Palestine, that within the space of ten days in December 2001, the executive order was used to freeze the assets of the three largest Muslim charities in the United States – the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, Global Relief Foundation, and Benevolence International Foundation – effectively shutting them down. With their usual arrogance and utter disrespect, these assets were seized during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, at the height of Muslim charitable giving. Individuals linked to the funding of these organizations were also accused of being terrorists, detained and severely mistreated at the time.
Since then, the Bush executive order has been used to make "normal," and acceptable that the U.S. decides who is a terrorist and who is not, as seen with Palestine and Israel today. For Afghanistan, after being defeated, the U.S. froze more than $7 billion belonging to the people of Afghanistan. The hawalas organized by Palestinians, Yemenis and Lebanese living in the U.S. to gather community funds and send them home have been crushed, to eliminate all such exchanges separate from the U.S. banking system. The current attack on Samidoun and the bank in Gaza, while also seeking to divert attention from the plight of the Palestinian prisoners by calling their defenders as terrorists, are a continuation of this.
The executive order is extremely broad, authorizing the executive, "to designate and block the assets of foreign individuals and entities that commit, or pose a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism." It also authorizes the executive "to block the assets of individuals and entities that provide support, services, or assistance to, or otherwise associate with, terrorists and terrorist organizations designated under the Order, as well as their subsidiaries, front organizations, agents, and associates."
Samidoun, headquartered in Vancouver, was designated a "front organization." The organization actively participates in the many demonstrations in New York, Toronto and Vancouver as well as working to raise awareness and provide resources about and for Palestinian political prisoners, their families, their conditions, their demands, and the work to free Palestine.
Sanctioning Samidoun is not only for purposes of robbing the movement and Palestinians of needed aid and support, but is meant to silence and isolate Samidoun and any who support it, with the threat of being branded an "associate" of terrorism.
The pro-Palestinian anti-genocide movements in the U.S. and Canada denounce this attack and stand firm in their commitment to speak out and organize to free Palestine!
Statement of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
On October 15, the United States and Canada sanctioned Samidoun
in an
attempt to repress political organizing in support of the
Palestinian
people's struggle against genocide, colonialism and occupation,
and the
more than 10,000 Palestinian political prisoners that are being
tortured and killed
by the Zionist entity. [...]
These decisions come at a time when the Zionist entity continues its genocide and massacres in Gaza, all of Palestine and Lebanon with full support from the U.S., Canada and the European Union. It 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. [...]
This designation and sanctions should be of serious concern to all who carry out political work, especially for Palestinian liberation, just like the banning of Samidoun in Germany in November 2023. It 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. It comes at a time when more people than ever are speaking out for justice and liberation in Palestine and is meant as an attack on the movement as a whole. [...]
All mainstream political parties, from Democrats to Republicans, and from social democrats to the extreme right-wing, have used the past year to propagate more racist, Islamophobic and repressive measures against the Palestinian people, Arabs, Muslims, refugees, migrants and activists. This repression reflects the interests of the U.S. and Canada, themselves settler-colonial states built on genocide, ethnic cleansing and continued oppression of the Indigenous Peoples, and Europe, the birthplace of the Zionist movement. [...]
Samidoun is particularly targeted because of our political and vocal support for the Palestinian prisoner movement and the Palestinian people's right to resistance. While the U.S. and Canada are two of Israel's biggest material supporters with weapons and money and repress the Palestinian movement in their own countries, their official outposts abroad have frequently sought to influence and direct Palestinian politics through conditional funding and similar colonial enterprises. Through these sanctions, the U.S. and Canada wish not only to support genocide but to criminalize even verbal resistance to that genocide. The Palestinian people, like all colonized and oppressed peoples, have the right to resist to liberate themselves and their land from colonialism and occupation, from the river to the sea. Those who resist occupation and oppression -- the Palestinian resistance -- are not only heroes of the Palestinian people, they are defenders of all of humanity.
As Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, we reiterate our support for the Palestinian people, the prisoners and the Palestinian, Arab and Islamic resistance, who are confronting the genocide and occupation on a daily basis.
At the same time, we want to stress that 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.
We reiterate: In Arabic, the word "Samidoun," means those who are steadfast. We use this name to refer to the Palestinian prisoners, who remain behind bars, struggling for freedom. Today we affirm that we shall remain steadfast and committed to the Palestinian people, until victory, return and liberation.
For the full statement click here.
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Website: www.cpcml.ca • Email: editor@cpcml.ca