Ivanna J. | Red Phoenix correspondent | Washington–
In a press release dated Oct. 15, the Treasury Department announced that the Canadian government has joined the U.S., Germany, and many other countries, in classifying the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network as a terrorist organization. The condemnation and terror designation follows a public flag burning in Vancouver, B.C., on October 7, 2024, the one-year anniversary of the Palestinian resistance attacks on Israel. In addition, the United States has accused Samidoun of being a “sham charity” that “serves as an international fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization.”
The false classification of Samidoun as a terror organization comes after social media accounts of Samidoun’s local chapters being regularly banned from Instagram, Facebook, and X (formerly Twitter). In response to this, Samidoun attempted to launch a new set of socials called Unity of Fields, which also saw a unilateral ban in a matter of weeks. Silencing voices on social media platforms has been a widespread effort by the bourgeoisie to stifle the Palestinian liberation and solidarity movement across the globe. No aspect of Samidoun’s actions on Oct. 7 in Vancouver could feasibly constitute an act of terrorism, nor do their fundraisers to aid Palestinian prisoners in Israel, nor their local grassroots activism within the Palestinian diaspora and Palestinian liberation and solidarity movements. Samidoun is accused of being a “front” for the PFLP given that their mission statement is in sending aid to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, with some of those prisoners being part of various Palestinian resistance organizations, including but not limited to the PFLP. We know, and have seen video evidence of, how Palestinian prisoners are treated by the Israeli prison system and IDF soldiers, such as the recent leak of a brutal sexual assault committed on one prisoner by a group of guards.
The label of “terrorist organization” is often used not only to describe actual terrorist organizations, but also to classify any group of people that resist U.S. and NATO interests abroad. The U.S. government has demonstrated decades of commitment to the “security” of Israel. Adjusted for inflation, the amount of money given to Israel since 1948 totals upwards of $300 billion, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. The label of “terrorist organization” is simply another level of sanction against the Palestinian liberation movement as a whole, to stifle the efforts of organizers and silence the movement’s supporters.
The incorrect classification of Samidoun as a terrorist organization by any state or non-state actor must be absolutely rejected by all. In addition, comrades around the world should absolutely get in touch with their local Samidoun chapters and assist in their current and future activism.
¡Viva Palestina!
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