US Treasury designates Samidoun a 'sham charity,' accuses group of international fundraising for PFLP terrorist group
The United States Treasury Department on Tuesday designated the organization known as the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network a “sham charity.”
The Treasury stated that Samidoun “serves as an international fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization.”
The statement describes the PFLP as “a terrorist group operating in Gaza and the West Bank,” whose terrorist activities included “participating in the horrific attacks against Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023.”
Due to its funding of the PFLP, Samidoun has now been officially placed under U.S. sanctions.
The decision of the U.S. Treasury was made in conjunction with the Canadian government, which designated Samidoun as a “terrorist entity.”
Founded in 2012, Samidoun describes itself as “an international network of organizers and activists working to build solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in their struggle,” and that its members “work to raise awareness and provide resources about Palestinian political prisoners, their conditions, their demands, and their work for freedom for themselves, their fellow prisoners, and their homeland.”
Earlier this month, Samidoun asked the public to “join us and our fighting organizations as we come together to honor the sacrifices of our heroic martyrs and uplift the victory of Al-Aqsa Flood”– Hamas’ name for the Oct. 7 attack which included the murder of around 800 civilians, and about 1,200 deaths in total.
In response to being labeled a “sham charity” and a “terrorist entity” by the U.S. and Canadian governments, the organization said 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.”
Samidoun further stated it would “keep struggling to stop the genocide, stop imperialist support for Israel, until the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea.”
The All Israel News Staff is a team of journalists in Israel.