Canada, Fundraising Haven for Palestinian Terrorism

"It is such an honour to be here in Beirut today, one among a sea of over a million people in collective tribute, mourning, love and commitment to the road of resistance and liberation exemplified by Sayyed Hassan Nasralla and Sayyed Hisham Safieddine."

Charlotte Kates, Canadian citizen, co-founder, Samidoun Terrorist group, Vancouver-based

 

"Today, I attended the funeral of Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut."

"During the ceremony, Israeli warplanes flew low over the stadium on two occasions, provoking a defiant response from tens of thousands of mourners."

Dimitri Lascaris, lawyer 'activist journalist', Canadian citizen 

"Barakat [Khaled Barakat, Samidoun co-founder] has previously publicly acknowledged Samidoun's affiliation with the PFLP [Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist group outlawed in Canada], despite direction from PFLP leadership to maintain the confidential nature of the relationship."

U.S. Treasury Department statement

Charlotte Kates posted this photo on her X account with the following caption: "It is such an honor to be here in Beirut today, one among a sea of over a million people in collective tribute, mourning, love and commitment to the road of resistance and liberation exemplified by Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Sayyed Hisham Safieddine." Photo by Charlotte Kates /X

Charlotte Kates, who styles herself an 'international coordinator' for Samidoun, circulated photographs of herself at the Beirut 'funeral' of Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah, while holding a Samidoun flag. Apart from her presence at the event, two other Canadians were in attendance to mourn the assassination by Israeli airstrikes of Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine, leaders of the Islamist terror group. Representatives of Islamist terrorist groups gathered in their tens of thousands to pay homage to the two acclaimed terrorist leaders, beloved of the Islamic Republic of Iran theocratic leadership and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

 

Lebanon's largest sports arena was used as a venue for this public funeral, where mass chants of 'death to Israel, 'death to America' rang out. The current head of Hezbollah, Naim Qassam, gave a keynote address to the crowd -- remotely, in fear he would become the third in succession to be assassinated by the military of the country that remains the sole target of Islam's terrorist contingent. 

It is telling just how deeply Islamist terrorism has infiltrated Canada at all levels of society, from its growing Muslim population, ascending to become stealth-acting members of government at every level. Dimitri Lascaris, one of the three Canadians attending this notorious event was a candidate for the leadership of the far left Green Party of Canada in 2020; a former chair of the board of directors for Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East. Yet another innocuous-sounding title for yet another group whose purpose is to slander Israel, to mount divestment campaigns in BDS and to persuade others that Palestinians are entitled to the Judean ancestral land that present-day Israel sits upon.

 

The Israel Air Force flyby Lascaris referred to in a video he shot of the warplanes buzzing the funeral was confirmed by Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz to include the very types of aircraft used to assassinate both Nasrallah and Safieddine in separate incidents; intended to send a 'message' to the faithful in Hezbollah. "You will specialize in funerals, and we will [specialize] in victories", he had stated. 

Born in the United States, Kates claims Canadian citizenship, living in Vancouver since 2009, founding Samidoun with her husband Khaled Barakat, a high-ranking member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, recognized as a terrorist group in Canada since 2003. Samidoun was also declared a terror entity following Samidoun organizers seen burning a Canadian flag on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery, leading chants of "death to Canada", during one of their pro-Hamas demonstrations following the events of October 7, 2023 when Hamas operatives by the thousands that included PFLP members, stormed across the border from Gaza into Israel to perpetrate a savage bloodbath killing 1,200 and taking 120 Israeli children, elderly, women and men along with foreign farm workers into Gaza as hostages.

 

To say that the current Liberal-led Justin Trudeau government is soft on Palestinian terrorism is a bit of an understatement. Despite the fact that these terrorist groups are classed as such in Canada, no level of government has acted to outlaw them and arrest those supporting them in Canada. Their ongoing representations on behalf of Palestinian terrorism, openly supporting the sadistic savagery of October 7, the mutilation and rapes of Israeli girls and women, the torching of Israeli homes with entire families inside, the wholesale slaughter of a high percentage of Israelis living in border kibbutzim (communal farming villages), with no official intervention, much less action on the part of Canadian police forces.

 

The United States assigning terror status to Samidoun, stated that the group headquartered in Canada functions as an "international fundraiser" for the PFLP. While in Lebanon, Barakat writes openly about co-ordinating 'resistance' activities with Hezbollah. "This country Lebanon, will fight, and will emerge stronger and unified, trampling the criminal Zionists and imperialists", he stated while praising the Al-Aqsa Flood, so named by Hamas as a titular nomenclature for the massive bloodletting October 7 campaign of 2023. 

Also present for the funeral last Sunday for Nasrallah, Barakat made an on-camera appearance for the English-language propaganda outlet of the Islamic Republic of Iran: "Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was an exceptional historical leader and we are very lucky that we lived in his time", he stated, lauding the Hezbollah leader whose butchery against Israel gained him fame in the Islamist world of terrorism. Barakat also boasts Canadian citizenship.

 

Despite having been designated by Canada as a terrorist group, Samidoun's website and social media channels continue to function openly with no intervention by any government agency. They continue their solicitation of donations, while continuing to support the BDS movement, and although under suspicion of terrorism activity and subject to court-ordered conditions barring Kates from attending public protests she was still able to travel to Iran where she accepted an Islamic Human Rights Award in recognition of her "anti-Zionist activities". 

Khaled Barakat — the husband of Samidoun leader Charlotte Kates — is seen at a 2015 protest in Brussels in a photo posted on the Samidoun website. Israel’s internal security service alleges that Barakat is a senior figure in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a listed terrorist organization in Canada and elsewhere. Photo by samidoun.net

Risen Tide of Antisemitism in Canada

"[Samidoun, also known as Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network], claims to be campaigning for the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails."

"Many Palestinian prisoners for which Samidoun advocates for release have ties to terrorism, assassinations and countless attacks against Israel."

"Samidoun's ideology revolves exclusively around the worldview that Israel and Zionism are the greatest danger to the Middle East and the world."

Public Safety Canada

"The Vancouver Police Major Crime Section, with assistance from the Vancouver Police Department Emergency Response Team, executed a search warrant yesterday at a residence in the 1800 block of East 1st Avenue, as part of an ongoing hate crime investigation under Section 319 of the Criminal Code."

"One person was initially taken into custody and has now been released pending completion of the investigation."

VPD media spokesperson Tania Visintin

Social media posts from pro-Palestinian activists supporting Kates and Samidoun expressed outrage and questioned the “excessive” police presence involved in the Nov. 14 raid (top left, via Global News) to execute a search warrant in a public incitement of hatred investigation. (Via Instagram)

"At times, the community [Vancouver and wider B.C. Jewish community] feels alone… Jewish businesses have been targeted, Jewish members of the community have been targeted in schools, at university, in the workplace."

"We have seen the glorification of terrorism at the hands of members of Samidoun [including at weekly protests on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery]."

"[The community is feeling] threatened and unsafe."

"We believe that it is crucial for civil society that Charlotte Kates be charged immediately. She’s now the leader of a terror organization."

"Let the courts decide."

Nico Slobinsky, vice-president, Pacific Region, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs

Since the Palestinian terrorists' attack on southern Israel led by Hamas in Gaza on October 7, 2023, Samidoun, along with other Palestinian agitprop group have been inciting to violent antisemitism in the guise of criticizing 'Zionism', and organizing ongoing weekly and sometimes daily marches, protests and groups harassing Jewish communities and Jewish-owned businesses. Crowds of Palestinian-flag-waving antisemites have gathered outside hospitals, old-age retirement homes, synagogues, Jewish schools and community centres to shout invectives and threats against Israel veiled with 'From the River to the sea".

Clearly antisocial verging on psychopathic activities like blocking streets and  highways with marchers shouting 'Intifada!' and 'Final Solution' have inspired no reaction by authorities at any level, anywhere across the country. Jews are left to fend for themselves against the risen tide of antisemitism, viral in its endless permutations of isolation and hate-messaging. The federal government, much less provincial or municipal authorities have been satisfied to sit back and 'not notice' that a cultural/ethnic/religious minority in Canada's equal society with its guarantees of security for all, have been besieged for over a year.

And then when it became obvious that Jews were the appetizer, and once that went down well, the main course would commence, when Palestinian, pro-Hamas groups and organizers turned on Canada itself as a purportedly racist, colonialist, imperialist country perched on land not their own, taken by force from its original denizens, and shouts of derogatory derision damning Canada along with the attempted burning of a Canadian flag by Samidoun supporters moved the government to finally outlaw Samidoun as a terrorist group, closely aligned with the already-designated Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. 

Despite Samidoun being listed as a terrorist organization in Canada last month, its co-founder and director Charlotte Kates has been proceeding with the group, continuing to organize marches that demonize Israel, calling for its destruction, and threatening Canadian Jews' security, with no moves by either the Federal government or law and order to step in and put a halt to those activities. Listing Samidoun as a terrorist entity was a first step, but it seemed that following through to stop its activities was a step too far.

Now, finally, the Vancouver home of Charlotte Kates, out of which the management of the Samidoun group and its many branches abroad is located, was raided by the Vancouver Police Department's Emergency Response Team. A search warrant was executed relating to a hate crime investigation. During the raid, a flash-bang grenade was used, resulting in windows of the house being broken. It was explained by a police spokesperson that the emergency response team is "often used in the execution of search warrants when we believe there could be a risk to the public or a risk to the officers".

 

Time for justice and the Canadian court system to work in tandem with the police departments of the nation, in coordination with government, serious about condemning racism and terrorism and putting a halt to its expansion within Canada.