Fears over crackdown on speech as US, Canada blacklist pro-Palestinian Samidoun
Fears over crackdown on speech as US, Canada blacklist pro-Palestinian Samidoun
Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network has been active since 2011 and was cited as a source in a 2022 US government report
The US and Canada have called The Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network a “sham charity” and declared that anyone doing business with or donating to the group could face criminal charges.
Samidoun (meaning steadfast in Arabic) was formed in support of the 2011 hunger strike by Palestinians in Israeli prisons. At the time, there were fewer than 5,000 in indefinite “administrative detention” - effectively in limbo and held without charge.
Now, according to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, there are about 9,500 such prisoners. And for researchers and activists, Samidoun has been a resource in the campaigns to free these detainees.
Samidoun's website describes the group as "an international network of organizers and activists working to build solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in their struggle for freedom".
In 2022, the US State Department cited Samidoun as a source in its annual human rights report for the West Bank and Gaza. That report is still available on the site.
The group has long expressed public support for armed resistance in occupied Palestinian territories - a stance which has been dramatically amplified since Israel's war on Gaza following the 7 October attacks on southern Israel.
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Yea, that's what happens when you incite violence with a call to action: saying "Death to Canada".
When and where did they say that?
Their official Instagram was banned so it seems it was posted on an affiliated account.
“We acknowledge that the community was shocked by the phrase, and the burning of the Canadian flag that came after the march was concluded. Yet, we at Samidoun stand by this phrase as the call to action that it is,” wrote the group in a lengthy statement posted to Instagram. Source
They captured it on video.
Freedom of speech and burning the flag is one thing: offensive sure but that's the point of free speech. But you cross the line when you commit to incendiary CTAs like that, you are causing harm.
Funny thing is this was uttered by some woke-ass white lady Charlotte Kates who you know would be one of the first people targetted if Hamas was ever in power where she lived.