Samidoun: The Palestinian Solidarity Network with Ties to Terrorism

Samidoun, a Palestinian organization designated as a terrorist entity by Israel and Germany, has come under fire for its alleged links to Hamas and its involvement in pro-Hamas protests on U.S. campuses. Some experts have called on the U.S. government to ban Samidoun and investigate its supporters.

Samidoun, a Palestinian organization that claims to promote solidarity with prisoners, has come under scrutiny for its alleged ties to terrorist groups and its involvement in pro-Hamas protests on U.S. campuses.

In November 2021, Germany outlawed Samidoun, and Israel classified it as a terrorist entity. The U.S. State Department has acknowledged the German ban but has not commented on whether it is considering designating Samidoun as a terrorist organization.

According to Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the associate dean of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, Samidoun has links to Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist movement. He believes that if the U.S. wants to address the issue of pro-Hamas mobs on U.S. campuses, it must ban Samidoun and investigate its allies.

Samidoun has chapters in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Iran, Sweden, France, and Spain. In November 2021, German Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser banned all activities by Hamas and Samidoun in Germany, citing their anti-semitism and support for terrorist organizations.

Following the German ban, a U.S. State Department spokesperson stated that the U.S. cannot designate organizations as terrorist entities based solely on hateful speech but must determine that they engage in terrorist activity that threatens the security of U.S. nationals or national security.

Terrorism experts argue that Samidoun's ties to designated terrorist organizations such as Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) meet the criteria for a ban.

Steven Stalinsky, the executive director of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), has highlighted Samidoun's involvement in pro-Hamas protests on U.S. campuses. He claims that Samidoun has supported a coalition of jihadi Gaza student organizations representing Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and PFLP.

MEMRI has also posted a video of a speech by Charlotte Kates, the international coordinator of Samidoun, in which she glorifies Hamas' mass killing of approximately 1,200 people in southern Israel in October 2021.

In response to the pro-Hamas protests, German authorities have cracked down on organizations affiliated with Samidoun. In May 2022, Herbert Reul, the interior minister of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, dismantled and outlawed the NGO Palestine Solidarity Duisburg for providing support to Hamas and Samidoun.

Despite the bans in Germany and Israel, Samidoun's activities have continued in other countries. Rafael Korenzecher, the publisher of the German-Jewish newspaper Jewish Review, believes that the bans on Samidoun and Hamas have been too lenient and come too late.

According to a recent intelligence report from North Rhine-Westphalia, the number of Hamas operatives in Germany has increased in recent years. Despite formally sanctioning Hamas as a terrorist entity in 2003, Germany has not strictly enforced the ban, leading to increased membership, recruitment, and fundraising activities for Hamas.

Michael Wolffsohn, a German-Jewish historian and commentator on antisemitism and Islamism, attributes the problem to former German Chancellor Angela Merkel's migration policy. He believes that uncontrolled migration from Islamic countries has contributed to the rise of Islamic antisemitism in Germany.

The future of Jews in Germany appears uncertain, with recent outbreaks of Jew-hatred. Almost 4,000 German Muslims, leftists, and ordinary Germans protested against Israel in front of the main synagogue in Munich in 2022.

"Jewish life in Germany is becoming increasingly impossible," said Korenzecher. "Illegal migration from predominantly Islamic countries, where hatred of Jews and Israel is partly propagated by the state, is an existential threat to Jewish life."

Fox News Digital reached out to Samidoun for comment but did not receive a response.