Samidoun, an NGO providing a “Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network”, can no longer collect donations from its website.

This follows its designation on 15 October 2024 by the USA and Canada as a terrorist organisation. According to the US Treasury Department, Samidoun is “a sham charity that serves as an international fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization.”

UKLFI wrote on 16 October 2024 to Alliance for Global Justice (AGJ), a section 501(c)(3) organisation which acted as a fiscal sponsor, collecting donations for Samidoun benefiting from US tax relief.

UKLFI pointed out to AGJ that Samidoun is now designated by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as a Specially Designated Network (SDN) to which the Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT) program applies.

The relevant Code of Federal Regulations prohibits transactions between US entities or individuals and Samidoun, whose assets have now been blocked.  No U.S. person or entity is allowed have any transactions or dealings with Samidoun, including offering or receiving any goods or services.

There are extremely high fines, or up to $1 million, or even imprisonment for up to 20 years for ignoring these regulations.

Samidoun has been designated by the Israeli Ministry of Defence as a terrorist organisation since February 2021, when it was described as a subsidiary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).  According to the Ministry, Samidoun was founded by “members of the PFLP in 2012” and Khaled Barakat, identified by the PFLP as “coordinator” of Samidoun was “involved with establishing militant cells and motivating terrorist activity in Judea & Samaria and abroad.”

Khaled Barakat has also been designated by the US and Canada as a terrorist in the latest announcement, and his assets have been frozen.

Samidoun has also been listed as a terrorist entity by Germany.

The Donate button on the Samidoun website had led to a web page giving instructions on how to send a cheque to AGJ.  Now however, all fiscal sponsorship by AGJ appears to have been “paused.”

A UKLFI spokesperson commented: “The OFAC designation of terrorist organisations is a powerful tool for preventing money reaching the designated organisations. We hope this latest designation by the US and Canadian authorities is effective.”