22 November 2024
The International Bolshevik Tendency condemns the targeted persecution of Samidoun, the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, and its members by the Canadian federal government and demands it be immediately removed from the official list of “terrorist entities” under the Criminal Code.
On 15 October, the Government of Canada announced it was placing Samidoun on the terrorist list. In doing so it simply asserted that “Samidoun has close links with and advances the interests of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP),” and ipso facto meets the definition of a terrorist group. That same news release also included slanderous intimations by Dominic LeBlanc, the Minister of Public Safety, Democratic Institutions and Intergovernmental Affairs, that Samidoun is somehow guilty of “violent extremism,” “acts of terrorism” and a “threat to Canada's national security and all people in Canada.” All of this occurs despite the federal government producing zero evidence linking Samidoun to “terrorist” attacks or acts of violence of any kind.
The designation of Samidoun as a terrorist entity is part of a carefully orchestrated plan by the Western imperialist powers backing Israel in its genocidal war on Gaza to vilify any acts of solidarity with the Palestinian people, criminalize those who dare speak out on their behalf and give the state carte blanche to go after them. The Canadian government openly acknowledges the listing of Samidoun as a terrorist entity was a “joint action” done “in concert” with the United States, which also labeled the pro-Palestinian organization as a “specially designated global terrorist.” And of course the targeting of Samidoun comes not long after police, backed by the corporate media, academic administrations and all levels of government, colluded to dismantle Palestine solidarity encampments on university and college campuses across Canada and the United States earlier this year.
The listing of Samidoun is part of a broader Orwellian effort by the Canadian government to crack down on any “entity” (i.e., person, group, partnership, association or organization) it deems terrorist; prohibit actions connected to such entities including “financing, travel and recruitment”; strengthen the ability of the police and security, intelligence and law enforcement agencies to “prevent and disrupt terrorist activity”; and impose life imprisonment for those found guilty of acting “for the benefit of, at the direction of or in association” with a “terrorist group.”
State authorities have wasted no time in clamping down on pro-Palestinian so-called terrorists. On 15 November, officers in full tactical gear and armoured vehicles from the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) raided the home of Charlotte Kates, International Coordinator of Samidoun, in relation to a supposed ongoing hate crimes investigation. Earlier this year, the VPD arrested Kates while on her way home from a Palestinian solidarity encampment at the University of British Columbia. That operation resulted in Kates being charged with public incitement of hatred and willful promotion of hatred for expressing support for Palestinian resistance. After hours of interrogation she was eventually released on the condition that she not attend any protests, demonstrations and assemblies.
The adding of Samidoun to the list of terrorist entities by Canada's Liberal government is a gross attack on civil liberties and a dangerous precedent that socialists must oppose. We defend those targeted by the capitalist state regardless of any political differences we have with them over broader strategy and tactics in fighting for Palestinian liberation. While today aimed at pro-Palestinian activists opposing genocide, the same authoritarian measures will be used tomorrow against the working class and left. Those in the labour movement expressing support for Palestine have already been the targets of vicious right-wing pro-Zionist attacks.
In August, Fred Hahn, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees's (CUPE) advocacy wing in Ontario, was the target of a vile “antisemitism” smear for sharing a video on social media. That campaign, led by Zionists within CUPE, along with union bureaucrats and Ontario's Conservative premier, Doug Ford, sought to remove Hahn from his democratically elected position on CUPE's National Executive Board. Last year, Sarah Jama, a member of Provincial Parliament in Ontario for the New Democratic Party, was pilloried for posting comments on social media critical of Israel and calling for an end to the occupation. Despite being forced to issue a public apology for the post, Jama was nonetheless kicked out of the NDP and censured in the legislature (i.e., stripped of her right to speak and vote in parliament).
The repressive function of the terrorist listing, and the phony nature of Samidoun's inclusion, simply highlights the Canadian federal government's complicity in the ongoing genocide of the Palestinians by the Israeli state. In reality, the only crime committed by Samidoun and other activists targeted for repression is in daring to stand up to defend the Palestinians.
Hands off Samidoun!
Opposing genocide is no crime!
Defend the Palestinians!