How fighting to free Palestinian political prisoners liberates humanity

The following is an Oct. 20 interview Workers World did with Charlotte Kates, one of the founders of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network.

• Workers World: Can you comment on any further developments since the Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) designation, while the Canadian government then brought no criminal charges against you recently? 

Charlotte Kates: Okay, there are a few different things that we’re talking about. Legally they’re separate, and it’s really important that we don’t lump them together. 

First, my personal case. On April 26,  I was actually speaking at a demonstration about the issue of repression and the issue of state repression in Canada, targeting people who speak out on Palestine during that speech as well as speaking about specifically the listing of Palestinian, Lebanese and other resistance organizations on the so-called terrorist list in Canada, which is called the Terrorist Entities List. 

The Canada list is not exactly the same as the U.S. list. They function a little differently, the law works a little differently.

During this speech, I also said, “long live October 7!” Three days later I was arrested for giving a speech. The Vancouver Police Department said they were investigating me for hate crimes and for hate speech specifically. 

Now the specific definition of hate speech in the Canadian Criminal Code requires that your words have to kind of cast an ill intent or view on a specific group of people. So you have to take a very specific Zionist interpretation of what I said in order to make that argument, because the words I was saying weren’t even negative words, they were actually just positive words about the Palestinian Resistance. 

What happened is that I was given a court date on October 8, so specifically one day after October 7, which we don’t think was an accident or a coincidence. That means from April 29 to October 8, 2024, I was barred from attending any demonstrations, events or assemblies, like open public meetings about Palestine, not just from speaking but even from attending.

When October 8 came, what my lawyer was told was that at this time they had not decided whether or not to charge me with anything in that case. So my restrictions ended on October 8, 2024. I was in Madrid at the time attending a conference of the Masar Badil, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path movement. So I wasn’t in Vancouver to react.

Now, that is one case and that is a separate matter involving the Canadian state’s definition of hate speech. I don’t believe that this is a case that they should want to pursue, because I think that in court we would clearly expose that nothing about speaking positively about the Palestinian Resistance is hateful. The only crime of hate that’s being committed right now is the genocide in Gaza as well as Lebanon.

Targeting Samidoun

Now, the second thing we’re talking about is a different and separate issue, and that is the targeting of Samidoun Prisoner Solidarity Network. It’s important to note in this context that this isn’t something that began (just like when we speak about the genocide in Palestine) on October 7 or October 8, 2023. The attack on Samidoun also did not begin on October 7 or October 8, 2023 or after. 

Samidoun was founded in 2011 and we’ve grown a lot since that time to the point of developing over 20 chapters in 14 different countries and places around the world. And so we started getting an increasing amount of repression and scrutiny and attacks and smear campaigns from Zionist organizations around the world. 

Of course, when we talk about Zionism we’re talking about a state– sponsored initiative that is a racist ideology. It’s also tied together with imperialism, specifically U.S.- led imperialism. Just as we’re seeing right now, this isn’t just the Zionist genocide in Gaza; it’s also a U.S. genocide, it’s also a British, German, French, Canadian, etc. genocide that belongs to the imperialist powers. 

So we started seeing these kinds of repression targeting Samidoun. Not just in Palestine, but around the world. And of course, the terrorist designations have been used since they were first created. Even before the official terrorist designations existed, the term terrorist has been consistently and routinely applied specifically to Palestinian struggles, or struggles for the liberation of Palestine in particular, for decades upon decades. 

Specifically since the creation of the modern anti-terror law regime in the U.S. in the mid-1990s in order to shore up the Oslo Accords to try and shut down and starve, basically, Palestinian and Lebanese and Arab opposition to the Oslo project and to liquidate the Palestinian cause through the listing of Palestinian and Lebanese Resistance organizations as “terrorists.”

From 2019 onward we started seeing a drastic increase in repression. In 2019, Khaled Barakat, who is my husband, and I were deported from Germany because of activism for Palestine. And of course you’ve all seen the role Germany has played throughout this, especially the past year. Germany is the second largest supplier of weapons to the Zionist regime. 

Just the other day German weapons shot down a Lebanese resistance drone. They were directly participating in the battle in defense of the Zionist regime. Not to mention the extreme level of repression directed against the Palestinian people inside Germany as well. 

In 2021, Samidoun was placed on the Zionist entity’s list of terrorist organizations for exactly the false, fake, made-up bogus reasoning that was used by the U.S. on October 15. At that time in Canada, CIJA, which is basically the Canadian equivalent of AIPAC [U.S.-based pro-Zionist organization, American Israel Public Affairs Committee], started demanding that all federal candidates for election support listing Samidoun as a terrorist entity in Canada. 

So this is something that has been going on for some time. And then on Oct. 15 the Canadian government announced that they were listing Samidoun on the terrorist entities list at the same time that the U.S. Department of the Treasury through the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) did. This is the same entity that’s responsible for imposing sanctions on governments and peoples around the world that resist U.S control and domination on the SDGT list. They also listed Khaled [Bakarat] as a Specially Designated National [SDN]. 

• WW: Does this designation by the imperialist forces constitute an escalation of repression in terms of anything Samidoun has faced since its founding? 

CK: It’s a big escalation, actually. It’s very similar to what happened last November when we were banned in Germany. It has become the norm, essentially, for the Zionist regime to ban Palestinian organizations. But to do this here in the U.S. and Canada, it’s actually a big escalation that’s aimed not just at Samidoun but the entire Palestine solidarity movement. 

The allegations they list are completely bogus, fraudulent, fake, and there’s no way they don’t know that they’re lying when they’re making those allegations. 

So clearly this is intended as a big attack against the grassroots solidarity movement here in the U.S., here in Canada. Specifically, [it’s aimed] at the movement that speaks out in moral and political — not “material” — support of the Resistance and its right to armed struggle for the liberation of Palestine. 

And of course, specifically, this is about the Palestinian political prisoners. The battle to liberate the Palestinian political prisoners is part and parcel, a major part of this entire struggle for the liberation of Palestine and particularly since October 7, 2023. So that’s what this repression is targeting. It’s not just us as Samidoun but our entire movement and specifically support for the Resistance and the prisoners. It’s meant to create a chilling effect for everybody. 

• WW: Considering Samidoun’s statement on the martyrdom of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and your raising up of his internationalist revolutionary politics, how is internationalism centered in Samidoun’s work?

CK: Samidoun has basically always seen the struggle for the liberation of Palestine as a Palestinian struggle, an Arab struggle and also an international struggle. The liberation of Palestine is an anti-imperialist cause.

Basically, if you’re part of any struggle in the world that’s fighting against imperialism as the primary enemy, that sees imperialism as the primary contradiction in the world today, then every victory for Palestine is also a victory that brings down imperialism. 

At the same time, we can see that our enemies are wound up together. That’s never been clearer than it has been in the past year. 

It’s so important that we build a very broad camp of resistance, certainly, that’s centered in the Resistance forces in the region from Palestine to Lebanon, to Yemen, to Syria and to Iraq, to Iran and beyond, but also for us to play our global role in fighting against imperialism, because these forces are on the front lines doing that now. 

The Palestinian cause has always been an international cause, and so it’s absolutely critical that we as internationalists are on the front lines seeing that this is an anti-imperialist struggle. 

Secondly, any victory against imperialism anywhere in the world is also a victory for the Palestinian people and for the Palestinian cause. We should also recognize that as well. 

When we take anti-imperialist politics out of the movement for the liberation of Palestine, we wind up missing the battle against one of the major enemies, against the major enemy, that’s directing the genocide. So we can’t have an effective Palestine movement that isn’t rooted in core principles of anti-imperialism. 

As a Palestinian prisoners’ organization, we are able to build ties of mutual solidarity with revolutionary movements around the world that are also facing political and colonial imprisonment. 

From the Black liberation movement in the U.S. to Indigenous folks and Water and Land Defenders who are targeted for political imprisonment in Canada to the movement in the Philippines to the movement in Colombia to, certainly, movements in Arab reactionary and monarchical regimes that are targeting supporters of the Resistance. 

This is how we can build our struggle in a way that’s actually effective and that recognizes that this is actually a struggle for the defense and for the liberation of humanity. Palestine is on the front lines, and the Palestinian Resistance is on the front lines making those sacrifices to defend all of us. 

• WW: What message do you have for ostensibly left groups both in the U.S. and Canada and globally that are still sitting on the fence as far as supporting or centering the Axis of Resistance in their solidarity efforts?

CK: The entire Resistance alliance in the region, what we might call the Axis of Resistance, what we call the Forces of the Regional Resistance, are the forces that are at the center, right now, of the struggle against imperialism. These are the leading anti-imperialist forces in the world today. 

Any movement and any organization that is serious about anti-imperialism has an absolute responsibility to stand up first and foremost alongside the Forces of the Regional Resistance and strive to do everything we can to live up to the example they’re setting on a daily basis. 

There’s a lot of imperialist propaganda that’s meant to turn people against the forces that are actually leading the Resistance. But when we turn and we read the statements of all of the forces in the Palestinian Resistance, there’s a consensus on this. Whether it’s from Hamas or Islamic Jihad or the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), across the board the Resistance is together and aligned. 

Right now Lebanon is facing severe bombing. Just tonight there were 10 major, severe bombing attacks in Dahiye. Hezbollah has given its leadership tremendous internationalist leaders like Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, like Ali Karaki, like Fuad Shukr, like Ibrahim Aquil in this battle because of how deeply they’re committed to the liberation of Palestine. 

Look at the incredible heroism of the people of Yemen who pour into the streets, millions upon millions, week after week, who have sent drones and missiles and are ready to go marching to the borders to fight for Palestine, despite the fact that they have just come out of 10 years of a genocidal war attempting to destroy their own future and sovereignty.

Look at the resistance and resilience that we see in Iraq and Syria coming out of war and occupation, the strength of the Resistance in Iran and the actions that Iran has seriously taken in order to hold the Zionist regime accountable for its genocide and war crimes. At the same time the imperialist forces are not just standing aside but directly participating in the genocide.

 These are the forces fighting imperialism today, and so if we are serious about anti-imperialism, if we’re serious about revolutionary politics, then these are the forces that we can, should and must be aligning with. 

• WW: How best can people support the work of Samidoun at this critical time when you and others are facing intensified repression? 

CK: There’re a few things. Right now, obviously, we’re not going to ask for anyone to give us money, because that’s exactly what’s banned by all of this. What we would like people to do is first and foremost take a stand against the repression. So condemn the U.S. and Canada for engaging in this repression against us, but also demand that they get the Resistance organizations off the terror list.

There’s no reason why Palestinian Resistance organizations should be on this terror list. There’s no reason why Hezbollah should be on the terror list. There’s no reason Ansarallah should be on the terrorist list. There’s no reason the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC] of Iran should be on terrorist lists — it’s actually part of a national military.

Let’s fight to get these organizations, let’s fight to get Hamas, off the terrorist list. Let’s fight to get Islamic Jihad off the terrorist list. Let’s fight to get the PFLP off the terrorist list, because this is meant as a mechanism to divide our movement, to separate us from one another, to criminalize us.

Stand with organizations like the National Lawyers Guild that have taken a clear position on the designation of Samidoun, and do everything we can in support of the Resistance, in support of those who are standing on the front lines against genocide. Let’s not let ourselves be chilled. Let’s not let ourselves be silenced. Let’s not give in to what the state wants to achieve with these objectives. 

So we just want to encourage everybody to take a political stand for Palestine, for the Resistance, for Lebanon and for liberation. 

See more about Samidoun at samidoun.net.