On January 21, the U.S. Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added six Gaza-based organizations, one Palestinian diasporic organization, and one Palestinian individual living in Britain to their Specially Designated Foreign Terrorist list.
Al-Ahrar Palestinian Prisoner Support, Basil Al-Araj Committee, Tariq El-Tahrir Youth and Student Network, and Nidal condemn in the strongest terms these so-called “terrorist” designations and call for escalated international action against imperialist attacks wielded upon Palestinians in their homeland and the solidarity movement abroad.
Sanctioning Gazan Organizations is an Act of Genocide
The U.S. government has listed six Gaza-based organizations as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT): Al-Falah Society Gaza, Al-Nur Society Gaza, Al-Salameh Society Gaza, Merciful Hands Gaza, Qawafil Society Gaza, and Waed Captive and Liberators Society.
These six Palestinian organizations have raised inordinate amounts of money to support their people’s struggle and survival against Zionist colonialism, ethnic cleansing, and genocide. Notably, Qawafil Society Gaza had an online crowdfund that raised approximately $500,000. As Al-Ahrar has previously affirmed, cutting off access to aid is an explicit act of genocide against the Palestinian people:
“As the Zionist entity intentionally starves millions of Palestiniains in Gaza by blocking aid trucks from entering the strip, these Palestinians rely on funds from abroad to survive. Georgia Meloni and her fascist government work hand-in-hand with the Zionist entity in abetting this genocide themselves as they prevent millions in aid from reaching Gaza [through the December arrests of Mohammad Hannoun and six Palestinian community leaders in Italy].”
It is no coincidence that the U.S. and its imperial allies continue to send arms to the Zionist entity whilst sanctioning any action that alleviates Palestinian suffering from said arms: it is a purposeful, fascist attempt to crush the steadfast Palestinian national liberation struggle that has won the hearts and minds of millions across the globe.
An Attack on the Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement
The designation of Waed Captive and Liberators Society is a blatant attack on the Palestinian prisoners’ movement, not unlike the SDGT listings of Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association in 2025 and Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Support Network in 2024.
As an unknown number of Palestinians in Gaza are held as political prisoners by the Zionist entity, in addition to the over 10,000 Palestinians known to be held in Zionist prisons, now more than ever is it necessary to support, financially and politically, Palestinian prisoner solidarity organizations.
Palestinian prisoners are the leadership of the regional movement to defeat Zionism, imperialism, and Arab reaction. The fascist American regime and its allies know this fact which is why the prisoners’ movement is a primary target of their genocidal tactics.
Despite attacks on the Palestinian prisoners’ movement, Palestinian prisoners remain steadfast and, at the hands of the heroic Resistance and the prisoner exchange deals they secure, are released from Zionist prisons stronger than ever and ready to continue the fight on the outside.
The Italian Case & International Coordination Amongst Imperial Powers
On December 27th, seven Palestinian and Arab organizers and community leaders in Italy were arrested for the “crime” of raising over 7 million Euros for Palestinians in Gaza. All six Gaza-based organizations now listed as SDGTs are charities that received donations from these individuals’ organizations. Evidently, there is strategic international coordination amongst the U.S., EU, and Zionist entity to repress the Palestine solidarity movement globally.
We are witnessing a two-fold strategy of arresting organizers and investigating their organizations and freezing their funds, and designating the Gaza-based charities who received these funds from them— it attempts to eliminate any mechanism materially linking Palestinians organizing abroad with Palestinians struggling in their homeland.
Multiple arrestees in the Italian case, including Mohammad Hannoun and Raed Al-Salahat, are also members of the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad (PCPA)— the Palestinian diaspora organization that was, too, targeted in this round of SDGT listings.
“Hamas Front Organized Flotillas”
Zaher Birawi, a founding member of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition and the International Committee to Break the Siege on Gaza (ICBSG), is listed as an SDGT in this round of designations.
The U.S. absurdly identifying flotillas as a “Hamas front” not only criminalizes the act of attempting to break the siege on Gaza and the various organizations involved in the action, but also the leadership of these organizations, too.
Birawi’s designation, as well as that of the PCPA for their involvement in the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, is a grave and dangerous escalation from SDGTs initially criminalizing groups perceived to be affiliated with the Resistance and armed struggle because of their political line. Now, there is an expansion to consistently include individuals and organizations doing humanitarian aid work.
Other individuals who the American government has targeted and listed as SDGTs are Mohammad Hannoun of Associazione Benefica di Solidarietà con il Popolo Palestinese (ABSPP) and the aforementioned Italian case, and Khaled Barakat of the Masar Badil Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement.
Using the same Zionist tactics of targeting Palestinian Resistance leadership, Western regimes target the leaders of Palestine solidarity organizations. Leadership is targeted to disrupt the organization and broader movement by taking them out of organizing, and deterring others in the movement from continuing their work. We even see this with tactic used through targeted arrests, pre-dawn house raids, and restrictive bail conditions against movement leadership across Turtle Island. The very same principle is also applied to imperialist attacks against the Palestinian Resistance, the very same reason why the Resistance is decentralized in their political formations.
Counter-Terrorism
The latest designation is a clear acceleration of existing War on Terror tactics that have been employed by Western regimes over the last several decades. While some of these designations target Palestinian Resistance factions specifically— the very first foreign terrorist designation made by the U.S. was the P.L.O.— many of them have also targeted solidarity organizations and charities. This broad range of criminalization is a consistent and prolonged attempt to deter Palestinians and their allies from engaging in any form of support for the Palestinian cause, whether it be raising funds for Palestinian charities, attempting to break the siege on Gaza, or support for armed resistance against Zionist occupation.
The conclusion to draw from the most recent designation, and indeed the many before it, is that all individuals and organizations who offer any form of support for the Palestinian cause are at risk of being criminalized. This criminalization is arbitrary fear-mongering that no one is safe from, no matter how much an individual or group may work to remain within the legal parameters of Western regimes. As such, the Palestine solidarity movement in the West, if it is to survive, must take the position of unequivocal rejection of Western states’ terms of legality and assert that our moral compass exists outside of the realm of what Western Zionist regimes deem legal. Our movement must be guided by the demands of the Palestinian people and their resistance leadership.
Never Surrender
Imperialist and settler-colonial states like Canada and the U.S. want us to be scared, isolate and condemn the proscribed, dilute our political line, and narrow our tactics to what is socially and legally acceptable. This is their very hope and expectation whenever a new list of SDGTs is released.
We must reject “terrorist” designations altogether and delegitimize them from our organizing spaces, rather than move towards a politic of innocence and will only bring us back to status-quo ethnic cleansing and violence that is erased from the public eye.
In early December, Global News published a racist, unfounded piece of “journalism” about 450 Canadians having membership to Hamas that only served to fear-monger and manufacture consent for increased criminalization against Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims. Al-Ahrar’s statement of condemnation rings true to the threat that SDGTs pose as they continue to come out year after year:
“The importance of rejecting state notions of “terrorism” and “crime” could not be clearer: without doing so and instead using a politic of innocence it sanctions the criminalization of others and will continue expanding outward to all who oppose injustice as we veer into brazen fascism in the Western world… With the 450 Canadians with alleged ties to Hamas, unconditional solidarity should be expressed whether or not they are truly affiliated with the faction. It is not enough to cry out that they are all innocent.”
Just as with the alleged 450 Canadians in Hamas, unconditional solidarity must be expressed with the six Gaza-based organizations, the PCPA, and Zaher Birawi irrespective of their affiliations with Hamas. In fact, any true affiliation that may exist with the Palestinian Resistance should only encourage the support and unwavering solidarities that we share with them. The Palestinian Resistance is the tip of the spear against imperialism in the region and a true guide to organizers across the world who are also on the path towards liberation in their own movements.
This will not be the last of SDGTs wielded against the Palestine solidarity movement, so let us prepare for a principled response to future repression and criminalization that rejects these terms and instead stays true to our political line.
Free, free Palestine!
Abolish the “terrorist” list!
Free all prisoners of the Palestinian struggle!
