WA DSA Chapters Say:
No Repression of the Palestine Solidarity Movement!
This is a joint statement from the following Washington DSA chapters: [Seattle DSA, Tacoma DSA, Palouse DSA, …]
On October 15, 2024, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) along with Canada designated the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network “a sham charity that serves as an international fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization” and announced sanctions on the organization which “prohibit all transactions by U.S. persons or within (or transiting) the United States that involve any property or interests in property of designated or otherwise blocked persons.”
Our chapters regard this as an unacceptable form of repression against the Palestine solidarity movement and call for this decision to be reversed. Samidoun is one of the oldest and most well-established Palestinian advocacy organizations in the United States and performs vital work in reporting on the conditions of Palestinian prisoners held by the State of Israel and organizing for their liberation and more broadly in the Palestine solidarity and anti-imperialist movements.
Samidoun reports are widely cited by academics and human rights organizations as a reliable source of information on the appalling conditions and widespread abuse in Israeli prisons. Attempting to shut down their work by declaring them a “sham charity” is a blatant effort to deny the world one of the only reliable sources of knowledge of what happens to Palestinian prisoners behind Israeli prison walls.
Locally, Samidoun has been a beacon of light for many through this dark time. They led peaceful demonstrations in downtown Seattle every Saturday following Israel's invasion of Gaza, engaged in non-violent civil disobedience, and have supported activists targeted with repression for their activism in support of the Palestinian people, including DSA members facing trial.
They have demonstrated the meaning of the word "solidarity," and now they need that from all of us. We stand with Samidoun against this fierce repression, just as they stand with the thousands of Palestinian prisoners held hostage by the Israeli government without trial.
To be abundantly clear, this is an attempt by the Department of the Treasury to censor, discredit, and undermine the entire movement for Palestinian solidarity. This decision should be understood as part of a broader pattern of repression against the Palestine solidarity movement that also includes the adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism by governments, educational institutions, and other bodies in order to defame those who protest the genocide in Gaza and the invasion of Lebanon as antisemites.
In this case, advocates for Palestinian rights are being accused of scamming donors and laundering money for the PFLP, a liberation force designated to be a “terrorist organization” by the US government. Samidoun denies “any material or organizational ties to entities listed on the terrorist lists of the United States, Canada or the European Union.”
The US also has a long track record of labeling anti-imperialist resistance groups as terrorist organizations, including South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC) until 2008, while simultaneously allowing millions to be funneled through tax deductible non-profit organizations to fund imperialist terror, like the violence of Israeli settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
We reject this classification and will not allow this decision to weaken the bonds of solidarity with those fighting for a free Palestine. Our chapters remain committed to the liberation of Palestine and call for a reversal of the Department of the Treasury’s sanctions on Samidoun and an end to all repression of the Palestinian solidarity movement.
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