Dutch Parliament votes to designate Samidoun as terror organization

The Dutch Parliament has voted to designate Samidoun as a terrorist organization this week, according to Dutch politician Diederik van Dijk and the European Jewish Congress (EJC).

The motion, brought by van Dijk of the Reformed Political Party (SGP), passed 100 to 50.

Samidoun is a Canada-registered organization that purports to focus on issues related to indicted Palestinian terrorists serving time in Israeli prisons. In 2021, Israel designated Samidoun, which serves as a proxy for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), as a terror group. Germany joined Israel in 2023.

While the European Union has designated the PFLP a terrorist organization, Samidoun, as its front, is able to operate relatively freely in many European countries.

Following the announcement of the vote, van Dijk posted on X/Twitter, “We will continue fighting terrorism and Hamas propaganda.”

Promotion of hate and antisemitism

Van Dijk told The Jerusalem Post that this was an important step to combat antisemitism and counter the glorification of terror.

“Samidoun is an antisemitic organization linked to the PFLP, which is on the EU terrorist list. Samidoun has already been banned in multiple countries. It’s high time that the Netherlands acts accordingly.”

His party – SGP – responded to the news by saying that “organizations like Samidoun, which spread antisemitism and glorify terror, do not belong in the Dutch rule of law.”

SGP added that the adopted motion calls on the cabinet to place Samidoun on the national sanctions list of terrorism. Recently, Meta and YouTube have blocked some of the organization’s online platforms, citing violations of their community guidelines.

The EJC commended the “decisive step”that would help to curb the influence of groups that threaten democratic values.

“This decision sends a clear message: the promotion of violence and hate has no place in our society.”

“The government, in consultation with the Public Prosecution Service and the intelligence services, will push to ensure that organizations such as Samidoun are placed on the national terrorism sanctions list and the police counterterror registry,” van Dijk concluded in a letter following the motion.

Van Dijk told The Jerusalem Post that he hoped this would stop the group from carrying out activities in public.In the Netherlands, Samidoun has organized several protests, including a 2023 rally in Rotterdam where protesters held posters in support of Palestinian terrorists.

In May, it was discovered that various encampments at Dutch universities, some of which featured violent riots against Jewish and Israeli students, had received an honorary endorsement from Samidoun.

In its letter of endorsement, Samidoun accused Amsterdam universities of having “various ties to the genocidal apartheid state,” adding that “it’s high time that these ties are broken.”

Samidoun’s international coordinator, Charlotte Kates, was arrested in her hometown of Vancouver following terror-supporting remarks she gave during a protest, where she celebrated the October 7 massacre.

Khaled Barakat, Kates’s partner, acknowledged multiple times that he was a PFLP leader. He also served as a prominent leader in Samidoun and its tributary group, Masar Badil.

Since 2019, various financial platforms and credit card companies, including American Express, PayPal, Donorbox, Plaid, and Discover, have reportedly stopped processing funding for Samidoun and its fiscal sponsor, the Alliance for Global Justice (AFGJ), citing fears of relations to terror activity.

Ohad Merlin contributed to this report.