‘Long live October 7’ chanted in defiance of Vancouver police, calls for global intifada sound

A protest in Vancouver praised the October 7 Massacre as the beginning of a global intifada on Monday, in support of an anti-Israel activists who had been arrested and was facing possible charges after glorifying the pogrom and advocating for terrorist organization at an April protest. 

Masir Badil Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement Leader and alleged Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine operative Khaled Barakat led the Canadian crowd in chants of “long live October 7.”

“Long live October 7”Khaled Barakat, an alleged PFLP member, on May echoes the words of his wife Charlotte Kates in Vancouver. Kates, international coordinator for the alleged PFLP front group Samidoun, was arrested after a similar speech. pic.twitter.com/bXDrt7hdaB

— Michael Starr (@StarrJpost) May 31, 2024

“What happened on October 7 was the beginning of the great intifada,” Barakat told the crowd at a the Vancouver Art Gallery Robson Square. “It started in Gaza, and it’s led by Gaza, and it has reached Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen.”

Barakat, in a video published by Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network Vancouver on Instagram on Thursday, explained that October 7 showed that defeating Israel was possible.

'International intifada'

“Now it truly is an International intifada. Supporting October 7 means being part of this international intifada. When you support Palestinian resistance, you honor the raising of the Palestinian flag. When you say with a loud and clear voice ‘long live October 7’ you will understand that this great Palestinian people decided to end their miseries and end this nightmare called Israel.”

Barakat denied that Hamas and other Gazan terrorist groups had raped women or beheaded babies during the October 7 attack in southern Israel, calling the “Palestinian resistance is the most ethical armed group on the planet .”

The Masir Badil leader encouraged others to say ‘long live October 7’ and defy both pro-Israel elements that he said would slander them as antisemites and pro-terrorist, as well as the Vancouver Police, who could “not arrest all of us.”

The demonstrators were also urged to say the phrase Long live October 7’ in solidarity with Samidoun international coordinator Charlotte Kates, who was arrested on April  29 for an April 26 speech at the same location in which she had uttered the slogan. According to Samidoun, Kates has been banned from engaging in protest until her court date on October 8.

Kates, Barakat’s wife, had praised Hamas, PFLP, and Hezbollah by name, and encouraged others to supper them. She said that they were not terrorist groups, and called for their removal from Canada’s list of terrorist entities.

Barakat and Kates have expressed such sentiments before, such as at the Columbia University Resistance 101 workshop on March 24.

Kates also serves as an officer for Al-Awda, an organization that is part of the Shut it Down For Palestine coalition, which has been responsible or involved in many of the major anti-Israel protests across the United States. The coalition led the People’s Conference for Palestine in Detroit last weekend, which saw PFLP associated speakers and the promotion of armed action in order to destroy the state of Israel.

In response to The Jerusalem Post's report on the Monday protest, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs called for Canada to ban Samidoun.