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Canadian Police Raid Home of Samidoun Terror Charity Leader
Graffiti of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine’s logo in the West Bank city of Nablus. Photo: Harry Pockets.
JNS.org – Vancouver police raided the home of anti-Israel activist Charlotte Kates, 44, late last week as part of an investigation into her alleged violation of hate-crime laws.
“This is part of an ongoing investigation, a hate-crimes investigation,” Sgt. Steve Addison of the Vancouver Police Department told Canada’s Global News.
Kates, a former president of the University of Guelph, is the international coordinator of the Vancouver-based nonprofit Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, together with her husband, Khaled Barakat, a former senior official of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist organization.
Neighbors reported hearing a “bang” at around 9 a.m. and saw an armored police vehicle and the heavily armed Vancouver Police Department’s Emergency Response Team.
“I saw what looked like a tank with guys in tactical gear outside aiming a teargas gun at the house,” one neighbor told Global News.
One person was arrested at the home and then released, police said, without identifying the suspect arrested since charges had not been laid.
The investigation was opened on April 26 after a video on social media showed Kates making pro-terrorism statements at a demonstration involving several hundred outside the Vancouver Art Gallery.
In the video, Kates shouts from the art gallery steps that Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Hezbollah are not terrorist organizations. “These are resistance fighters. These are our heroes.”
She also said, “We say today, ‘Long live October 7.’” The crowd shouted the refrain back, the CBC reported.
“Portions of the video have been widely shared on social media, and viewed several hundred thousand times,” a police statement said at the time.
Kates was arrested on May 1 and later released with an order to appear in court on Oct. 8. She was told not to attend any more “protests, rallies or assemblies.”
Samidoun was designated a terror entity by the U.S. and Canada in a joint action on Oct. 15.
In the announcement, the U.S. Treasury Department described Samidoun as “a sham charity that serves as an international fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization.
“The PFLP, which was designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the U.S. Department of State in October 1997 and October 2001, respectively, uses Samidoun to maintain fundraising operations in both Europe and North America.”
In August, Kates received a human rights award in Iran.
And in April, she spoke at an unauthorized Columbia University event, in which she said, “There is nothing wrong with being a member of Hamas, being a leader of Hamas, being a fighter in Hamas,” The New York Times reported.
According to Samidoun’s website, Kates and Barakat have been denied entry into Germany, which lists the organization as a terrorist entity. Its offices in Germany were raided in fall 2023.
The Netherlands, which designated Samidoun a terrorist organization last month, also denied the two entry in 2022, according to Samidoun’s website.
Samidoun is also listed as a terrorist entity by the European Union and Israel.
On May 4, 2022, B’nai Brith Canada started a letter-writing petition calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to declare Samidoun a terrorist entity and deport Kates, a U.S. citizen, and Barakat for incitement.
“It is essential that Canada’s leaders take proactive measures to ensure that our country remains a safe place for all Canadians. We will never allow the future of our democracy to be in the hands of terrorists,” said Michael Mostyn, B’nai Brith Canada’s chief executive officer.
The post Canadian Police Raid Home of Samidoun Terror Charity Leader first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Former Columbia University President Appointed as UK Economic Adviser
Columbia University administrators and faculty, led by President Minouche Shafik, testified before the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce on April 17, 2024. Photo: Jack Gruber/Reuters Connect
i24 News – British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has named Minouche Shafik, former president of Columbia University, as his chief economic adviser at Downing Street, a move aimed at stabilizing the country’s fragile economy and averting a potential budget crisis.
Shafik, an economist of Egyptian origin with dual British and American nationality, has held senior roles at the Bank of England, the IMF, and the World Bank.
She later led the London School of Economics and was elevated to the House of Lords in 2020.
Her tenure in the United States was more turbulent. Shafik stepped down as president of Columbia University in 2024 after just a year in office, amid fierce criticism over her handling of pro-Palestinian protests following the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, and the subsequent war in Gaza.
US officials accused her of failing to confront antisemitism on campus, while students and faculty condemned her decision to call in police to dismantle protest encampments.
Since returning to Britain, Shafik has played an active role in policy and cultural institutions. She advised Foreign Secretary David Lammy on international aid reform, has chaired the Victoria & Albert Museum since January, and led the “Economy 2030” inquiry for the Resolution Foundation, where she argued for reforms to the UK’s system of wealth taxation.
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Israel Mulls West Bank Annexation in Response to Moves to Recognize Palestine
The Jordan Valley. Photo: Юкатан via Wikimedia Commons.
Israel is considering annexation in the West Bank as a possible response to France and other countries recognizing a Palestinian state, according to three Israeli officials and the idea will be discussed further on Sunday, another official said.
Extension of Israeli sovereignty to the West Bank – de facto annexation of land captured in the 1967 Middle East war – was on the agenda for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet meeting late on Sunday that is expected to focus on the Gaza war, a member of the small circle of ministers said.
It is unclear where precisely any such measure would be applied and when, whether only in Israeli settlements or some of them, or in specific areas of the West Bank like the Jordan Valley and whether any concrete steps, which would likely entail a lengthy legislative process, would follow discussions.
Any step toward annexation in the West Bank would likely draw widespread condemnation from the Palestinians, who seek the territory for a future state, as well as Arab and Western countries. It is unclear where US President Donald Trump stands on the matter. The White House and State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A spokesperson for Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar did not respond to a request for comment on whether Saar had discussed the move with his US counterpart Marco Rubio during his visit to Washington last week.
Netanyahu’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the prime minister supports annexation and if so, where.
A past pledge by Netanyahu to annex Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley was scrapped in 2020 in favor of normalizing ties with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in the Abraham Accords brokered by Trump in his first term in office.
The office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The United States said on Friday it would not allow Abbas to travel to New York for the United Nations gathering of world leaders, where several US allies are set to recognize Palestine as a state.
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Israel Pounds Gaza City Suburbs, Netanyahu to Convene Security Cabinet
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the press on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Israeli forces pounded the suburbs of Gaza City overnight from the air and ground, destroying homes and driving more families out of the area as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet was set on Sunday to discuss a plan to seize the city.
Residents of Sheikh Radwan, one of the largest neighborhoods of Gaza City, said the territory had been under Israeli tank shelling and airstrikes throughout Saturday and on Sunday, forcing families to seek shelter in the western parts of the city.
The Israeli military has gradually escalated its operations around Gaza City over the past three weeks, and on Friday it ended temporary pauses in the area that had allowed for aid deliveries, designating it a “dangerous combat zone.”
“They are crawling into the heart of the city where hundreds of thousands are sheltering, from the east, north, and south, while bombing those areas from the air and ground to scare people to leave,” said Rezik Salah, a father of two, from Sheikh Radwan.
An Israeli official said Netanyahu’s security cabinet will convene on Sunday evening to discuss the next stages of the planned offensive to seize Gaza City, which he has described as Hamas’ last bastion.
A full-scale offensive is not expected to start for weeks. Israel says it wants to evacuate the civilian population before moving more ground forces in.
HAMAS SPOKESPERSON TARGETED
Netanyahu confirmed on Sunday that Israeli forces had targeted Abu Ubaida, the spokesperson of Hamas’ armed wing. Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Abu Ubaida was killed. Two Hamas officials contacted by Reuters did not respond to requests for comment.
Gaza health authorities said 15 people, including five children, were killed in the attack on a residential building in the heart of Gaza City.
Abu Ubaida, also known as Hozayfa Al-Khalout, is a well-known figure to Palestinians and Israelis alike, close to Hamas’ top military leaders and in charge of delivering the group’s messages, often via video, for around two decades, delivering statements while wearing a red keffiyeh that concealed his face.
The US targeted him with sanctions in April 2024, accusing him of leading the “cyber influence department” of al-Qassam Brigades.
In his last statement on Friday, he warned that the planned Israeli offensive on Gaza City would endanger the hostages.
On Saturday, Red Cross head Mirjana Spoljaric said an evacuation from the city would provoke a massive population displacement that no other area in the enclave is equipped to absorb, with shortages of food, shelter and medical supplies.
“People who have relatives in the south left to stay with them. Others, including myself, didn’t find a space as Deir Al-Balah and Mawasi are overcrowded,” said Ghada, a mother of five from the city’s Sabra neighborhood.
Around half of the enclave’s more than 2 million people are presently in Gaza City. Several thousand were estimated to have left the city for central and southern areas of the enclave.
Israel’s military has warned its political leaders that the offensive is endangering hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza. Protests in Israel calling for an end to the war and the release of the hostages have intensified in the past few weeks.