At Columbia’s gates, students are recruited to help finance terrorism against Israel

Samidoun is an antisemitic organization recently sanctioned in the United States for providing material support to terrorists.

By Jessica Costescu, Washington Free Beacon

A coalition of anti-Israel student groups at Columbia University distributed pamphlets just outside of the school’s Morningside Heights gates encouraging attendees to “get involved” with the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, an anti-Semitic organization recently sanctioned in the United States for providing material support to terrorists. In doing so, the students themselves may have provided support to terrorists, one expert told the Washington Free Beacon.

Members of Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) distributed the pamphlets—which were labeled “CUAD’s Guide to Operational Security” and listed an email address associated with CUAD’s “collective defense team”—just outside of the campus gates on Tuesday afternoon, sources said.

One page calls for “revolution and resistance until liberation and return,” photos obtained by the Free Beacon show. Another encourages readers to “let your discomfort be your radicalization” and “kill the beast from within.” A third, meanwhile, informs students how they can “get involved on & off campus,” listing a slew of anti-Semitic groups, including Samidoun. The page features a QR code that leads to a “Palestine 101” LinkTree, which includes a link to Samidoun’s website, the homepage of which touts an “Amsterdam free from Zionism” and calls to “globalize the intifada!”

The distribution of those pamphlets came roughly one month after the U.S. Department of Treasury sanctioned Samidoun, calling it a “sham charity that serves as an international fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization.” At the time, experts told the Free Beacon that the move likely spelled trouble for Samidoun’s U.S. collaborators. Now, CUAD could be in Treasury’s crosshairs.

“A reasonable argument could be made that whoever produced these flyers are providing material support to a designated terrorist organization,” said Foundation for Defense of Democracies senior vice president for research Jonathan Schanzer. “In short, Samidoun shouldn’t be anywhere in the United States anymore.”

“Putting up flyers that include the work of Samidoun, while not the most egregious violation, would still, I think, meet the definition of material support.”

A Columbia spokeswoman told the Free Beacon that “statements advocating for violence or harm are antithetical to the core principles upon which this institution was founded” and that “calls for violence have no place at Columbia.” Though the flyers clearly state they come from CUAD, the spokeswoman said Columbia does not “know who produced or distributed these flyers since it was outside our campus.” Anyone concerned about the flyers, the spokeswoman added, is encouraged to “report to the Office of Institutional Equity to be reviewed.”

CUAD is a coalition of dozens of student groups that banded together after Columbia suspended two leading anti-Israel organizations: Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace. Despite their suspension, both groups remain part of the CUAD coalition.

CUAD was instrumental in organizing and executing the anti-Israel encampments that plagued Columbia’s campus in the spring. Still, many of its member organizations remain in good standing with the school, including the Black Students Organization, Somali Student Association, Asian American Alliance, and African Students Association. Those groups—along with the improv troupe Third Wheel, another CUAD member—combined to receive more than $23,000 in university funding in the ’23-24 academic year, disclosures show.

Columbia, meanwhile, benefits from hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds. In 2023, it received $1.2 billion in federal grant funding, according to the Columbia Postdoctoral Workers union.

CUAD has a longstanding relationship with Samidoun. In March, the coalition hosted a “Palestinian Resistance 101” event with Samidoun leader Charlotte Kates and her husband, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine member Khaled Barakat. During the event, Kates praised Hamas for slaughtering Jews on Oct. 7 and showing “the potential of a future for Palestine liberated from Zionism,” the Free Beacon reported. Barakat lauded airplane hijackings as “one of the most important tactics that the Palestinian resistance have engaged in.”

Samidoun, in turn, has backed anti-Israel activism at Columbia. It regularly promotes student protests and statements online, and students at Columbia have displayed pro-terrorist Samidoun signs. On the one-year anniversary of Oct. 7, they joined a violent protest that featured a Samidoun flag with the caption, “Long live October 7th.” Both Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine and Samidoun endorsed the march.

The Department of Treasury’s October sanctions on Samidoun also targeted Barakat, describing him as “a Canadian citizen and a member of the PFLP” who “serves as part of the group’s leadership abroad.”

“His fundraising and recruitment efforts support the PFLP’s terrorist activity against Israel,” the department’s press release said. “Barakat has previously publicly acknowledged Samidoun’s affiliation with the PFLP, despite direction from PFLP leadership to maintain the confidential nature of the relationship.”

anti-Israel activismcampus antisemitismSamidounterrorist funding