Vancouver Samidoun leader praises October 7 on Iranian television

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Charlotte Kates, the international coordinator for Samidoun, appeared on Iranian television to discuss her arrest at the hands of Vancouver police, and reiterated her statements about the “brave, heroic” October 7 terror attack on Israel.

Kates, who’s also the coordinator of the Vancouver-headquartered Samidoun Palestinian Prisoners Solidarity Network, was arrested in May 2024 in a Vancouver police investigation into words she uttered at a rally that were alleged to constitute hate speech.

She has yet to be charged.

Jewish groups in Canada have been lobbying for several years to have Samidoun labelled a terrorist group because of its affiliations with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which is considered a terror group in Canada. Both Germany and Israel consider Samidoun a terrorist entity.

In her interview with Iran’s Ofogh TV, Kates said there are anti-Israel rallies all around “the imperial core” — referring to the developed world — protesting the countries that are “arming and funding the genocide that Israel is bringing” against Palestinians.

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“They want to criminalize speaking about the resistance,” Kates said. “I spoke about the brave, heroic October 7 operation and the legitimacy of the Palestinian resistance and why I want to get the resistance organizations off the so-called terror list.”

“I myself have been arrested and am facing upcoming potential charges for doing nothing more than talking about the legitimacy of the Palestinian armed resistance and Operation Al-Aqsa Flood,” she said.

Al-Aqsa flood is the name Hamas gave to its October 7 massacre that killed some 1,200 people in Israel and took more than 200 hostage. The attack spawned a greater war in the region — now threatening to expand beyond Israeli and Palestinian territories — that has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, including terrorists, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, and led to the deaths of 300 Israeli soldiers.

In her interview, posted and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute, an American press-monitoring organization, Kates is echoing her statements made at the rally in April that brought her to the attention of Vancouver police.

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“We stand with the Palestinian resistance and their heroic and brave action on October 7,” Kates said back in the spring.

Police are pursuing hate-crime charges against her, Kates said, at the “behest of Zionist organizations and political officials.” In her remarks, Kates argued that several groups should not be listed as terrorist entities in Canada, including: Hezbollah, the Lebanese Islamist political party and terrorist group; Hamas, the Palestinian terror group and de-facto government in the Gaza Strip; and Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian terrorist organization fighting in Gaza.

“These are resistance fighters. These are our heroes. These are those who are sacrificing so that we can live and speak and struggle and fight. These are the people whose blood is being shed to defend humanity and to defend the world,” she said.

Kates, and her husband Khaled Barakat, have been subject to a petition by B’nai Brith Canada, a Jewish advocacy group, to have them deported. Their residency status is Canada is unknown, but Kates was reportedly born in the U.S. and Barakat is believed to have been born in the village of Dahiyat al-Barid on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

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The Israeli security service Shin Bet has alleged that Barakat is an active and senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which he denies.

After her speech in late April, Kates was condemned by British Columbia Premier David Eby, and her arrest was lauded by the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs as “the right message that needs to be sent.” The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, one of Canada’s most vocal pro-free speech legal organizations, argued that police were impeding Kates’ free-speech rights.

The two-minute video clip, circulated on social media, was filmed while Kates was in Iran to receive on Aug. 4 the Islamic Human Rights and Human Dignity Award.

National Post was unable to locate a full version of Kates’s Ofogh TV interview.

In a press release, Samidoun said Kates thanked the committee for the award and emphasized “the role of the Islamic Republic in opposing American, Western and Zionist policies, and the support provided by the Iranian people to the resistance in Palestine, Lebanon and the region.”

While in Iran, Kates did a number of media appearances and delivered remarks at forums and activist meetings. She spoke about Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.

“When we speak now, after 300 days of genocide, and after 300 days of resistance, we must be clear: October 7, the great Al-Aqsa Flood, changed the world, irreversibly,” Kates said, according to a version of her remarks published by Samidoun.

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