Anti-Israel protester who praised Oct. 7 massacre says she is Canadian

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B.C. activists Charlotte Kates and her husband Khaled Barakat who are facing calls for their deportation over their support for Hamas and its October 7 massacre in Israel say they are Canadian citizens.

Speaking recently to a Global News reporter from the doorway of her home in Vancouver, Kates said, “I mean I am a Canadian citizen. I just don’t think it’s anyone’s business.”

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Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada declined to verify her claim because of privacy legislation.

“If she’s Canadian citizen, that still doesn’t give her the right to hate speech and the behaviour which she’s been engaging,” said Ariella Kimmel, the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor who is the vice-president of strategic communications and development for Ottawa PR firm Winston Wilmont.

“She is very clearly supporting and glorifying … terrorist organizations and the attacks on Israel.”

Kates, 44, is the co-ordinator of the B.C.-based pro-Palestinian Samidoun Palestinian Prisoners Solidarity Network, an entity both Germany and Israel designated as a terrorist organization. She was arrested for participating in an anti-Israel demonstration at the Vancouver Art Gallery in April, where she told the crowd the Hamas massacre of 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, was “heroic and brave.”

She led the crowd in chanting “Long Live October 7th” and called for the delisting of Hamas and Hezbollah from terrorist organization lists. Those two groups, backed by Iran, have been responsible for the deaths of thousands of Israelis over the decades.

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Kates was released after her arrest but has not yet been charged by Vancouver police.

“She herself is now tied into terrorism, but her words are incredibly dangerous and they’re threatening to the Jewish community,” said Kimmel. “The biggest you know right now, Canada has a radicalization problem that we’re not clearly speaking about.”

This month Kates travelled to Tehran and was awarded a “Human Rights” trophy by the Iranian government, an authoritative regime that is widely blamed for suppressing and executing women and political activists.

“This woman gets on a plane and travels to Iran to receive a Human Rights Award that has been granted to some of the worst of worst people within Iran, one of the some of the worst torturers and violators of human rights,” said Kimmel.

Kates also appeared on Iran’s Ofogh TV, where she claimed that there are anti-Israel demonstrations around the “imperial core,” referring to Western countries that she said are “arming and funding the genocide that Israel is bringing” to Palestinians.

In the interview, she reiterated her support for the October 7 Hamas attack, calling it “heroic.”

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“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,” she said to Ofogh TV. “We stand with the Palestinian resistance and their heroic and brave action on October 7.”

Kates is married to Palestinian-Canadian activist and writer Khaled Barakat. Both have been the subject of a petition by B’nai Brith Canada, a Jewish advocacy group, calling for their deportation.

Barakat, in a podcast, also said that he is a Canadian citizen. He said that he was born in Jerusalem and lived in the U.S. for several years.

When asked about the petition for his deportation, he criticized the “racist, right-wing fascist group” behind the campaign, claiming they are allied with the Israeli embassy in Ottawa and Zionist organizations.

He also said he and Kates previously lived in Berlin, Germany, where he was deported for his “political activities” and organizing within the Palestinian community.

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Kimmel said that Canada should follow in Berlin’s footsteps. “If he was kicked out of Germany and came to Canada, and then was able to get Canadian citizenship, that really brings into question our system and how we’re doing background checks,” Kimmel told the National Post.

When asked by Global News if she poses a security threat to Canada, Kates responded, “The only security threat facing the world today is the Zionist genocide being carried out in Palestine against the Palestinian people that has slaughtered at least 40,000 Palestinians and that the Canadian government continues to support and that the United States continues to arm.”

National Post

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