Several global payment providers have cut ties with the BDS organization Samidoun over its alleged links to a Palestinian terrorist group.
In an email obtained by JNS, PayPal said it would “thoroughly review” Samidoun’s account after the online payment giant was alerted to the group’s purported links to a designated terror organization, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
PayPal said that it will “take further action as appropriate in this case.” Donorbox and Plaid announced that they had already removed Samidoun’s account, following a series of complaints.
“I’m very happy that most of the providers we approached were happy to cooperate and comply with the law,” Yifa Segal, director of the International Legal Forum, told JNS.
“Supplying services to a designated terror organization is a serious crime, and we reserve the right to undertake further legal action against companies that continue supplying financial services to these affiliates,” she added.
Samidoun recently made headlines when the group invited a convicted terrorist, Rasmeah Odeh, to speak at an event in Germany in support of the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Berlin’s Foreign Nationals Office eventually revoked Odeh’s visa on the grounds it would threaten public order, and she was forced to leave the country.
Odeh was convicted of a 1969 Jerusalem bombing that killed Jewish two students, Leon Kanner and Eddie Joffe. She was convicted in 2017 of immigration fraud and was deported from the United States to Jordan last year.
A report released in February by the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs revealed over 100 alleged links between BDS groups and terrorism, particularly PFLP and Hamas.
The report, titled “Terrorists in Suits,” examined 13 international organizations and found that Hamas and PFLP activists had infiltrated organizations that call for a boycott of Israel. Samidoun is among the groups profiled in the report, and according to the ministry’s findings, it “has a wide network of ties with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist organization.”
Two of Samidoun’s leaders – Khaled Barakat and his wife, Charlotte Kates – are PFLP members, with Barakat being the head of PFLP’s foreign operations. Other Samidoun officials – Mohammed Khatib and Mustafa Awad – are also members of PFLP.
[Photo: mohamed_hassan / Pixabay]