In September Livestream With Hamas Spokesman, PFLP-Affiliated Canadian 'Masar Badil' NGO Continues To 'Amplify Voices' Of Top Terrorists, Incite Protest Escalation – In English And Spanish; Participant Charlotte Kates, Coordinator Of Designated Terrorist Front Samidoun: Activists Must 'Escalate Struggle' To Remove Hamas, PFLP, Hizbullah From Western Terror Lists

On September 7, 2024, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement ("Masar Badil") hosted a live interview and Q&A session with Hamas Spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri. The group called the interview – the eighth in a series– "a discussion that highlight[s] often-repressed voices of the Palestinian, Arab and regional resistance."

Khaled Barakat, the Canadian leader of Masar Badil, was Designated by the Canada and the U.S. Treasury on October 15, 2024, for being among the leaders of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a Designated Foreign Terrorist Organization and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the U.S. Department of State.[1] In the same statement, the U.S. Department of Treasury also Designated the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, or Samidoun, as a "sham charity that serves as an international fundraiser for the PFLP".[2]

On October 7, 2023, Masar Badil published  statement on its website calling for "allies of the liberation forces and movements" to express support for the "courageous Palestinian resistance, to raise the flag of Palestine and the flags of the resistance, to organize demonstrations, popular and political events and in the media to expose the Zionist crimes against our people in occupied Palestine, in support of the 'Al-Aqsa Flood' Operation, announced by the Commander-in-Chief of the Al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Khaled Al-Deif." It continued: "The courageous Palestinian resistance began a chapter of battles for dignity and pride at the dawn of October 7, 2023, and is now responding to decades of continuous and repeated Zionist American and European aggression against the masses of our Arab and Islamic nation from the ocean to the Gulf, and in the face of the wars of hunger and siege that… were engineered by the United States and its agents against our peoples in the region, especially in Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Iran." [3]

Masar Badil's October 7, 2023 statement proclaimed support for the Hamas-led attack and the chief of Hamas's Al-Qassam Brigades, Mohammed Deif.[4]

Charlotte Kates, who participated in the video, Barakat's wife, is Samidoun's international coordinator. Kates was arrested in May 2024 following her speech at a rally in Vancouver, British Columbia in which she expressed support for Hamas, the PFLP, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Lebanese Hizbullah and demanded that they be removed from Canada's terror list.[5] She is facing a police hate speech investigation.[6] In August 2024, Kates traveled to Iran to accept the "Eighth Annual Islamic Human Rights And Human Dignity Award," presented in Tehran on August 4 by the secretary general of the High Council for Human Rights of the Islamic Republic of Iran.[7] The following day in Tehran, she gave a detailed interview to Iran's Ofogh TV, discussing her arrest.[8]

Kates spoke at the opening of the September 7 live interview with Hamas spokesman Abu Zuhri, emphasizing the need to "build the international popular cradle of the resistance" and broadly demand the removal of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the PFLP, and Lebanese Hizballah from "the so-called terror lists" of Western countries. She criticized what she described as Western attempts to "criminalize and oppress the resistance" and urged activists in the West to "step up" their actions and "escalate the struggle" tactically and politically.

Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri was described as a leader of, and spokesman for, the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), and the head of its Political Bureau outside Palestine. The interview took place in Arabic, with simultaneous translations into Spanish and English. The following is a transcript of the main points of the interview.

Khaled El-Raheb Of Masar Badil: "Glory To Ismail Haniyeh, Yahya Ayyash, Yahya Shafaki, And Ahmad Yassin – Those Who Have Given Their Lives For The Palestinian Struggle"

Khaled El-Raheb: "This meeting is one in a series of meetings that are being organized by the Masar Badil movement so that the voice of the resistance, reaches the world, today with Dr. Sami, and this is 11 months after aggression and genocide and killing, and also valiant resistance and strength and patience.

"After this period, having Dr. Sami with us - it's something very important for us to see what his readings about the future, what he thinks about what happened as a resistance movement. We will have first a word by Charlotte Kates, the international coordinator of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoners Relief Network. Charlotte, please, you can start."

Samidoun International Coordinator Charlotte Kates: "It Is Particularly Important For People In The Imperial Core To Directly Hear From And To Amplify The Voices Of The Palestinian Resistance Movement... [There Are] So Many Attempts To Criminalize And Oppress The Resistance [In The West]... This Is The Moment To Step Up Our Actions, To Escalate Our Struggle Tactically And Politically"

Charlotte Kates: "Thank you very much, comrades, and it's an honor to be here with you today, and an honor to be here with you, Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri, for the eighth installment of the Masar Badil, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement series of Palestine media events, which bring voices of the resistance directly to the movement that is growing for Palestinian liberation everywhere around the world.

"And it's particularly important that we are having this event today, and at this time. We are having this event, of course, on the 7th of September, one month before the anniversary of Tufan al-Aqsa [Al-Aqsa Flood], one month before the anniversary of the great mobilization of the Palestinian resistance for the liberation of Palestine, the breaking of the siege, the liberation of Palestinian prisoners, and to advance the liberation struggle to a next stage. And of course, we are also approaching one year of the escalated level of Zionist genocide, which does not mean that this is one year of genocide, but rather one year amid 76 years of genocide, amid over 100 years of colonization, and it is a year in which the forces that are at play have become clear to all.

"[...] And at this moment, it is particularly important, particularly for people in the imperial core, to hear directly from, and to amplify the voices of the Palestinian resistance movement and the movement of resistance in the region overall. We hear so many attempts, and we see so many attempts, to criminalize and repress the resistance. We're seeing people getting arrested, their homes invaded in Britain, and being accused of so-called glorification of terrorism for speaking about Palestinians' legitimate, internationally recognized right to liberate themselves through armed struggle from colonialism. We're seeing hundreds of people in France being investigated for so-called apology for terrorism. We are seeing students get, thousands of students, getting beaten and arrested in the United States for organizing encampments and actions on their campuses. And of course, in Germany, we see an extreme level of fascist repression of the Palestinian community, of the Palestine Solidarity Movement, which has, you know, extended even to political bans on individuals and organizations, including our Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, alongside all of the organizations and forces of the Palestinian resistance.

"And so, this is a moment for us not only to speak out to end the genocide, but also to state clearly and firmly that the Palestinian resistance is leading the struggle to end the genocide, that it is the resistance that is making the difference and quite specifically, the armed resistance, that is making the difference between the completion of the genocide, the completion of the destruction of the Palestinian people, and the continuing resilience that fastness and persistence of the Palestinian people that is leading  - despite the tremendous human toll and cost that has been exacted by the criminal imperialist gangster regimes against the Palestinian people - despite the horrific human toll, it is the resistance continuing on the road of the great Al-Aqsa Flood. It is actually leading toward liberation, toward return, and toward defeat for imperialism and Zionism in the region. And of course we see today that the in this project is rent with its own internal contradictions at the same time that the Palestinian internal front is stronger than ever before.

"So for those of us around the world who want to be part of the struggle for the liberation of Palestine, who want to organize inside the imperial core, this is the moment to step up our actions, to escalate our struggle, to escalate tactically and to escalate politically, to confront the war machine, to continue to organize and mobilize mass actions to escalate direct actions and to make it clear at all times that we stand with the Palestinian resistance as the spearhead of the forces of liberation in the world.

"What became clear on the 7th of October 2023, was that it was not just that the so-presumed technological and intelligence superiority of the Zionist regime was an illusion. But what has also become clear is that despite billions upon billions of dollars of weaponry being sent to kill children, to bomb families in refugee camps, to destroy hospitals and schools and fundamental infrastructure, that it is indeed possible and inevitable to defeat Zionism in Palestine. And it is possible to see an entire Arab and Iranian region that is free of U.S. imperialism and its domination.

Kates: "How Do We Build The International Popular Cradle Of The Resistance To Support The Struggle And Organize To Broadly Demand That Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, The PFLP, And Hizballah Are Removed From So-Called Terror Lists?"

"And so the question for us is: How do we build the international popular cradle of the resistance to support that struggle, and to organize as broadly as possible to demand that Palestinian resistance organizations, including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Lebanese resistance organizations such as Hezbollah, are off of the so-called terror lists that exist in the United States, Canada, the European Union, Britain, Australia, and elsewhere? These lists are used to delegitimize and criminalize the legitimate resistance of the Palestinian people and of the people of the region. And these are a mechanism of warfare and genocide against the Palestinian people. So the more that we are clear on the question of the resistance, the more we are clear on the question of ending the genocide.

"[...] This is a moment when the resistance is on the front lines against genocide. This is a moment where it is the armed movement of the Palestinian people, and of the forces of the regional resistance that are holding the line between humanity and inhumanity, between life and devastation. And so the only question for us must be: How can we live up to the example that is being set of courage of steadfastness of dedication and of self-sacrifice on a daily basis, including in the heart of the Imperial Corps, how do we live up to that example? And it may be nearly impossible to do so. But at the very least what we can do is escalate our mobilization, our tactics and our politics [...]"

Khalid al-Raheb: "Thank you very much, Comrade Charlotte. We'll give a short introduction of our guest, Dr. Sami. He is very famous, doesn't need so much introduction, but he is one of the leadership of the Hamas movement outside of Palestine. He is born in Rafah in '67. He has a doctorate in Islamic history from Damascus University in Syria, and he joined the resistance during the first intifada. From '89 to '94, he was in prison. He was a professor in the Islamic University in Gaza, and he worked in the Center of Oral History in Gaza University. He was the official spokesperson for Hamas from 2004 until 2016, and he's a member of the follow-up committee of the Palestinian factions from 2004 to 2016, and he has been a member of the election committee for 2005 election.

"He is the leader of the Politburo, of the external Politburo in the diaspora. He wrote multiple books, like the History of Jews and the Islamic World. And also, we are very honored that you are with us, and we are looking forward to hearing your input."

Hamas Spokesman Sami Abu Zukhri: "We Want To Salute All Those That Are Taking To The Streets Of Europe And America… We Support And Call For Escalation"

Sami Abu Zukhri: "I'm very happy for this meeting, with these activists from multiple places of the world, around the world, for Gaza and for the Palestinian cause - for the cause that they're trying to completely eradicate. That's why I want to start my input with the question that people think about it: Why did this battle take place? Why are we paying this high price for this? What is worth the destruction of 70 percent of Gaza, and the tens of thousands of martyrs? What have you done to yourself? Some people think this way.

"And, of course, I'm talking about friends. I'm not talking about enemies that are trying to smear us. But that's why we could touch on so many subjects from this point. First, I would like to say that the Palestinian cause before the 7th of October was being eradicated. We did, like, reach a point where in a couple of months there would have been no Palestinian cause. The leaderships of the region have given up on the Palestinian struggle, the Palestinian cause. The normalization has become a norm. People and countries and regimes are proud of the normalization agreements. The attacks on Al-Quds have been more or less a norm, happening every day with no one moving for it, and the blockade on Gaza, the same.

"[...] And we have seen that so many of Hamas leadership have given their lives during this battle. And the blood and life of our leadership are not more precious than the life and the death, sorry, than the life and the blood of the Palestinian people. We are part of the Palestinian people, and we have a great Palestinian people that we are very proud of, and we see ourselves as part of. And I want to say after one year that, yes, there is extreme misery, there is pain, that is wrenching our hearts as people, and you know these details.

"[...] Hamas is a movement that sees this cause as something that they carry, and are willing to sacrifice for. And I say to Netanyahu, this criminal, and to Biden, to all of those that are killing our people, that they are trying to exterminate us and exterminate our cause and our people: That you are facing a people that you haven't faced before, that you are facing leadership that you haven't faced before. You are seeing a movement that is carrying the struggle with conviction and belief.

"And Hamas is an idea, and if one person falls, then hundreds and thousands of people will join and replace him. You killed Ismail Haniyeh with your rocket, but you have made, again… this name, this person, in all the homes and houses all over the world, you have pained our people so much – OK, but you will never see the day where these people are broken. So we say, yes, Hamas and the Palestinian people like in Gaza, have given so much, but this is the road to freedom, this is the road to liberation.

"[...] We want to salute all those that are taking to the streets of Europe and America, that are standing behind the women of Gaza and Palestine. And we support and call for escalation, and to the friends from Masar Badeen, we appreciate their role and their effort to work on the streets, to stand behind the Palestinian people, behind the Palestinian resistance and their right to fight this injustice and this arrogance. And we call for more engagement as we approach a year since the beginning of this genocide, that we all rise up together to send a clear message to the leadership of Europe and America that Gaza is not alone, and that this injustice will end, and must stop. And that the people of Europe and America want to keep this heritage of democracy and human rights, and the support of European and Western leadership to this occupation is breaking these values.

"[...] We are behind these people that have stood behind us, that have supported us, that have given their sons and daughters before the Palestinian struggle, to break the Israeli occupation. These people are a crown on our heads, and we will not betray their trust in us. And this is … and I want to reinforce that we are continuing. We have the strength to continue, the resistance is continuing, and we have the strength to continue.

"If Biden thinks that there is no weapons and we will surrender, that Netanyahu spent four months on the borders. If there were weapons coming from the borders, then they haven't been coming for the past four months. So even if they close the borders, the waters, and everything, and the air, we manufacture our own weapons. We manufacture everything that we need and are able to continue and this occupation will break has nothing in front of it but being broken. Our victory is in defeating it in its goal - that they will not be able to defeat the movement, that they will not be able to retrieve its prisoners. The only choice that they have is to negotiate, and to admit like its defeat, betting on time and betting on some illusion that the movement will surrender, or that the Palestinian people will surrender will not work.

"And we are ready today, and every day, to pay these prices. I am looking forward to the discussions and to the questions."

Khaled El Raheb: "Thank you so much, Doctor. I just want to say that now we have people from Canada, from Mexico, from Spain, from Germany, from Belgium, from New Delhi, from Lebanon, from Jordan, from Palestine, from Morocco, from France, and they're all sending their greetings to you, and to the Palestinian resistance, as a representative of the, again, as a representative, again, from the Palestinian resistance. And most of them are the strugglers and activists internationally that have been working for Palestine, after and before the 7th of October.

"We will have now short presentation for five minutes from Mohammad Khatab. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Masar al-Badeen Movement. Please, Mohammad."

Samidoun European Coordinator Mohammad Khatib: "The 7th Of October Is A Declaration Of The Renewal Of The Palestinian Revolution... It Is The Responsibility Of All Of Us"; The Only Legitimate Representative Of The Palestinian People Is The Rifle"

Mohammad Khatib: "I am very thankful for this chance to be next to the brother and leader, Sami Abu Zuhar. I want to share something personal that Khaled has mentioned that from 2004 to 2016, that the doctor has been the official spokesperson of Hamas. And I was 14 years old, and so that was during the second intifada. If you are to hear any news, then you hear from Brother Sami. Your voice and your picture is very connected to the development of resistance and how the new generation sees Abu Ubaidah, like we saw you in our time, for us just a small note about our position.

"The 7th of October is much bigger than an operation or a battle. It's a new stage that the Palestinian resistance has been able, led by the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, and Jihad al-Islami, that were supported by the Palestinian people, the Palestinian people all over, I mean, all over occupied Palestine and the Diaspora.

"The 7th of October is a declaration of the renewal of the Palestinian Revolution, and we see that this new stage is the stage of liberation and return, and these responsibilities are not held only by the Palestinian people in Gaza, or occupied Palestine, or only the Palestinian resistance. It is a responsibility on all of us, again as a people and as a popular movement, and organization. And we are seeing how our communities have not betrayed the resistance, that the second and third generation that have been living in the diaspora in the West and the U.S. and Europe and in South America and all over the world, that this generation is leading the solidarity movement with Palestine and has been leading the Palestinian community, the Palestinian students – we are seeing how they have been carrying the picture of Amir Mohammed al-Zaif, and Sinwar, and Ahmed Saadat, and the universities of the U.S. and Europe. It was a clear sign of challenge to this occupation and its supporters.

"We want to emphasize that after the 7th of October that our understanding of the camp of the enemy must expand, we should not expect from the Europeans and the Americans support. And, of course, we mean the European and American governments that live off the exploitation of the people of the world.

"Europe and the U.S. are involved very directly in the blood of our people in Gaza, and they are involved directly with the Nakba in '48, and we see that the stage today requires from us as Palestinians, our Palestinian diaspora, Palestinian refugees, as activists that see ourselves as part of the Palestinian resistance, and not supporters of the resistance. We must aim to being on the same level with the confrontation, with the enemy, the Palestinian people are facing a gap. So we, as Palestinian people, we cannot depend on Oslo or the Gang of Security Coordination. We cannot count on this failed project that has brought us nothing but misery and destruction.

"What we count on, what we count on, is the Palestinian people that have been given their lives and blood towards the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea. And this requires that the Palestinian resistance today that has been given this blood to declare, and pursue very clearly the widest, I mean, the widest resistance front, an Arab front, an Islamic front, an internationalist front, where we stand together in the face of these projects that - and also we, as Palestinian diaspora, the Palestinian diaspora, our voice is abducted. Since the invasion of Lebanon in '82, our engagement with the Palestinian struggle has been confiscated.

"For us, the Palestinian people, the only legitimate representative of the Palestinian people is the rifle, and the anti-Palestinian resistance that is facing the enemy like in Gaza. And we are seeing today that like these Western countries like Germany, they are subjecting the Palestinian people in Germany to so much of the repression that we are seeing, again, that we see that Israel is subjugating the Palestinian people to.

Abu Zuhri: "We Are…Very Interested In Building Relationships With Revolutionary And Non-Revolutionary Forces" That Support Palestine

Abu Zuhri: "We are, like, very interested in building relationships with, like, revolutionary and non-revolutionary forces that are in support like of Palestine. We are very happy to build all kinds of relationships."

Al-Raheb: "We would consider this question as a reminder to us that this is something that we must pursue more and more. So, you are very aware of what happens in Algeria. What stops us from duplicating the experience in Algeria, and forming a unified front against the occupation? Why doesn't, the leadership of the movement, to create this, to create this unified front?"

Abu Zuhri: "There's a question in the Palestinian context always about national unity or unity that is national. So, all experiences have their specificities. And the Algerian people, they had their efforts, and their details about their struggles. So, when the front for liberation in Algeria was formed - after there was a direct confrontation between two parties, the revolutionary youth that was aiming towards the liberation of Algeria, and the national government that has reached a point of surrender, and integration into the occupation. And after this confrontation - it was a physical confrontation - so today we are unable to undergo this confrontation. We do not want to undergo this confrontation. So the role today is to be patient with each other, and to focus on the enemy. For this enemy, there is no Hamas.

"We don't want Hamas, we don't want anything else. They want Palestine, all of Palestine. They want to occupy it. So they want to occupy it completely. And, therefore, we hope that we can get through this stage. And when we talk about Fatah, we don't talk about a team. We are talking about our people. This is part of our people. And this part of the people are with us in the prisons. They are with us in the streets in Gaza. They are with us in Jenin. And of course, in the political aspect, there are splits and there are, again, differences. This Palestinian Authority is basing itself on a movement that is part of the Palestinian people. And that's why we need to be patient, and to look how we could come closer together. And if they a day come where, so if there was a confrontation, then of course, this can't…This can't be something that is normalized, like the confrontation that took place in Gaza. But that confrontation has its own details and its own specific situations, et cetera.

"So our role is not to say Fatah is against the resistance. Our role is to say that all of our people are with the resistance. This is - for this inevitable confrontation with the enemy in the West Bank and all over, this is what we need to focus on."

Al-Raheb: "So, with everything that's happening in Lebanon and Yemen and all of that, we are witnessing the ineffectiveness of the Arab League. Ao what's your assessment of the role of the Arab countries, and the role and all of that?"

Abu Zuhri: "So the absence of the Arab League has been…The absence of the Arab League has been there since before the 7th of October, and – okay, sorry. So the absence of the Arab League has been there even before the 7th of October. If the Arab League had actually played its role, maybe we didn't – it wouldn't have been in the point where we felt that there's a need for a 7th of October. And now we have intellectuals, so-called intellectuals, that say on Arab TV that we have no problem with forming relationships with the so-called Israelis.

"This confrontation is to enforce the cause on everyone. And this is our answer to this question. We see that there is no action, and there's not even a feeling to the misery of our people and the struggle of our people. [...] So today, we must really believe in this, and understand this new reality that we bet only on the people, and these people must take to the streets, and they must merge themselves with these rulers that are in support of Palestine, and we bet on you. We bet on the free people of the world, on the people of the Arab world. So the rulers - people will understand that what Hamas has done is in the benefit of not only the Palestinian people, but also all the region. The occupation wants to threaten the security of Jordan, the security of Egypt. And when they wanted to expel people from Gaza, they wanted to send them to Egypt, and they are talking about expelling people in the West Bank, talking about expelling them to Jordan. And that's why we hope that the rulers understand the truth, before it's too late.

Al-Raheb: "So maybe now just a final word from you. How do you see things will develop in the short term? We do believe that the struggle is open, and it's either us or them. Maybe we just want to hear a final word from you."

Abu Zuhri: "I want to say that this battle has taken too long, and it looks like it will take long. I know it's very difficult on our people when we say this, when we say that the struggle is long, but this is the truth. This occupation is fighting this war as if it's a battle of existence and wants to continue it. And that's why I'm saying, Netanyahu doesn't want any arrangement, any negotiation. He only wants negotiations to be taking place as a coverage - but an agreement that actually forces him to stop the war, he doesn't want it. That's why we are facing a war that will take long, and this is why we need to be patient and we need to be able to support the people like in Gaza."