Subscribe Today
Request a Clip
In a February 9, 2025 Sunday Morning Marxist Forum video call, Charlotte Kates, International Coordinator of Samidoun, which is recognized by the U.S. and Canada as a terrorist entity, quoted Hamas military leader Muhammad Deif in an Al-Jazeera documentary, who had said that October 7 would "change the world." She said that the hostage release deal, which she referred to as a "prisoner exchange," and Tufan Al-Ahrar [the Flood of the Free], has demonstrated the "ethics of the resistance" and its military strength and increased its ranks. Kates, an American citizen, said that there is a reason why PFLP founder George Habash had referred to the United States as the "head of the snake." She said that in a "post Al-Aqsa Flood era of anti-imperialism," activists in the "imperial core" have the responsibility to do whatever they can to build and escalate the "international popular cradle of the resistance" and not simply call for a ceasefire. She discussed the 1985 Jibril Agreement where the PFLP brokered a prisoner exchange deal with Israel, and she stated that the released prisoners from the deal were central to the breakout of the Intifada. Therefore, the hostage deal in which Palestinian prisoners were released should be seen as "times of great potential for the Palestinian struggle."
The Sunday Morning Marxist Forum was hosted by the Oakland, California Institute for the Critical Social Studies, and it was moderated by Allan Miller, a statistics and data science instructor at UC Berkeley Extension. Kates was arrested in April 2024 on charges of hate speech following her remarks at a Vancouver rally glorifying the October 7 attacks and Palestinian terrorist organizations. On November 15, 2024, her home was raided by Vancouver police in connection with these charges. During the video call, in portions not included in the clip, Kates discusses her husband Khaled Barakat's designation as a U.S. Specially Designated Global Terrorist. Barakat is the founder of Samidoun and a leader with Masar Badil, an organization closely linked with Samidoun; he has been identified by the United States as a leader with the U.S.-designated terrorist organization the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Barakat, a Canadian citizen, has been in Beirut, Lebanon, for the past several months since his designation as a terrorist by Canada. In the call, Kates mentioned that she is talking from Beirut, where she traveled to attend Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah's funeral. As of March 8, 2025, Charlotte Kates was still in Beirut.
Charlotte Kates: "Al-Aqsa Flood, you know, we could also refer to as the seventh of October, 2023, changed the world. And that this is something that is undertaken quite deliberately by the Palestinian resistance.
[...]
"In a recent documentary that was released on Al-Jazeera Arabic, Muhammad Deif, who, the martyr Muhammad Deif, who was the commander of the Al-Qassam Brigades, and really the, across the board kind of military leader of the Palestinian people and the Palestinian revolutionary movement said very clearly that, you know, 'We are going to be changing the world with this action.'
[...]
"These prisoner exchanges to Tufan Al-Ahrar [the Flood of the Free] have revealed many things in front of the world. In the first place, they have provided a clear contrast of the ethics of the Palestinian resistance, the ethics of the colonized people who are fighting back against an imperialist colonizing power versus the ethics of the colonizer and the ethics of the imperialist. And so, what we have seen is that every single one of the releases of Zionist prisoners who have been held by the resistance has been carried out in a very public way on a very public stage with the presence of a full complement of Al-Qassam Brigade, certainly, but also of Al-Quds, also of the Mujahedeen movement, also of the Al-Nasser Salah al-Deen Brigades, depending on who were holding the Zionists captive – they have participated in various ways in the exchanges.
[...]
"And this is to demonstrate the military strength of the Palestinian resistance that has been undefeated, this is to demonstrate the increase in ranks of the military ranks of the resistance, showing that if the Zionists begin to start the genocidal assault again tomorrow, they will be met by even greater resistance.
[...]
"There is a reason why George Habash, and really, Palestinian revolutionary, after Palestinian revolutionary have declared that the United States is the head of the snake.
[...]
"In a post Al-Aqsa flood era of anti-imperialism, in which we have a responsibility in the imperial core, to do everything we can to build and escalate the international popular cradle of the resistance. To not simply call for ceasefire now, although it is important to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, and elsewhere in occupied Palestine. To not simply call for ceasefire now, but to express our clear solidarity with the resistance.
[...]
"One of the previous largest prisoner exchanges took place in 1985, it's been called the Jibril Agreement, this was carried out by the Popular Front Liberation of Palestine and general command in Lebanon at that time and they were able to exchange Zionist soldiers for many, many Palestinian prisoners who were freed, whose liberation was actually central to the development of the breakout of the Intifada two years later. And so, when we look at these prisoner exchanges, we should also look at them as times of great potential for the future of the Palestinian struggle, as well. And these are exchanges that are only carried out through the power of armed struggle and armed resistance."
