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George Qarmout, an activist with Masar Badil, which is closely linked to U.S. designated terror organizations Samidoun and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), spoke at the New York World Workers Party Black History Forum on February 20, 2025. He discussed how the October 7 attacks and the release of hundreds of prisoners were made possible by Hamas's efforts to meet the primary needs of Palestinians before engaging in armed struggle. He encouraged participants to follow the examples set by Hamas, the Houthis in Yemen, North Korea, Venezuela, and Cuba before embarking on a "full revolution."
Khaled Barakat, the Canadian leader of Masar Badil, was designated by the U.S. and Canada on October 15, 2024, for being among the leaders of the PFLP, a U.S. designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. In the same statement, the U.S. Department of the Treasury designated the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network (Samidoun) as a "sham charity" used to fundraise internationally for the PFLP. Barakat is the founder of Samidoun, and his wife, Charlotte Kates, serves as the International Coordinator of the organization.
George Qarmout: "October 7 would not have been possible if Hamas had not started the way it did.
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"Hamas arose out of the need – not to wage armed struggle against Israel – but out of the need to provide [for] the Palestinian person, the Palestinian individual, to clean up the community, to get the youth off drugs and into the mosques – and because of that, October 7 was possible. Because of that we have hundreds of prisoners being released by the resistance. Because they started by addressing the primary needs of the people, before going on to armed struggle.
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"In Gaza, the resistance crushed the Israeli army. In Yemen, the Houthis, for the first time in history, completely nullified the deterrence power of the American aircraft carrier. This is a huge victory. In BRICS and all these economic alliances, they're nullifying the power of sanctions. You know, America has sanctioned half the world. Now, these sanctions don't mean anything.
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"We need to be following the example of the Yemenis. We need to follow the example of the Houthis, of Hamas, of North Korea, of Venezuela, of Cuba. We need to be building lines across our communities. We need to be cleaning up our communities, addressing our communities' primary needs, so that we can go on to making a full revolution."
