The American student protests should be a wake-up call. Without a doubt, many of the students protesting Israel’s military action against Hamas in Gaza genuinely care for the plight of the Palestinian civilians being used by Hamas as human shields. However, it is clear that many student protestors are associating with very dark forces. Some of them have even gone so far as to praise Hamas and to openly call for burning Tel Aviv.
Over here in Europe, similar concerns have been raised. Mohammed Khatib is the EU coordinator for Samidoun, an extremist pro-Palestinian organisation. He lives in Belgium, and enjoys ‘refugee’ status. In a webinar on the terror raid on October 7, he stated that it was “a glorious day” that made him proud. Samidoun is considered a front for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a Palestinian terror organisation notorious for plane hijackings and assassinations. Terrorists linked to the PFLP were also allegedly involved in the October 7 terror attack.
In Germany, Samidoun was banned after it handed out pastries at a music festival in Berlin to celebrate the gruesome Hamas massacre. The ban means that the organisation’s assets will be confiscated in Germany, posts on the internet and social media are banned, and people active in the organisation are liable to be punished by the German legal system. However, in both Belgium and the Netherlands, the organisation remains legal. In the Netherlands, glorifying terrorism is not punishable. However, Samidoun is also suspected of financing terrorism in Germany, so it remains to be seen how long it can go about its business in the Low Countries.
Regardless of Samidoun’s criminal nature, it is strange to see the organisation demonstrate against Israeli military action in Gaza in the company of NGOs defending women’s, gay, and youth rights, and development cooperation organisations. Some demonstrators also waved Samidoun flags at the highly charged opening of the Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam on March 10, 2024. Organisations like Samidoun openly support the terror group Hamas. In Gaza, where Hamas has been in power for almost two decades, the fundamental rights of women and homosexuals are severely violated. Unmarried women are not allowed to leave Gaza without the consent of a male guardian, and homosexuality is punishable by torture and death.
Eyes wide shut
In a commentary piece on Germany’s ban of Samidoun, Belgian journalist Bruno Struys states: “The fact that Samidoun, an organisation that approves of Hamas’ acts of terror, can operate in Brussels but not in Germany will strengthen them with us.” According to him, it is also “reminiscent of the campaign by NGOs and left-wing politicians a decade ago to get Oussama Atar released, who would later plot the March 22 attacks.”
Oussama Atar, a Belgian citizen from Brussels, masterminded the attacks in Paris and Brussels in 2015 and 2016. Before he rose to the top of the Islamic State during the U.S. occupation of Iraq, he had already been detained by the Americans because they considered him to be dangerous. That was in 2005. As a result of a campaign by Brussels politicians and a number of NGOs, such as Amnesty International, the Belgian authorities backed his case, and he was eventually released. Back in Belgium, Atar then turned his full attention to building a terror network and travelling back and forth to the Middle East, with terrible consequences.
To oppose Israeli action in Gaza or to think that a Belgian citizen like Oussama Atar should not simply be held captive by U.S. occupation forces in Iraq is one thing. But to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with malicious extremists is something else entirely.
In the same vein, after October 7, French left-wing populist Jean-Luc Mélenchon was the only political leader to refuse to condemn the terror attack. It dealt the death blow to Nupes, an alliance of leftist French political parties that was nonetheless leading in the polls for the European elections. Nor was it the first incident in which Mélenchon’s party appeared to have questionable double standards whenever Jews were involved.
And again, Swedish Social Democratic Party MEP Evin Incir managed to draft an EP report on relations between the European Union and the Palestinian Authority without mentioning Hamas, terrorism, antisemitism, or the persecution of Palestinian Christians by their Muslim counterparts.
Media bias
An investigation by Belgian historian Sylvie Lausberg and liberal Belgian MP Viviane Teitelbaum further reveals that the media urgently needs to look into the mirror. Indeed, the two women, who had both been presidents of the French-speaking Women’s Council of Belgium (CFFB), claim that it was no less than 60 days after the October 7 terror attack that the French-speaking government broadcaster RTBF finally reported on the sexual offences committed by Hamas at the time, and then only via three short news items. This while the international news agency Reuters was already reporting it on October 15. The investigators particularly denounce the fact that on the RTBF website, historian Anne Morelli stresses that “all testimonies should be taken with a pinch of salt.” Would feminist NGOs accept such statements in a different context? Probably not. Yet no protest has been heard from that quarter, while women’s rights groups do take part in protests where Samidoun’s extremists are also regulars.
The irony here is that the same RTBF claims to publish news “from a gender perspective,” which assumes a feminist point of view. Some private media, namely La Libre and RTL, were slightly quicker—November 14—but for the left-leaning French-language Belgian newspaper Le Soir, it wasn’t until December 15 that it devoted its first article to the sexual violence that took place on October 7.
Journalists, like NGOs, are predominantly left leaning. It should therefore come as no surprise that, according to the British Campaign Against Antisemitism, antisemitism is mainly found among left-wing political parties. As many as 80% of recorded cases of antisemitism originated from left-wing British parties.
Unfortunately, left-wing antisemitism has historical precedence. For example, the 19th-century French radical Pierre Leroux, who popularised the term ‘socialist,’ was an incorrigible antisemite. He stated, “When we speak of the Jews … we mean the Jewish spirit—the spirit of profit, of lucre, of gain, of speculation; in a word, the banker’s spirit.”
It is hard to deny that this kind of thinking is still very prevalent today among the Left and its allies.
Ideological Bedfellows in the Gaza Debate
Protestors waving the Samidoun flag during a demonstration in Duisburg, western Germany, on October 9, 2023. Ina Fassbender / AFP
The American student protests should be a wake-up call. Without a doubt, many of the students protesting Israel’s military action against Hamas in Gaza genuinely care for the plight of the Palestinian civilians being used by Hamas as human shields. However, it is clear that many student protestors are associating with very dark forces. Some of them have even gone so far as to praise Hamas and to openly call for burning Tel Aviv.
Over here in Europe, similar concerns have been raised. Mohammed Khatib is the EU coordinator for Samidoun, an extremist pro-Palestinian organisation. He lives in Belgium, and enjoys ‘refugee’ status. In a webinar on the terror raid on October 7, he stated that it was “a glorious day” that made him proud. Samidoun is considered a front for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a Palestinian terror organisation notorious for plane hijackings and assassinations. Terrorists linked to the PFLP were also allegedly involved in the October 7 terror attack.
In Germany, Samidoun was banned after it handed out pastries at a music festival in Berlin to celebrate the gruesome Hamas massacre. The ban means that the organisation’s assets will be confiscated in Germany, posts on the internet and social media are banned, and people active in the organisation are liable to be punished by the German legal system. However, in both Belgium and the Netherlands, the organisation remains legal. In the Netherlands, glorifying terrorism is not punishable. However, Samidoun is also suspected of financing terrorism in Germany, so it remains to be seen how long it can go about its business in the Low Countries.
Regardless of Samidoun’s criminal nature, it is strange to see the organisation demonstrate against Israeli military action in Gaza in the company of NGOs defending women’s, gay, and youth rights, and development cooperation organisations. Some demonstrators also waved Samidoun flags at the highly charged opening of the Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam on March 10, 2024. Organisations like Samidoun openly support the terror group Hamas. In Gaza, where Hamas has been in power for almost two decades, the fundamental rights of women and homosexuals are severely violated. Unmarried women are not allowed to leave Gaza without the consent of a male guardian, and homosexuality is punishable by torture and death.
Eyes wide shut
In a commentary piece on Germany’s ban of Samidoun, Belgian journalist Bruno Struys states: “The fact that Samidoun, an organisation that approves of Hamas’ acts of terror, can operate in Brussels but not in Germany will strengthen them with us.” According to him, it is also “reminiscent of the campaign by NGOs and left-wing politicians a decade ago to get Oussama Atar released, who would later plot the March 22 attacks.”
Oussama Atar, a Belgian citizen from Brussels, masterminded the attacks in Paris and Brussels in 2015 and 2016. Before he rose to the top of the Islamic State during the U.S. occupation of Iraq, he had already been detained by the Americans because they considered him to be dangerous. That was in 2005. As a result of a campaign by Brussels politicians and a number of NGOs, such as Amnesty International, the Belgian authorities backed his case, and he was eventually released. Back in Belgium, Atar then turned his full attention to building a terror network and travelling back and forth to the Middle East, with terrible consequences.
To oppose Israeli action in Gaza or to think that a Belgian citizen like Oussama Atar should not simply be held captive by U.S. occupation forces in Iraq is one thing. But to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with malicious extremists is something else entirely.
In the same vein, after October 7, French left-wing populist Jean-Luc Mélenchon was the only political leader to refuse to condemn the terror attack. It dealt the death blow to Nupes, an alliance of leftist French political parties that was nonetheless leading in the polls for the European elections. Nor was it the first incident in which Mélenchon’s party appeared to have questionable double standards whenever Jews were involved.
And again, Swedish Social Democratic Party MEP Evin Incir managed to draft an EP report on relations between the European Union and the Palestinian Authority without mentioning Hamas, terrorism, antisemitism, or the persecution of Palestinian Christians by their Muslim counterparts.
Media bias
An investigation by Belgian historian Sylvie Lausberg and liberal Belgian MP Viviane Teitelbaum further reveals that the media urgently needs to look into the mirror. Indeed, the two women, who had both been presidents of the French-speaking Women’s Council of Belgium (CFFB), claim that it was no less than 60 days after the October 7 terror attack that the French-speaking government broadcaster RTBF finally reported on the sexual offences committed by Hamas at the time, and then only via three short news items. This while the international news agency Reuters was already reporting it on October 15. The investigators particularly denounce the fact that on the RTBF website, historian Anne Morelli stresses that “all testimonies should be taken with a pinch of salt.” Would feminist NGOs accept such statements in a different context? Probably not. Yet no protest has been heard from that quarter, while women’s rights groups do take part in protests where Samidoun’s extremists are also regulars.
The irony here is that the same RTBF claims to publish news “from a gender perspective,” which assumes a feminist point of view. Some private media, namely La Libre and RTL, were slightly quicker—November 14—but for the left-leaning French-language Belgian newspaper Le Soir, it wasn’t until December 15 that it devoted its first article to the sexual violence that took place on October 7.
Journalists, like NGOs, are predominantly left leaning. It should therefore come as no surprise that, according to the British Campaign Against Antisemitism, antisemitism is mainly found among left-wing political parties. As many as 80% of recorded cases of antisemitism originated from left-wing British parties.
Unfortunately, left-wing antisemitism has historical precedence. For example, the 19th-century French radical Pierre Leroux, who popularised the term ‘socialist,’ was an incorrigible antisemite. He stated, “When we speak of the Jews … we mean the Jewish spirit—the spirit of profit, of lucre, of gain, of speculation; in a word, the banker’s spirit.”
It is hard to deny that this kind of thinking is still very prevalent today among the Left and its allies.
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