Last updated: Feb. 17, 2026

Khaled Barakat

Khaled Barakat is a leader of a foreign terror organization and has shown support for other terror groups. Barakat has also spread hatred of Zionism and Israel.

In October 2024, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added Barakat to the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list under its Counter Terrorism Designations. OFAC stated in a press release that Barakat was designated “for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, the PFLP.”

The PFLP is dedicated to the violent destruction of Israel. It is designated as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) by the United States. The EU, Canada, the Gulf Cooperation Council, Australia and Israel also list it as a terror group due to its history of carrying out assassinations, suicide bombings, hijackings and multiple murders.

As of February 2019, Barakat was reportedly [p. 24] a member of the Central Committee of the PFLP.

Also as of February 2019, Barakat was reportedly [p. 24] a “Campaign Coordinator” at anti-Israel group Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network (Samidoun). Samidoun’s activism spreads awareness of terrorists, and at least three senior activists are PFLP members [pp. 23-25], including Barakat. In February 2021, the Israeli government designated Samidoun as a “terror organization,” accusing [p. 2] the NGO of operating “as an arm of the PFLP.”

As of October 2022, Barakat was “one of the founders” and the coordinator of the preparatory committee of the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement (Masar Badil), which was launched in October 2021.

In October 2022, Barakat was reportedly banned by the Netherlands, along with his wife, anti-Israel agitator Charlotte Kates, from entering the European Union (EU), and the couple were deported back to Canada. In February 2020, Barakat was reportedly deported from Germany and placed under a 4-year entry ban.

In 2020, Barakat compared the leader of Within Our Lifetime (WOL), Nerdeen Kiswani, to anti-Israel terrorist Leila Khaled, stating he was proud of Kiswani and urging people to express solidarity with her.

Barakat is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

As of June 2022, Barakat was reportedly located in Vancouver, British Columbia.

In 2012, according to an article from Maan News Agency, Barakat and Kates were part of a Canadian delegation that met with PFLP representatives in Gaza.

At the delegation’s farewell event, a member of the Central Committee of the PFLP introduced “the dear friend Khaled Barakat.” Barakat then spoke, dedicating his speech to former PFLP senior member Mahmoud Muhammad Al-Gharabawi.

According to an Israeli government report published in 2019, Khaled Barakat was reportedly [p. 24] the “Solidarity Campaign Coordinator for the release of PFLP General Secretary – Ahmad Sa’adat.”

Ahmad Sa’adat is the Secretary General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). He is currently serving in an Israeli prison for terror activities, including his role in the 2001 assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze’evi. Under Sa’adat’s leadership, the PFLP perpetrated many suicide bombings against Israeli civilians during the second intifada.

According to the Israeli government report [p. 25], Barakat was “directly associated with the PFLP Central Committee” in the Arabic-language media, while he is “presented on the Samidoun website and in the English-language media in general as a Palestinian writer and activist.”

According to a February 28, 2021 statement by Israel’s Ministry of Defense (MOD), Samidoun was “founded by members of the PFLP in 2012” and “serves as a front for the PFLP abroad.”

The MOD statement also says: “Representatives of the organization are active in many countries in Europe and North America, led by Khaled Barakat, who is part of the leadership of PFLP abroad. Barkat is involved with establishing militant cells and motivating terrorist activity in Judea & Samaria and abroad.”

Also according to the MOD, Samidoun “plays a leading and significant role in the PFLP’s anti-Israel propaganda efforts, fundraising and recruiting of activists…These activities complement PFLP terrorist attacks against Israel.”

On February 23, 2025, Barakat attended the funeral of Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut, Lebanon.

Hassan Nasrallah became the leader of terror group Hezbollah in 1992 and maintained his leadership until an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon killed him on September 27, 2024. Nasrallah once said: “In a future war, all of occupied Palestine will be struck by our rockets” and [00:00:19]: “Israel is a cancerous tumor!…The only solution is to eradicate the cancer.” He called Jews the most “cowardly, despicable, weak and feeble” people in the world.

On March 24, 2024, Barakat was a featured speaker at an event titled: “Palestinian Resistance 101,” where various anti-Israel agitators were invited to deliver lectures on “‘the fight for liberation.’” Barakat spoke via Zoom, where he celebrated [00:00:47] the Hamas terror attacks of October 7, 2023, in which 1,200 Israeli Jews were murdered.

Anti-Israel activists use the term “resistance” to refer to violence and terror perpetrated against Israeli civilians and their allies. It is used to glorify and encourage anti-Israel and anti-Semitic violence. Anti-Israel activists chant slogans such as: “Resistance by any means necessary!” and “Resistance is justified when people are occupied!” in response to terror attacks.

The event took place during Israel’s war against Hamas, which Israel launched after the October 7, 2023 terror attacks.

The event was held at Q House, “the LGBTQ+ special interest community at Columbia University” (Columbia) in New York, New York. The organizers were reportedly unauthorized to use Columbia property for the event, prompting them to move the venue to Q House.

The event was led by Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), a pro-BDS coalition of “over 80 student groups working toward the goal of collective liberation.” CUAD began in 2016 but was revived in late 2023 during Israel’s war against Hamas.

CUAD’s demands include “a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, divestment from Israel…and to reinstate” the campus chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) after the university suspended them.

Barakat lauded the October 7, 2023, Hamas atrocities. Using the name Hamas gave the terror operation, he said [00:00:47]: “It’s really important to see how the Al-Aqsa Flood operation have liberated the Palestinian inner strength…the new generations that today are getting involved in the struggle, and it’s so visible in the U.S., Canada…and elsewhere, of a new generation that is actually leading our struggle in the diaspora.”

The allegation that Jews “threaten” to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque has been a pretext for Arab attacks on Jews long before the existence of the modern Jewish state. Such propaganda has led to multiple periods of violence against Israeli civilians.

Barakat then praised [00:01:18] what he called “certain tactics that the Palestinian movement have practiced…for example, hijacking airplanes. It was one of the most important tactics that the Palestinian resistance have engaged in.” He also remarked that the hijackings “introduced the Palestinian questions to the world.”

Barakat later said [00:04:17]: “Today Palestinians don’t use the word ‘revolution,’ they use more the word ‘resistance,’ but, I think after October 7, Palestinians have revived their revolution because they have now engaged in not just defending, uh, themselves and their existence, but also we are moving towards…taking initiatives.”

Barakat reportedly glorified “the PFLP's wave of terrorism during the 1960s and 1970s” and “specifically praised the terror group for hijacking airplanes.”

Barakat also referred [first video; 00:00:54] to “my friends and brothers in Hamas, Islamic Jihad…the PFLP.”

On Saturday, October 7, 2023, approximately 2,900 heavily armed Hamas terrorists breached Israel’s border with Gaza. They executed numerous war crimes on civilians, including mass murder, beheadings of children, rape of men and women, torture, kidnappings and mutilation.

Hamas broadcast videos of their butchery on social media, often to victims’ accounts for families to see. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.” As of November 10, 2023, approximately 1,200 Israelis, the vast majority of them civilians, were murdered during the attacks. Hamas kidnapped 242 Israelis, including at least 30 children. At least 3,500 people were wounded, many severely.

A terrorist detained by Israel admitted he raped an Israeli woman when he broke into a kibbutz house during the October 7, 2023 attack. In March 2024, a former hostage of Hamas publicly stated she was sexually abused and tortured while in captivity.

For more information on the October 7, 2023 terror attacks, see the Canary Mission page on Hamas.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) is a terror group “whose objective is the destruction of the State of Israel and the establishment of a sovereign, Islamic Palestinian state.” PIJ is backed by Iran and has killed dozens of Israelis in suicide bombings and other attacks.

On May 12, 2022, Barakat spoke on the Security in Context (SiC) podcast, where he said [00:23:20]: “We need to have a clear political position on our support of Palestinian people [sic] right to decolonize Palestine from the river to the sea, to support…all forms of resistance.”

“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free!” is a chant used [00:02:52] to call for the elimination of the State of Israel.

On September 23, 2020, Barakat added a photo of WOL leader Kiswani and wrote on Facebook: “Young Leila Khaled, we are very proud of you. Solidarity with Nerdeen Kiswani against Zionist attacks!”

Leila Khaled is a leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and participated in the hijacking of TWA Flight 840 in 1969 and El Al Flight 219 in 1970. As of 2017, Khaled was a member of PFLP's Political Bureau. Khaled has said that the second intifada failed because it was not violent enough, advocated [00:36:07] for the use of children in terror activities and compared Zionists to Nazis.

On September 19, 2020, Barakat spoke at a Workers World Party (WWP) webinar, where he said [01:12:47]: “Why did Israel, for example, kill the Palestinian writer and novelist, Ghassan Kanafani? Ghassan Kanafani was not part of the military resistance per se. He did not go and hijack an airplane like Leila [Khaled] did. And we’re very proud of her for doing that.”

Kanafani was a leading member and spokesperson for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) during the terrorist organization’s early years. Kanafani announced the PFLP’s responsibility for the Lod Airport Massacre of May 1972 and was linked to the airport attackers. The attack killed 26 people and wounded 80 others.

On August 13, 2020, Barakat published an article on the Electronic Intifada website, where he wrote: “Fifty years ago, Palestinian intellectual Ghassan Kanafani put forward a clear position about the boycott of Israel. Kanafani was, at the time…one of the leading spokespeople of the Palestinian armed revolution, representing the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.”

Barakat continued in the same article: “Any meaningful defense of the Palestinian people must clearly uphold the right to resist colonialism by all means, including armed struggle – and support efforts to remove Palestinian resistance groups from lists of ‘terrorist organizations’...campaigns for the Palestinian cause must work consciously to uphold the legitimacy of and normalize the armed resistance.”

On March 26, 2020, Barakat spoke in a Samidoun webinar titled: “Fighting Anti-Palestinian Repression.” He spoke [00:22:04] about the Holy Land Five, saying: “These five did not commit, nor were accused of any act of violence. They were very effective fundraisers for Palestinian charities.”

The Holy Land Five (HLF5) were five individuals associated with the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) indicted for funneling funds to Hamas in the guise of humanitarian aid. The men were all convicted and sentenced in 2009 to federal prison terms ranging from 15 to 65 years.

In the same March 2020 webinar, Barakat also referred [01:07:49] to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) as “resistance groups.”

Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S., Canada, European Union, Israel and other countries. Founded in 1987, it has killed thousands of Israeli civilians through mass shootings and suicide bombings. Hamas has also kidnapped children, families and the elderly and held them hostage in Gaza. It has desecrated [slide 7] dead bodies and launched numerous rocket attacks against Israeli civilians.

On February 15, 2013, Barakat referred [00:16:19] to airplane hijackings carried out [00:16:10] by Palestinian terrorists as “military well-calculated operations.”

On June 3, 2022, Barakat spoke at the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) Canada event, where he said [00:24:50]: “Israel is the project of colonization and imperialism.”

On September 19, 2020, Barakat said [01:33:08] during a WWP webinar: “As long as Israel exists, Palestinians will suffer.”

On May 16, 2014, Barakat spoke at an event in Berlin, where he said [00:02:06]: “It is correct to say that the Palestinian Nakba has been continuing for the past 66 years.”

The term “Nakba” is generally translated as “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel by drawing a comparison to the Holocaust, known in Hebrew as the Shoah, meaning “catastrophe.”

On August 15, 2013, Barakat spoke at a Samidoun-sponsored event held in Vancouver, where he said [00:21:14]: “And the Israelis and the Nazis are almost identical in terms of the way they look at the victim…”

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) highlights as one possible contemporary example of anti-Semitism: “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.” The U.S. State Department adopted the IHRA’s working definition of anti-Semitism in 2016. Over 40 countries have adopted the definition as well.

At the same August 15, 2013 event, Barakat referred [00:11:49] to Israel’s security barrier as “the apartheid wall that they built along the West Bank.”

Israel’s security barrier, 97 percent of which is a low chain-link barrier, was built as a deterrent to Palestinian terror attacks. The concrete portions of the fence were built in response to Palestinian sniper attacks.

Also at the same event, Barakat said [00:17:40]: “Israel is a colonial-settler state. Yes, Israel is led by racist criminals. Yes, Israel is…a manufactured state.”

Barakat further added [00:21:59]: “Everything that Israel built…is illegal, whether in the West Bank, or Gaza, or Haifa.”

Barakat also stated [00:03:28]: “We must dismantle this racist state, dismantle its army, dismantle its economy, dismantle its racist structure if you want to see peace in Palestine. Israel and peace do not go together. Zionism and peace do not go together. Racism and peace do not go together.”

On June 9, 2013, Barakat spoke at a protest against the Jewish National Fund (JNF) in Vancouver, where he said [00:02:47]: “Israel has been engaged in war crimes and genocide. And we will bring their leaders to the Hague, to the war crimes. You are criminals and racist and your project will not win.”

The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by Omar Barghouti in 2005 to challenge “international support for Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism.” BDS is an allegedly “Palestinian-led movement,” although leading BDS activists have admitted [00:01:01] this is not true.

One of the demands of BDS includes [point 3] what is generally known as the “right of return,” a demand discredited as a way to eliminate Israel. Barghouti has said that the “right of return” is a means to “end Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.”

Barghouti has said that BDS “aims to turn Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.”

In his activism, Barghouti has also said [00:05:55] regarding Israel: “Definitely, most definitely, we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No…rational Palestinian, not a sellout Palestinian, will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”

The movement has been linked to numerous terrorist organizations and received a public endorsement from Hamas in 2017.

BDS initiatives include calling on institutions and individuals to divest from Israeli-affiliated companies, promoting academic and cultural boycotts of Israel, and organizing anti-Israel rallies, protests and campaigns.

The movement’s most notable achievement has been the infiltration of university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments and student groups, backed by their own anti-Israel members and affiliates, have proposed resolutions on some form of boycott of, or divestment from, Israel and Israeli-affiliated entities.

Boycott resolutions [p. 10], although non-binding, have been passed by student governments on numerous North American campuses.

BDS activity is often aggressive and disruptive. It has been noted that universities that pass BDS resolutions see a marked increase in anti-Semitic incidents on campus. On one campus, when the student government debated a BDS resolution, reports emerged of violent threats against those opposing it.