Canadian-Palestinian PFLP Senior Official Khaled Barakat: The Problem Is Not Israel, It Is America; Israel Is Merely Guarding American Interests In The Region; 'America Is The Plague'
Khaled Barakat, a senior official with the PFLP and Masar Badil, said that the resistance in Palestine, Lebanon, and Yemen is directed against America, not Israel, in a March 19, 2025 appearance on Mayadeen TV (Lebanon). He stated: "The problem is America," and he argued that Israel merely functions as a Western colony in the region, serving as a "guard dog" for American interests. Quoting poet Mahmoud Darwish, Barakat declared, "America is the plague, and the plague is America."
Khaled 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) and Samidoun has been designated a U.S. Specially Designated Global Terrorist organization and a sham charity. Barakat, a Canadian citizen, has been in Beirut, Lebanon, for the past several months since his designation as a terrorist by Canada in October 2024. Barakat's wife, Charlotte Kates, International Coordinator of Samidoun, has been arrested and investigated by Canadian authorities for hates speech in support of U.S. and Canada-designated terrorist organizations. She too has been in Beirut since February 9, 2025.
Khaled Barakat: "The resistance in Lebanon, Palestine, and Yemen is against America, not against Israel. If we work under the assumption that the problem is only with Israel, and that this is a Palestinian-Israeli conflict, we will build a vision that is wrong from beginning to end. We need to understand that America, imperialism, and the West are the problem.
"This is why, ever since October 7, [Western leaders] have been rushing to Tel Aviv. There has been a pilgrimage to Tel Aviv by these colonialist powers, because this colony suffered a shock. This is their colony. It is the guard dog for American interests in the region. America treats it like its own colony, which it inherited from Britain and France, just like it inherited the oil, and the defeatist, collaborating, and impotent Arab entities. Therefore, America considers Israel to be a strategic asset. It may not benefit from Israel directly, but it uses it to serve its own interests. The problem is America. In the words of our poet, Mahmoud Darwish: 'America is the plague, and the plague is America.'"
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