If radical anti-Israel protests in New York City look like coordinated efforts, that’s because they are. While some of the organizers are still hiding in the shadows, one of them has made herself easy to identify. And she may have allies occupying several elected positions come November.
Charlotte Kates is a co-founder of Samidoun, an organization that was labeled a sham charity in October 2024 by the U.S. Treasury Department for raising funds for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. The PFLP is a veteran terror group responsible for the murder of dozens of Americans, including those killed during the Hamas-led terrorist attacks on Oct. 7, 2023.
On Oct. 7, the PFLP issued a statement calling “on the sons of our heroic people throughout Palestine to actively participate in the ‘Al-Aqsa Flood’ battle, each from his own position.” At one point, the PFLP identified Kates as an official representative. However, that hasn’t prevented her from using other forms of organizational cover for her activism.
For the past 16 years, Kates has registered websites for anti-Israel organizations like Samidoun; the U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI); Labor for Palestine; and Masar Badil.
Last month, Pal-Awda, an organization dedicated to Palestinians’ so-called “right of return,” called for an emergency protest on May 28 to oppose what it called “the sale of stolen Palestinian land.” It instructed demonstrators to show up at a large hotel in Midtown Manhattan to protest what it called an “illegal land expo and settler recruitment fair.”
Kates served on the board of Pal-Awda’s national parent body until the fall of 2024.
In March, the New York City Council passed a “buffer zone” bill that gives law enforcement the power to set up buffer zones around houses of worship, preventing protesters from infringing on worshippers’ constitutional right to freedom of religion. That did not stop Pal-Awda from holding demonstrations near two New York City synagogues in May, again falsely claiming that the events were selling “stolen Palestinian land.” During the events, demonstrators became violent, pushing barriers and failing to follow orders from law enforcement.
This activity is not new. In March 2024, she was a speaker at a Palestinian Resistance 101 event at Columbia University, where her husband, Khaled Barakat, praised airplane hijackings as “one of the most important tactics that the Palestinian resistance have engaged in.”
That same year, PFLP member Barakat was sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury for his terrorist activity. Kates was apparently active in the organization, too. In 2016, both Barakat and Kates were described by the PFLP as delegates on its own website.
According to the National Lawyers Guild website, which Kates registered for several years, she is also the co-founder of Masar Badil. That group was founded in 2021 with a stated goal of “liberating” Palestine “from the river to the sea”—a call for the elimination of the State of Israel. The U.S. government has sanctioned two members of Masar Badil’s executive committee.
Kates’s involvement in both Samidoun and Masar Badil allows Kates to maintain a network that engages in anti-Israel activities on campuses in multiple states, including New York.
But her influence can be seen far beyond the Empire State. Masar Badil held a conference in São Paulo, Brazil, in March 2026, where SUPER UW was advertised as one of Masar Badil’s organizations. SUPER is a student group that operates at the University of Washington whose members describe themselves as part of the “axis of resistance.”
Washington has yet to target Kates individually for her close engagement with terrorist groups. If she continues to work for Samidoun despite the sanctions the Treasury Department imposed, she may be violating anti-terrorism laws. Likewise, Treasury should investigate whether she is using Masar Badil as a facade behind which to continue Samidoun’s work. That is also potentially illegal.
New York has policy options to consider. Nobody is expecting New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration to take action. For the foreseeable future, Gracie Mansion can be expected to stay silent on this network, not to mention the wider anti-Israel and anti-American ecosystem.
Albany may have a role to play, and the City Council has shown it will respond to antisemitic intimidation campaigns. Its oversight is necessary to ensure the mayor and the police enforce the “buffer zone” bill. A failure to contain pro-terror protests will only lead to more chaos on the streets of New York.
