UW student protests linked to terror group Samidoun

A violent antisemitic takeover of a building at the University of Washington has sparked national alarm after a watchdog group linked the incident to directives from a foreign terrorist organization. More than 30 individuals were arrested on May 5 following a destructive occupation of the university’s engineering building that resulted in over $1 million in damages.

The group behind the takeover, Students United for Palestinian Equality & Return (SUPER), together with Antifa militants, barricaded themselves inside the facility, destroying lab equipment, setting fires to furniture, and shattering doors and windows during the hours-long siege. SUPER UW had already been suspended as a student group for causing over $50,000 in damage to the Husky Union Building last spring.

The incident has prompted several agencies in the Trump administration to announce a review of the incidents of antisemitic violence at UW and raised serious concerns from law enforcement and national security officials.

According to the Secure Community Network (SCN), the official safety organization for the Jewish community in North America, the actions were not spontaneous student activism but an operation inspired by terrorist messaging. SCN's analysis found that a manifesto released by SUPER ahead of the occupation praised the October 7 Hamas attack as a "heroic victory" and cited instructions from Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, a group with known ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which is designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the US, Canada, and the European Union.

“This was not a protest,” said SCN National Director and CEO Michael Masters. “This was a deliberate, destructive, and illegal operation influenced, in the words of those who undertook their criminal activity, by a designated terrorist entity. The infiltration of a foreign terror organization into American life, and on our campuses, presents a clear threat to our national security.”

In 2024, in a joint action with Canada, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Samidoun, "A sham charity that serves as an international fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization." SCN and other analysts say the group’s influence is increasingly visible on American college campuses. According to the agency, the PFLP, which was designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the US Department of State in October 1997 and October 2001, respectively, "uses Samidoun to maintain fundraising operations in both Europe and North America." In a coordinated effort, the Government of Canada has listed Samidoun as a terrorist entity under its Criminal Code.

Samidoun also organized public school students across western Washington to “Walkout for Palestine” during school hours on Oct. 7, 2024, the first anniversary of Palestinian terrorists massacring over 1,200 people in Israel and taking over 250 hostage. Some of the accounts linked to the walkouts have used marketing material provided by Hamas’ media office and called for a "student intifada," which means an armed uprising. During the 2000 Intifada in Israel, Palestinian terrorists killed over 1,000 Jewish, Muslim, and Christian Israelis. Students were also encouraged to "continue the flood," referring to the Hamas operation to infiltrate Israel, called "Al-Aqsa Flood," from the "belly of the beast."

Students were also encouraged to participate in “Kuffiyeh Week,” wearing the Palestinian scarf as a headdress, a look popularized by mass murderer and former head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, Yasser Arafat, to school, as a “symbol of resistance” and a “gesture of support to the Palestinian movement.”

Last year, Samidoun was also part of blockading the I-5 freeway in downtown Seattle and interrupted a Democratic fundraising event in Seattle featuring former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

The University of Washington incident comes just months after SCN reported uncovering a Hamas-linked protest manual that circulated on online forums and among student groups. The manual reportedly included tactics for surveillance, property destruction, and evading law enforcement.

On Wednesday, UW suspended 21 students who were arrested after participating in the violent, antisemitic occupation. The students have also been banned from all UW campuses.

The following day, members of SUPER UW and Samidoun rallied on campus for them to be reinstated. Featured speakers included Noah Weight, a member of SUPER UW, who was previously spotted selling and distributing Hamas propaganda on campus, and Bissan Barghouti, head of Samidoun’s Seattle chapter who previously organized the first pro-Hamas rally at UW days after the Oct 7 massacre and the blockade of I-5 through downtown Seattle on Jan 6, 2024.

Members of Samidoun and SUPER UW chanted “Long live the student Intifada,” and called for an October 7 in America. Barghouti said during her remarks that “October 7th serves as a beacon to all revolutionaries.”

When asked about the terrorist group on campus, a spokesperson for UW told The Ari Hoffman Show on Talk Radio 570 KVI, “We're an open, public campus that must maintain (and) uphold the freedom of speech and expression enshrined in the US Constitution.”

Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a joint statement from the government agencies regarding the investigation into the rampant antisemitism at UW, “The violence and chaos that ensued on the University of Washington’s campus is yet another horrifying display of the antisemitic harassment and lawlessness which has characterized many of our nation’s elite campuses over the last several years. This destructive behavior is unacceptable. The Task Force will not allow these so-called ‘protesters’ to disrupt campus life and deprive students, especially Jewish students who live in fear on campus, of their equal opportunity protections and civil rights.”