The death of Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has sparked a wave of mourning and anti-Israeli and anti-American sentiment in Beirut.
Among the mourners was Charlotte Kates, a prominent figure in the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, an organization that has been sanctioned by the United States for its financial support to terrorists. Kates, who had previously lectured Columbia University students on "Palestinian resistance" tactics, was present at the funeral held at Lebanon's largest sports arena, Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium.
According to The Washington Free Beacon, the funeral was attended by tens of thousands of mourners, all expressing their support for Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed terrorist group. Hezbollah had launched attacks on Israel in October 2023, aligning with its ally, Hamas, after the latter's massacre of Israeli civilians. In response, Israel invaded Lebanon, resulting in Nasrallah's death on September 27, 2024.
Kates expressed her sentiments on social media, stating, "It is such an honor to be here in Beirut today, one among a sea of over a million people in collective tribute, mourning, love and commitment to the road of resistance and liberation exemplified by Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Sayyed Hisham Safieddine." She further praised the masses for affirming the legacy of Nasrallah, whom she referred to as the "great anti-imperialist leader of our day."
The United States had previously sanctioned Samidoun and Kates's husband, Khaled Barakat, for their support to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a terrorist organization involved in Hamas's attack. Kates and Barakat, a PFLP member, had been invited by Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) to speak on "the fight for liberation." Following their lecture, Columbia student radicals launched an anti-Israel encampment and stormed a campus building.
Kates, during her speech, lauded Iran for its support to the Palestinian people and called for the elimination of America's list of designated terror organizations. She stated, "It is important to popularize campaigns to scrap the U.S. terror list entirely, or at the very least to get Palestinian, Lebanese, Yemeni, Filipino, and other revolutionary organizations off the terror list."
Kates's activities extend beyond the United States. She was awarded the "Eighth Annual Islamic Human Rights and Human Dignity Award" in Tehran, an honor also bestowed upon Hamas head Ismail Haniyeh and Ziyad al-Nakhalah, the secretary general of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a U.S.-designated terror group.
Barakat, on the other hand, openly endorsed terrorism against Jews during his lecture for CUAD and praised airplane hijackings as a significant tactic of the Palestinian resistance. His sentiments were echoed by Joseph Slaughter, a member of Columbias top disciplinary body, who lauded a series of terrorist plane hijackings as "spectacular" and "remarkable."
The CUAD has continued to incite terror on campus, with anti-Israel radicals causing significant damage to a campus buildings sewage system and distributing anti-Semitic flyers to Jewish students. The presence of such radical elements within educational institutions raises serious concerns about the safety of students and the propagation of extremist ideologies.
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