Outrageous! Spanish lawmaker Manu Pineda, who invited terrorist Khaled Barakat to address the European parliament, has expressed support for the PFLP and knew about Barakat’s terror connections.
Terrorist Khaled Barakat of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) delivered an address at the European Parliament earlier this month at the invitation of Spanish lawmaker Manu Pineda, a fervent pro-BDS activist.
The event gave legitimacy to an individual who belongs to a terrorist organization that is banned throughout much of the world, including the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan and, ironically, the European Union.
The terror attacks for which the PFLP has proudly claimed responsibility include a massacre in a Jerusalem synagogue in 2014, in which four rabbis and a policeman were brutally murdered, and a number of suicide bombings. Among them was an attack in the central Israeli city of Petah Tikva in 2003, where four Israelis were murdered, and another at the popular Carmel market in Tel Aviv in 2004, claiming the lives of three innocent Israelis.
The PFLP has also been involved in hijackings in which passengers and crew members were killed.
Adding insult to injury, Barakat works with Samidoun, an anti-Israel organization that promotes BDS.
Barakat was joined at the European Parliament by Mohammed Khatib, the European coordinator for Samidoun. Both Barakat and Khatib were prominently featured in a report published by the Ministry of Strategic Affairs in February, called “Terrorists in Suits,” revealing the close ties shared between the anti-Israel BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) movement and the Hamas and PFLP terrorist groups.
Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Gilad Erdan accused the European Parliament of becoming “a platform for terrorists.”
In a letter sent to the President of the European Parliament David Maria Sassoli, Erdan urged Sassoli to consider condemning “the exploitation of the parliament’s platform by terror-linked operatives,” noting that Spanish MEP Manu Pineda, who invited Barakat, has expressed support in the past for the PFLP and knew about Barakat’s connections to the terrorist group.
This was not the first time that an EU-designated terrorist group member has addressed the European Parliament. In 2017, PFLP operative and former airplane hijacker Leila Khaled spoke at the plenum.
Condemn the European Parliament for giving a podium to terrorists!
Contact Kyriakos Klosidis, press officer (as listed online) to President of the European Parliament David Maria Sassoli:
Email: kyriakos.klosidis@europarl.europa.eu
In an email to UWI, Klosidis said that any further queries should be sent to “President Sassoli’s actual press officer, Mr. Roberto Cuillo (roberto.cuillo@europarl.europa.eu).”
He also suggested contacting europarl-spox@europarl.europa.eu
