The U.S. State Department and Treasury have designated three Europe-based groups as terrorist organizations and imposed economic sanctions on them. The action is part of a campaign to criminalize opposition to the Israeli genocide in Gaza and the wider US-Israeli aggression throughout the Middle East.
The action taken Wednesday affects Palestine Action, the British-based group that engages in direct action protests against the Israeli genocide in Gaza; Autistici/Inventati, an Italian group that has developed secure networking and IT infrastructure tools, allegedly for “Antifa” groups in the United States; and Masar Badil, which raises funds to support Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
All three groups are designated under the terms of Executive Order 13224, signed by President George W. Bush after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, which has continued in force under administrations of both capitalist parties: Republicans Bush and Trump, Democrats Obama and Biden.
According to the State Department:
As a result of today’s actions, all property and interests of those designated that are subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, and all U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in any transactions with them. … Engaging in certain transactions involving the designated entities may also risk the imposition of secondary sanctions on participating foreign financial institutions. Violations of U.S. sanctions may result in the imposition of civil or criminal penalties on U.S. and foreign persons.
Both Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent cited the 2026 U.S. Counterterrorism Strategy document that focuses on supposed “violent far-left terrorist groups” and ignores the fascist and far-right militia groups, which act as allies of the Trump administration and its preparation for dictatorship.
The Treasury statement said of Palestine Action:
The group’s actions include multiple high-profile instances of breaking into defense infrastructure and British military installations, and causing millions of dollars’ worth of damage to military equipment. Palestine Action has promoted its violent, criminal, and terrorist acts on social media, encouraging the use of similar tactics internationally, including within the United States and along the U.S.-Mexican border.
The statement cites the proscription of Palestine Action in Britain in July 2025, which has led to thousands of arrests of peaceful protesters holding up signs that say, “I support Palestine Action.” It declares bluntly: “Today’s action complements the UK’s proscription.”
The Masar Badil organization is branded “a front for the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network (Samidoun),” which has been jointly sanctioned by Canada and the US since October 2024. The claim is that both groups are controlled by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a nationalist group that has been designated by the US government as a Foreign Terrorist Organization since 1997.
Any US or foreign person who contributes financially to the three organizations can be subject to civil and criminal penalties. The Treasury notice reads: “The prohibitions include the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any designated or blocked person, or the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services from any such person. Non-U.S. persons are also prohibited from causing or conspiring to cause U.S. persons to wittingly or unwittingly violate U.S. sanctions, as well as engaging in conduct that evades U.S. sanctions.”
The Treasury is offering bounties to anyone providing information that leads to successful prosecutions that result in monetary penalties of $1 million or more.
The State Department issued a report accompanying the new sanctions claiming that the Italian group Autistici/Inventati provided IT tools and services to a group it called Rose City Antifa, based in Portland, Oregon. This is part of a campaign spearheaded by Secretary of State Rubio that portrays radical political opposition to the Trump administration as the product of foreign conspiracies rather than popular revulsion on the part of American workers and youth.
Huda Ammori, a co-founder of Palestine Action, denounced the sanctions in a message on the X social media platform. “As a Palestinian and Iraqi, the fact the country which destroyed both my homelands is calling me a terrorist, is beyond hypocritical,” she wrote. “Trump is the antithesis to everything Palestine Action stands for.”
Khaled Barakat, an executive committee member of Masar Badil, said in a statement, “The Trump administration is the primary perpetrator of terror in the world, along with its closest friend and co-conspirator, Benjamin Netanyahu and the Zionist regime.” He added that the economic sanctions were “part and parcel of the ongoing genocidal war against the Palestinian people.”