The organisation Global Alliance for Palestine (GAFP), which has coordinated extensive international protests against Israel, has several key leaders with documented links to groups and individuals associated with terrorist organisations. This is revealed in an investigation published by Washington Examiner on 14 October.
GAFP was launched in London in July 2025 and presents itself as a broad coalition of civil society organisations, politicians and activists fighting for Palestinian rights. The organisation has been behind coordinated ‘global days of action’, including large demonstrations in October where groups in the US, Europe and elsewhere mobilised against Western support for Israel. In material from the alliance, activists were urged to ‘shut down city centres’, surround government buildings and block companies they consider to be complicit.
Key figures with problematic connections
- Anas Altikriti, Secretary-General and Chair of the Executive Committee, was previously President and spokesperson for the ‘Muslim Association of Britain’, an organisation that British authorities and independent reports have linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. Altikriti also founded the ‘Cordoba Foundation’, which the United Arab Emirates included on its list of terrorist organisations in 2014 due to its close ties to the Brotherhood. He has previously held meetings with Hamas leaders, including Ismail Haniyeh.
- Mustafa Barghouthi, a member of the steering committee. The Palestinian politician and doctor has repeatedly appeared alongside representatives of both Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a group designated as a terrorist organisation by the US, the EU, Israel and several others. Barghouthi received support from the PFLP during the 2005 Palestinian presidential election following the death of Yasser Arafat (he came second after Mahmoud Abbas). He was photographed alongside Hamas’s military leader Yahya Sinwar in 2022.
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- Ben Jamal, former director of the ‘Palestine Solidarity Campaign’ (PSC) in the UK. The PSC has defended individuals and activities linked to groups that the Israeli and US authorities associate with Hamas.
- Shamiul Joarder, head of public affairs at ‘Friends of Al-Aqsa’, an organisation that has faced criticism for its positions.
The steering committee also includes well-known figures such as former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams and Greece’s former finance minister, the radical left-winger Yanis Varoufakis. These figures do not have the same direct links to terrorism, but clearly mingle without any friction with the terrorism-linked section of the alliance’s leadership.
Far more closely entangled with terrorists than they would have us believe
GAFP claims to be a legitimate, non-violent solidarity movement operating within the framework of international law. The organisation rejects all accusations of extremism.
This is dismissed by level-headed observers on the grounds that the personal and organisational ties demonstrate that the pro-Palestinian GAFP is far more closely intertwined with terrorism-related Islamic networks than they would have us believe.
– Palestine is a tactical political invention in the struggle against Israel
The investigations cast doubt on whether Western authorities and media are sufficiently scrutinising the backgrounds of those who coordinate large demonstrations in European and American cities. In recent years, several countries have stepped up their surveillance of networks that combine political activism with sympathies for groups such as Hamas and the PFLP.
Not quite spontaneous actions
- In the run-up to 7 October, which marked the third anniversary of the Hamas attacks, GAFP issued press releases and media kits calling on pro-Palestinian movements, student groups, trade unions and civil society organisations around the world to rally under slogans such as ‘Stop the genocide, free Palestine’.
- GAFP drew up slogans, messages for the media and protest tactics, including calls to block off town squares, surround government buildings and block key hubs in businesses, according to an analysis of campaign documents carried out by the Jerusalem Post.
- “Long before the first demonstrators gathered, the messages for the ‘communication’ surrounding the demonstration and the transnational action plan were ready, the banners designed, the tactics disseminated and the media strategy established.”
- In a programme document from the GAFP, the organisers set out guidelines for the ‘communication structure’ and ‘key messages’ regarding Israel. The document urges the groups to use language that is ‘disciplined, credible, urgent and impossible to ignore’.
- The Washington Post has identified 181 organisations within the coalition, spread across the globe, including the Freedom Flotilla, as reported by Ninabecks con Israele e Ucraina nel cuore:
Bloody hell!!!!!!
Donatella CoscoDocuments reveal that anti-Israeli protests worldwide were coordinated in advance by an international alliance.
Behind the planning and organisation of the protest is the Global Alliance for Palestine (GAFP), with… pic.twitter.com/TbHNCic7sA— Ninabecks, with Israel and Ukraine in her heart (@ninabecks1) 12 October 2026
