A London group behind global protests against what it alleges is genocide by Israel has several leaders with a history of documented connections to terrorists, a Washington Examiner investigation found.
Global Alliance for Palestine made headlines for its “day of action” on Saturday that saw activist groups in the United States and Europe demonstrating against aid to Israel. Its top committee members include Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, Dr. Anas Altikriti, Ben Jamal, and Shamiul Joarder — who have all associated themselves personally with government-designated extremists or led political organizations that did the same, the Washington Examiner found.
Israel, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. have scrutinized or sanctioned groups within the four men’s networks, but their movement continues to evolve.
Global Alliance for Palestine launched in July 2025 with the goal of building “a truly international popular front for Palestinian liberation,” according to its website. American leftist group Code Pink announced before the Saturday protests that it would participate in California, Washington, D.C., and Canada.
The alliance did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s requests for comment. The organization claimed in a Tuesday X post that more than 250,000 “gathered for Palestine” during the Oct. 10 “day of action.”
“Now we turn solidarity into sustained political pressure,” the post reads.
Supporting which Palestinians?
Global Alliance for Palestine is primarily run by its interim executive committee under Altikriti, its secretary-general, the alliance’s website shows. Before the alliance’s launch, he led a Muslim Brotherhood-linked British group and a foundation sanctioned by UAE officials.
Altikriti was formerly a spokesperson and president for the Muslim Association of Britain, a protesting group that Pew Research Center and U.K. government reports showed is affiliated with Muslim Brotherhood figures. The Muslim Brotherhood is most famously known for creating Hamas.
Altikriti also founded the Cordoba Foundation, which purports to advocate “dialogue and a rapprochement between Islam and the West.” The UAE designated the foundation as a terrorist organization in 2014 over Muslim Brotherhood ties, while a British bank closed its account that year during a period of government scrutiny toward the Brotherhood, international media reported. Altikriti’s group called the UAE sanctions “draconian” and denied supporting “extreme violence.”
Global Alliance for Palestine’s executive committee also lists Jamal, noting he formerly directed a group banned from Israel: Palestine Solidarity Campaign. The Israeli government called out Palestine Solidarity Campaign senior official Kamel Hawwash in 2019 for publicly being a leading member of the Hamas-linked Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad. The Treasury Department sanctioned the conference as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” group in January after tracing its political activities to known Hamas personnel.
Jamal’s Palestine Solidarity Campaign defended Hawwash’s work as “human rights activism” in 2017 after Israel barred Hawwash from entry.
Barghouthi, a Global Alliance for Palestine steering committee member, claims to advocate nonviolent resistance to Israel but has repeatedly kept company with Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Barghouthi ran as a Palestinian presidential candidate in 2005 with the PFLP’s endorsement, as the U.S.-designated terrorist group gave him armed protection, The Seattle Times reported.
By that time, the PFLP was already responsible for global crimes such as plane hijackings that killed more than 20 Americans, a mass shooting that killed 26 people, suicide attacks, and the 2001 murder of an Israeli leader, according to authorities. Barghouthi later attended the 2008 funeral of the PFLP’s founding leader in Jordan, an Arabic outlet reported. The coverage described how Barghouthi called him “a symbol of the Palestinian struggle and a tireless advocate of Palestinians’ rights.”
Barghouthi was also photographed in 2022 standing next to Hamas military leader Yahya Sinwar during a rally for Gaza. His past work in Palestinian politics led to multiple photographed meetings with Hamas and other leaders, sometimes in an effort to unite rivaling groups. Israel killed Sinwar in 2024 after determining him to be the mastermind of Hamas’s October 2023 attacks.
Joarder is another Global Alliance for Palestine executive committee member while also serving as a spokesperson for the London-based Friends of al Aqsa. Joarder bragged in a September Instagram video that Israelis were banning Friends of Al Aqsa because its “boycott, divestment, sanctions” campaigns are “having an impact on” them.
Israel highlighted photos from 2011 that showed Friends of Al-Aqsa’s founder in a friendly interaction with now-deceased Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. That meeting came two years after the founder praised Hamas for “standing up to Israel” in a speech, saying it is “not a terrorist organization.”
Additionally, Friends of Al-Aqsa expressed “solidarity” with the U.K.-based organization Palestine Action after the local government declared it a terrorist group in July 2025. Officials linked Palestine Action to violent attacks targeting British military equipment, including one involving a sledgehammer that fractured a police officer’s spine.
Rather than try to argue that Palestine Action is peaceful, Friends of Al-Aqsa claimed the behavior that led it to be considered a threat is “necessary.”
EL SAYED TOUTS ENDORSEMENT FROM LOBBYISTS TIED TO TERRORIST FINANCING: ‘DEEPLY GRATEFUL’
“Palestine Action’s tactics have been successful in isolating Israeli arms companies, such as Elbit Systems, and slowing down Israel’s war machine,” Friends of Al-Aqsa wrote in a statement.
“In the face of the state’s failure to act or to [fulfill] its obligations under international law, activists from Palestine Action have taken it upon themselves, often at great risk to their own freedom, to put pressure on these arms companies, as well as other businesses that support them,” the statement reads. “In doing so, they send a clear message that the British people will hold them to account even if our government does not.”