Photo caption: U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent testifies before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs in Washington, D.C., February 5, 2026. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on May 19, 2026 and is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
Summary
Palestine supporters criticized a May 19, 2026 announcement from the U.S. Treasury that imposed sanctions on four individuals involved with recent humanitarian flotillas seeking to reach Gaza. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said it was taking action against people it identified as associated with the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad (PCPA), an organization the U.S. government has designated. Treasury described the flotilla as supporting Hamas.
Sanctioned individuals and roles
– Saif Abu Keshek: PCPA leader, holds Spanish and Swedish citizenship, involved in organizing Global Sumud Flotilla missions.
– Hisham Abdallah Sulayman Abu Mahfuz: PCPA president based in Jordan.
– Mohammed Khatib: Based in Belgium, identified as European coordinator for Samidoun, the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network.
– Jaldia Abubakra Aueda: Samidoun coordinator in Madrid.
Treasury reaction and rationale
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the administration would continue to disrupt what it describes as Hamas’s global financial networks. The Treasury statement characterized the flotilla as “pro-Hamas,” a claim contested by some supporters of the flotillas; reporting notes there is no substantiated evidence publicly linking the flotillas to Hamas.
Responses and wider context
Samidoun criticized the sanctions, saying they freeze any U.S. assets the targets may have and prohibit Americans from doing business with them. The group called the measures part of what it described as a broader U.S. campaign against Palestinians, and pointed to recent Israeli interceptions and seizures of flotilla vessels at sea.
The announcement comes amid broader tensions over U.S. support for Israel. Since the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, both the Biden and Trump administrations have provided military aid and diplomatic backing to Israel. The article cites analyses that put cumulative U.S. financial support to Israel, adjusted for inflation since 1948, at roughly $300 billion.
Recent U.S. actions also include sanctions related to the International Criminal Court (ICC) after the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli officials accused of alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, and sanctions targeting some Palestinian-related individuals and organizations. The U.S. also moved to sanction UN expert Francesca Albanese and her family; a federal judge temporarily blocked that action earlier in May, saying Albanese’s statements amounted to protected speech, according to reporting.
Advocacy groups and critics
Advocacy groups, academics, and civil liberties advocates have criticized what they see as a pattern of U.S. measures that label Palestinian organizing as terrorism and restrict pro-Palestinian activism abroad. Isabelle Hayslip of Democracy for the Arab World Now said that when Palestinians and their supporters organize internationally, U.S. authorities increasingly use terrorism designations to limit their activities, putting diaspora communities at risk of designation for advocating rights.
Allegations against Israel
The article notes that some U.N. experts, national governments, and human-rights organizations have described Israeli actions in Gaza using terms such as genocide, apartheid, occupation, and ethnic cleansing. These are contested characterizations and remain the subject of international debate and legal consideration.
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