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Freedom Convoy USA, a pro-Palestine campaign traveling across the United States ahead of an October 26 arrival in Washington, D.C., is drawing support from a network that includes CODEPINK, Jewish Voice for Peace and CAIR-Chicago, while its media contact heads an organization that helped build communications for the Global Sumud Flotilla, a Jewish Onliner investigation found.
The campaign began in Los Angeles and is traveling thousands of miles across the country before concluding near the U.S. Capitol.The Palestinian Authority’s WAFA news agency reported October 22 that 42 people were participating.
Hazami Barmada, identified by EFE as an organizer, previously helped lead prolonged demonstrations in Washington alongside Atefeh Rokhvand, founder of Teachers Against Genocide. An official CODEPINK announcement says CODEPINK Los Angeles and Jewish Voice for Peace Los Angeles supported the convoy’s launch. At an October 23 Chicago stop, promotional material for a “Community Solidarity Meet and Greet” with Freedom Convoy USA members displayed the CAIR-Chicago logo.
The convoy’s press contact, Gur Tsabar, heads Movement Media Hub, which earlier this year helped build the communications infrastructure for the Global Sumud Flotilla. That work occurred after the U.S. Treasury Department had sanctioned the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad, or PCPA, saying it acted on behalf of Hamas and was a main organizer of recent Gaza flotillas.
Veteran D.C. Activists Behind the Convoy
Barmada has been involved in Washington-area pro-Palestine demonstrations for years. EFE footage distributed through Reuters Connect identified her as an organizer when Freedom Convoy USA departed Los Angeles on October 17.
Before the convoy, Barmada worked closely with Rokhvand during a prolonged demonstration outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington. An August 2026 D.C. Court of Appeals decision describes both women as participants in the multi-month protest. An April 2024 press statement hosted on CAIR’s website identified Barmada as the organizer and media contact for the continuous demonstration.
Barmada and Rokhvand were later credited with the idea for a November 2025 street-theater installation at Washington’s Union Station depicting Israeli and American political figures at a meal involving blood and human body parts. Jewish organizations, including the American Jewish Committee, condemned the imagery as invoking the historic antisemitic blood libel.
The Anti-Defamation League subsequently identified Barmada and Rokhvand as leaders of a March 2026 White House demonstration in which participants wearing masks depicting President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jeffrey Epstein pantomimed consuming babies and drinking blood. Material displayed at the event also connected Israel and Gaza with Epstein, Hollywood and a “Satanic elite.”
CAIR-Chicago Appears in the Convoy’s Current Event Network
CAIR’s connection to the network is not limited to previous collaboration with individual organizers. Promotional material for Freedom Convoy USA’s October 23 “Community Solidarity Meet and Greet” in Chicago displayed the CAIR-Chicago logo. The gathering invited supporters to meet members of Freedom Convoy USA and promoted community programming surrounding the convoy’s stop in the city.
Convoy Media Contact Worked on Hamas-Linked Gaza Flotilla Campaign
The convoy’s press contact, Gur Tsabar, heads Movement Media Hub, which earlier this year helped build the communications operation for the Global Sumud Flotilla. In an April 12 article published under his own name, Tsabar said Movement Media Hub was developing the flotilla’s communications infrastructure, including journalists aboard vessels, multilingual spokespeople, coordinated briefings and rapid responses to media coverage.
That work came nearly three months after the Treasury Department sanctioned the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad, or PCPA, under U.S. counterterrorism authorities. Treasury described PCPA as a “main organizer of recent flotillas” that was “clandestinely acting on behalf of Hamas” and operating according to Hamas directives. It said Hamas provided $100,000 toward PCPA’s inaugural conference and placed Hamas-linked figures in leadership positions.
On April 30, the State Department described the Global Sumud Flotilla as a “pro-Hamas initiative” organized by the sanctioned PCPA. Treasury subsequently sanctioned several figures associated with the network, including Saif Hashim Kamel Abukishek, whom it identified as a PCPA General Secretariat member and member of the flotilla’s Steering Committee.
Movement Media Hub’s website currently features Global Sumud Flotilla media appearances involving Abukishek and says the organization has secured more than 450 broadcast segments and articles for the pro-Palestine movement. Its flotilla-related work also predates the 2026 campaign: an August 2025 episode of Blueprints of Disruption listed an interview recorded aboard the Handala, a Freedom Flotilla Coalition vessel, among episodes produced “with the help of” Movement Media Hub.
Freedom Convoy USA’s public materials do not identify the entity or donors financing the cross-country campaign. Its website lists a ProtonMail address for partnerships and Gur Tsabar’s Movement Media Hub contact for press inquiries, but names no nonprofit entity, corporation, fiscal sponsor, treasurer, budget or funding source.
That leaves unclear how transportation, fuel, lodging and other costs for the multi-state operation are being covered.
Organizer Hazami Barmada separately founded the Humanity Lab Foundation. A Greater Washington Community Foundation tax filing shows the 501(c)(3), EIN 27-2223033, received a $350,000 general-support grant. Movement Media Hub also raises money independently, including through a Chuffed campaign that has raised roughly $8,900 toward a $50,000 goal and through donations solicited on its website.
Neither organization publicly identifies those funds as financing Freedom Convoy USA. As the convoy concludes its Washington campaign on October 26, its public materials detail its route, participants and political objectives, but not who is underwriting the operation.