Archaeologists working near Kibbutz Shamir in northern Israel recently excavated a large field of tombs, thought to be roughly 4,000 years old. Among them is a specific type of tomb, constructed from large stones stacked in a table-like formation, called a dolmen. The discovery of these dolmens suggests far greater social complexity than most scholars thought existed in the region at the time. Ilan Ben Zion explains their significance:

To put [the discovery] into perspective, the standing stones at Stonehenge, which are slightly older than the Shamir dolmen field, are each around thirteen-feet high and almost seven-feet wide, and weigh 25 tons—half that of the capstone [of one dolmen]. All the stones of this dolmen together weigh somewhere in the vicinity of 400 tons, the researchers said. . . .

Altogether, the Shamir dolmens’ complex burial customs, hierarchy, and symbolic art defy scholars’ conception of society in the region during this period. . . .

“Even though we don’t have any regular archaeological evidence, like cities and towns and tels, it doesn’t mean there’s nothing here,” said [the study’s lead researcher, Gonen] Sharon. . . . “The dolmens suggest we’re looking at a much more complex governmental system. To build this kind of dolmen you have to gather enough people, you have to feed these people, you have to accommodate these people, you have to have the architectural and construction knowledge, and you must have a boss. Somebody needs to tell them what to do.”

Established in 2012 and maintaining branches in Europe, North America, and Iran, the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Network claims its goal is merely to show “solidarity” for imprisoned Palestinians. The organization’s leader, however, has admitted to being a representative of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a notorious terrorist group whose most recent accomplishments include murdering a seventeen-year-old girl. As Arsen Ostrovsky and Patricia Teitelbaum point out, Samidoun is just one example of how the European Union allows Iran-backed terrorists to operate in its midst:

The PFLP is a proxy of the Iranian regime, which provides the terror group with money, training, and weapons. Samidoun . . . has a branch in Tehran. It has even held events there, under the pretext of “cultural activity,” to elicit support for operations in Europe. Its leader, Khaled Barakat, is a regular on Iran’s state [channel] PressTV, calling for violence and lauding Iran’s involvement in the region. It is utterly incomprehensible, therefore, that the EU has not yet designated Samidoun a terror group.

According to the Council of the European Union, groups and/or individuals can be added to the EU terror list on the basis of “proposals submitted by member states based on a decision by a competent authority of a member state or a third country.” In this regard, there is already a standing designation by Israel of Samidoun as a terror group and a decision of a German court finding Barakat to be a senior PFLP operative.

Given the irrefutable axis-of-terror between Samidoun, PFLP, and the Iranian regime, the EU has a duty to put Samidoun and senior Samidoun leaders on the EU terror list. It should do this not as some favor to Israel, but because otherwise it continues to turn a blind eye to a group that presents a clear and present security threat to the European Union and EU citizens.