Featured speakers during the “People’s Conference for Palestine” in Detroit on May 24–26, 2024 included (left to right) U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib; Sana’ Daqqa, wife of Walid Daqqa; and Muhammed Nabulsi, conference MC and Palestinian Youth Movement organizer. (Instagram; YouTube)
As the “People’s Conference for Palestine” got underway in Detroit, MI on May 24, the packed audience cheered as Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) organizer and conference MC Mohammed Nabulsi opened by offering “salutations to our people in Palestine and to our noble, steadfast Resistance.” Nabulsi garnered further enthusiastic applause when he urged “eternal glory to our martyrs” and called to “liberate every inch of Palestine, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.”
The conference, which took place from May 24–26, 2024 at the Huntington Place convention center and drew thousands of attendees both in person and online, was organized by many of the leading groups in the U.S. anti-Zionist movement, offering insight into the strategies and goals of the most influential forces driving a movement that has gained increasingly widespread and mainstream support as the Israel-Hamas war has dragged on.
In addition to his praise for the so-called Palestinian “Resistance” — a euphemistic reference to the various terrorist groups responsible for violent attacks against Israel — Nabulsi explained that conference organizers sought to “craft a path forward that truly brings the Zionist state and its military and its imperialist backers to their knees.”
Nabulsi’s opening remarks set the tone for the rest of the weekend’s keynote and plenary sessions, which were rife with overt support for U.S.-designated terror groups and the Hamas-led October 7 attack, extreme anti-Zionist rhetoric including open calls for the destruction of the State of Israel, and classic antisemitic tropes. These types of extreme sentiments were the defining characteristic of the conference and echoed repeatedly throughout the weekend. The event not only gave a massive platform to those who endorse violence against Israel, but fully embraced and amplified those voices.
The conference also highlighted how such rhetoric — which at one time may have been perceived as fringe or espoused only by the more extreme segments of the anti-Zionist movement — has come to represent the movement broadly and has been accepted by many mainstream critics of Israel and Zionism.
The use of increasingly extreme language, which the ADL Center on Extremism had observed among many anti-Zionist organizations before October 7, has notably progressed since the start of the war.
High-profile elected officials who spoke at the three-day event included U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib; British Member of Parliament and former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn; Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) member Mustafa Barghouti; and Dearborn, MI mayor Abdullah Hammoud. They appeared as part of a speaker lineup that also included such figures as Sana’ Daqqa — wife of the late convicted terrorist Walid Daqqa of the U.S.-designated terror group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) — and PFLP-affiliated former prisoner Wisam Rafeedie.
Rep. Tlaib delivered remarks on the main stage on Saturday afternoon inside a room referred to by organizers as the “Walid Daqqa Ballroom” — a name indicated both on the published conference schedule and on a large sign bearing his name and photograph outside the room. Tlaib, a Detroit native whose congressional district includes part of the city, told the audience: “You will always, every single one of you fighting for the liberation of Falasteen, will always be welcome in my city.”
Terrorist and terrorist group connections
Over the course of the weekend, a central feature of the conference was the direct engagement with and veneration of individuals affiliated with U.S.-designated terrorist organizations.
This alignment with terrorism was made clear from the outset, with conference organizers choosing to name the convention center rooms hosting the event in honor of “the martyrs of our struggle,” as one of the conference MCs highlighted in the opening session. In addition to the above-mentioned “Walid Daqqa Ballroom” memorializing the late PFLP convicted terrorist, there was a “Khader Adnan Room,” named after the former Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) spokesperson.
On Saturday afternoon, the conference honored Walid Daqqa, his wife Sana’, and their daughter Milad. A representative from the U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), on behalf of the conference’s Steering Committee, presented Sana’ Daqqa with a piece of artwork depicting her husband, telling her: “We hope that you know how much we admire and love your family and honor the legacy of Walid…”
Sana’ Daqqa stands outside of the room that “People’s Conference for Palestine” organizers renamed in honor of her late husband, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) convicted terrorist Walid Daqqa, on May 24, 2024. (Instagram)
Sana’ Daqqa delivered remarks to the crowd, via a translator, denouncing “the Zionists and their country” and claiming that “[Zionists] are the ones who are on the dark side of humanity. They are the human monsters of humanity.” She concluded by stating: “To you, dear attendees, I say, continue: continue to raise your voice, to fill the streets against and demonstrate against this racist, barbaric Zionist entity. And remember that our resistance is what roots us in our struggle. That we will not capitulate. That it is either victory or death.”
Sana’ Daqqa spoke again on Sunday, delivering a keynote address titled “The Palestinian Prisoners' Movement & the Struggle for Liberation” in which she praised the work of her husband Walid and others who, despite being convicted for terrorism and other charges, continued to participate in the “national liberation struggle and resistance” against Israel. She commented, “we have to be proud to be part of a people that brings out a prisoner movement like this and brings out heroes and resistance fighters like the ones we have in our prisoners’ movement.”
On Sunday, former PFLP-affiliated prisoner Wisam Rafeedie appeared virtually from the West Bank to speak on the panel “How Do Movements Achieve Transformation”—receiving a standing ovation from those inside the convention center when he was introduced.
Wisam Rafeedie, who was imprisoned for running a publishing house for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), speaks to “People’s Conference for Palestine” attendees virtually from the West Bank on May 26, 2024. (YouTube)
Speaking via a translator, Rafeedie defended Hamas’ actions on October 7 and downplayed some of the documented atrocities committed that day, commenting that “Zionists lie like they breathe” and disputing the supposed “cheap lies of their propaganda against our people and their resistance. The propaganda that speaks of sexual assaults, of killing children and beheadings.” He denounced “the Zionist American and Western media that adopted and circulated” these alleged “lies.”
He further stated: “For 76 years, the Zionists succeeded in portraying themselves as the victim and our people as the victimizers. They exploited the crime of the Nazi massacres to exploit it in their role as our victimizers…They raised antisemitism even in the face of anti-Zionist Jews. They relied on the religious myth of a racist nature, of ‘God’s chosen people.’ And the same colonial goal of the ‘promised land’ that the European white man forwarded in his projects of settler colonialism. All to build up the architecture of their propaganda.”
Garnering cheers of support from the audience, Rafeedie also stated: “There is no longer a place for the two-state solution for any Palestinian. The only solution is one democratic Palestinian state on all Palestinian land, which will end the Zionist project in Palestine.”
Additional support for terrorism and violence against Israel
Throughout the rest of the weekend, conference organizers and panelists repeatedly expressed their support for violence against Israel and glorified U.S.-designated terror groups and their leaders, often to rousing applause from conference attendees.
Rabab Abdulhadi (right) speaks during the “Zionism and US Imperialism” plenary session of the “People’s Conference for Palestine” on May 25, 2024. (X)
During the Saturday evening plenary titled “Zionism and US Imperialism,” Rabab Abdulhadi, a professor at San Francisco State University (SFSU) and the founding director of the university’s Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies Program (AMED), praised by name PFLP terrorist Mahmoud Al-Aswad. She urged attendees to support the so-called “Palestinian Resistance” — including explicitly naming groups like Hamas and PIJ — without reservations or qualifications.
She stated: “In Palestine, there are many groups — PFLP mostly, but there's also other groups, DFLP and so on — are participating in the Resistance along with Islamic Jihad and Hamas. But it is really mostly the Islamist groups that are leading…Is it so hard today to support and not to say, ‘but’? [Not to say,] ‘We support, but.’”
Abdulhadi praised these terrorist groups for “coming together” and defended their actions as “very measured.” She concluded by proclaiming, “I think we need to be fully supportive with the Resistance and stand by it so we can achieve the victory we will.”
Yara Shoufani, a PYM organizer who delivered the opening keynote and also spoke on a panel later in the weekend, alluded to Hamas’s widespread network of tunnels in Gaza — the same tunnels which have been used to hold many of the hostages taken during the October 7 terrorist attack — when she praised the ability of “the Resistance in the Gaza Strip…to circumvent the military side or the military leg of imperialism through building tunnels underneath the land.” She also praised the U.S.-designated terror group Ansar Allah (the Houthis) for their actions targeting Israel in the Red Sea.
Shoufani claimed that “the Palestinian Resistance has demonstrated to our people, to our enemy, and to the entire world, the meaning of dignity, of honor, of resilience, and of glory.” She added: “We must be relentless in confronting Zionism and committing ourselves fully to the path of Palestinian revolution…We fight until victory.”
Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) organizer Yara Shoufani delivers the keynote address during the opening session of the “People’s Conference for Palestine” on May 24, 2024. (YouTube)
A plenary session titled “Palestinian Resistance and the Path to Liberation” featured extensive commentary glorifying terrorism against Israel. Sarah Abdelshamy, a PYM organizer and the session’s moderator, said “the Palestinian Resistance has proven itself to be resourceful, innovative, and most importantly, capable of confronting the enemy on all levels — militarily, politically, ideologically, and existentially.”
Panelist Abdaljawad Omar, a lecturer in the Philosophy and Cultural Studies Department at Birzeit University in the West Bank, said:
“Without the events of October 7th, regardless of our feelings about those events, the political possibilities we now witness would not exist. The rise of the student movement in the United States and North America and Europe, the demands for divestment and boycott of academic institution [sic], the recognition of the Palestinian state, the moves by the ICC and ICJ, and the significant shifts in global opinion. None of these would have come to pass…No single moment has opened so many doors of political possibility.”
He emphasized that “resistance, including armed resistance, inspires — like the inspiration that we take from a bomb that is being placed at the gallows of a high-tech tank.”
Panelist Raja Abdelhaq, co-founder of Palestinian news agency Quds News Network, which has been accused of being affiliated with Hamas and PIJ, spoke about the historical development of the “Axis of Resistance” in Palestine and in nearby countries like Iran, Lebanon, and Yemen, praising the “amazing” collaboration between terror groups like Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and Hezbollah. Abdelhaq criticized so-called “Western propaganda” which he said portray this “Axis of Resistance” in a negative light and instead glorified those groups involved in “regional resistance movements.”
A PYM speaker identified only by the name Ashraf also praised terror groups and individuals throughout his remarks during the session, including Udai al-Tamimi, a Palestinian terrorist who killed an Israeli soldier at a security checkpoint in 2022. He too lauded Hamas’s intricate tunnel systems in Gaza and the terror group’s ability to “develop weaponry” and engage in effective “guerilla warfare” to target Israel.
“Gaza has shown us throughout this current war and before the iron strength of the Palestinian Resistance and popular cradle,” he stated, referencing the so-called “Al-Aqsa Flood” — Hamas’s name for their October 7 attack.
Panelist Tara Alami, an organizer with the Palestinian Feminist Collective, highlighted the actions of terrorist Ibrahim al-Nabulsi, a senior commander in the U.S.-designated terror group Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades who was involved in several shootings in the West Bank and later died in a firefight with the Israeli military in 2022.
During a plenary session called “Every Time the Media Lies,” Yumna Patel, the Palestine News Director for the U.S.-based anti-Zionist publication Mondoweiss, spoke about her publication’s goal to “normalize resistance,” including explicitly “armed resistance” and “resistance fighters.” Her fellow panelist Layla, a PYM organizer and member of Writers Against the War On Gaza (WAWOG) similarly spoke about her organization’s efforts “to normalize armed struggle” in their programming.
During a session on Friday, Palestinian politician Mustafa Barghouti, secretary general and co-founder of the Palestinian National Initiative and a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), commented that the “Al Aqsa Flood, which came on the seventh of October, actually represented a continuation of a true, new kind of uprising that started in 2015.”
“The national strategy we’ve been talking about all the last years,” he declared, “is the right strategy, is the successful strategy. The strategy that is built on the four pillars…[Including] the Resistance in all its forms. Resistance is our right, resistance is our way, and resistance is our guarantee to succeed in our future.”
“People’s Conference for Palestine” participants on day two of the conference in Detroit, MI on May 25, 2024. (Instagram)
Antisemitic tropes and calls for confrontation with “Zionism” and “Zionists” globally
At times, rhetoric was infused with language reminiscent of classic antisemitic conspiracy theories, in particular those accusing Jews of having corrupted political institutions. Speakers not only expressed support for violence committed by terrorist groups against Israel, but even potential direct actions targeting “Zionists” in the U.S. and elsewhere.
Taher Herzallah of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) shared extreme anti-Zionist rhetoric that echoed age-old antisemitic themes during a plenary session on Friday evening. He stated:
“The long tentacles of Zionism have always reached deep into the American heartland…Zionism has penetrated the depths of American society, economics, and politics for decades.”
Herzallah further commented that “now the gloves are off and quite frankly, anything is possible. I caution you of the days to come, because they will not be easy. There are people among us today who might not be with us next year at this conference. And this is a reality. Because the liberation struggle requires sacrifice. And I know everyone here is prepared to make that sacrifice.”
Speakers gather onstage for the final session of the “Peoples Conference for Palestine” on May 26, 2024. (X)
Iman Abid, director of organizing and advocacy at the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) and the regional director of the Genesee Valley Chapter of the NYCLU, moderated the Sunday plenary titled “Uncommitted Votes: Fracturing of the Two Party System,” where she alleged that “the pro-Israel lobbying firm has entrenched itself into every facet of U.S. politics.”
Monadel Herzallah, founder and President of the Arab American Union Members Council and an organizer with USPCN and Labor For Palestine, alleged during a plenary on Saturday that “the Zionist movement came with a purpose. They are — they want to be — in control of all resources, you know. Congress, senators and everything like that.” He concluded that “as we are witnessing, the Zionism [sic] is digging their own grave. We are going to help bury that thing.”
Sara Kershnar, co-founder of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN), spoke at length about her organization’s goal to “dismantle Zionism” and stated in no uncertain terms her support for “armed resistance” during the “Zionism and US Imperialism” plenary. “It is crucial to the future of humanity and the very survival of the planet that we dismantle Zionism,” Kershnar stated.
Kershnar further opined that “we have to keep decentering the conversation of Jewish safety” and claimed that “Zionism is really the most antisemitic movement.” She further alleged that “for the Zionists, for the U.S. and its allies, it has never had anything to do with Jewish safety, has never had anything to do with valuing Jewish life” and expressed her hope that “Israel is going to fall.”
Speaking along Wisam Rafeedie on the “How do Movements Achieve Transformation?” plenary, Vijay Prashad, Executive Director of the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research, proclaimed that “the Israeli Zionist project is finished. It’s over. It has lost ideologically. Now, it will lose institutionally.”
Who were the groups officially promoting these messages?
The “People’s Conference for Palestine” was troubling not only for the extreme rhetoric that was embraced, but also the clear message it sent indicating that these extreme positions are accepted by nearly all of the major players in the anti-Zionist movement. Equally, if not even more concerning, over the past eight months, these same groups have largely been accepted by many in the mainstream for their leading role in organizing popular anti-Israel protests and encampments, providing guidance on authoring and advancing divestment resolutions, and other activities.
Social media graphics posted by organizers of the “People’s Conference for Palestine” advertising the conferencing and listing the members of the conference Steering Committee. (Instagram)
The fifteen convening organizations that served as the steering committee for the conference make up much of the backbone of the anti-Israel activist movement in the U.S. and included the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), National Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), The People’s Forum, Al-Awda: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, Palestinian Feminist Collective, ANSWER Coalition, U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC), International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN), Writers Against the War on Gaza (WAWOG), National Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression (NAARPR), and others.
The conference was endorsed by more than 300 additional organizations — from anti-Zionist activist groups, to leftist political groups, to religious organizations, to university-affiliated programs.
Endorsers included Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), Samidoun, WESPAC Foundation, Code Pink, Dissenters, Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA), Jisoor, MPower Change, National Lawyers Guild (NLG), Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies Program (AMED) at San Francisco State University (SFSU), and Department of African American Studies at Wayne State University (WSU).
Organizers solicited donations for the conference via the Palestinian Youth Movement and WESPAC.
*As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, ADL takes no position in support of or in opposition to any candidate for elected office.
