Inside the Terrorist-Connected Michigan Conference Where Rashida Tlaib Spoke

An anti-Israel conference that featured US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) as a surprise speaker over the weekend has extensive links to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a widely designated terrorist organization.

The gathering, titled “The People’s Conference for Palestine,” shared video endorsements from PFLP founding member Salah Salah and PFLP member Wisam Rafeedie. The terrorists leader urged Arab Americans to attend the conference and “expose” Israel as a “racist” entity.

“This is an initiative of extreme importance,” Salah said. “I call on members of the Palestinian and Arab communities and friends and supporters of our cause to participate in this People’s Conference, to assert their stance with full boldness, bravery, and honesty, and to expose the heinous crimes and massacres that the Zionist forces are committing in Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem with the full backing of the United States.”

“It is a racist vitriol that offers a new model to Nazism, targeting children, the elderly, and the sick and destroying public facilities, particularly hospitals and schools,” Salah added. 

Rafeedie also endorsed the conference as an opportunity to “expose the Zionist project and its methods of genocide against our people.”

Speaking directly to the conference via video stream, Rafeedie stated that Hamas, the terrorist group that launched the war in Gaza on Oct. 7 by slaughtering 1,200 people in southern Israel, is a resistance force acting on behalf of the interests of the Palestinian people. 

“This is not a struggle between Hamas and Israel. Hamas is part of the resistance of the Palestinian people. The core issue is between the Palestinian people and the project of settler colonialism and ethnic cleansing,” Rafeedie said. 

Rafeedie also lambasted “Zionists” and called for the replacement of Israel with a “democratic” Palestine. 

“These Zionists lie like they breathe,” Rafeedie said. “I want to assure everyone that there is no longer a place for a two-state solution for any Palestinian. The only solution is one democratic Palestinian land which will end the Zionist project in Palestine.”

Several speakers applauded Hamas’ terrorist actions against Israel. They also seemingly praised Hamas’ construction of terror tunnels beneath Gazan infrastructure, an act that, according to warfare experts, intentionally endangers Palestinian civilians during military conflict with Israel. 

“We also want to take a moment to honor our brave and noble resistance that defends our people from beneath the ground,” Palestinian Youth Movement member Mohammed Nabulsi said during a speech.

“In all its forms, resistance is our right and our way,” added Mustafa Barghouti, a former Palestinian information minister who defended Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre. 

Palestinian writer Abdaljawad Omar voiced support for the Palestine Liberation Organization and praised multiple deadly terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians. 

“Without the PLO, Palestinian identity would have been erased. Without the first and second intifadas, Israel would not have withdrawn from Gaza and besieged it from the outside and Oct. 7 and the promise of liberation it holds would not have manifested in our conference today,” he said.

Thousands of anti-Israel activists descended upon Detroit, Michigan from Friday through Sunday to discuss strategies on how to dismantle the Jewish state. The event, which was organized by The People’s Forum and National Students for Justice in Palestine — anti-Israel and anti-US organizations — suggested that Israel and the US are guilty of perpetrating “genocide.”

“All backers of Zionism, Israel, and US imperialism have been put on notice. The perpetrators of genocide and occupation have names and faces, and the masses of people around the world stand against them in the millions,” the group wrote on its website.

Tlaib, one of the most vocal anti-Israel voices in the US Congress, similarly accused Israel of genocide and lambasted US President Joe Biden for supporting the Jewish state, calling on voters not to support him in November’s presidential election.

“It is disgraceful that the Biden administration and my colleagues in Congress continue to smear [anti-Israel students on college campuses] for protesting to save lives — no matter their faith or ethnicity. It is cowardly. But we’re not going to forget in November, are we?” Tlaib said.

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