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10 Appalling Moments at the People’s Conference for Palestine 2025

US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) addresses attendees as she takes part in a protest calling for a ceasefire in Gaza outside the US Capitol, in Washington, DC, US, Oct. 18, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Leah Millis

For the second year in a row, the People’s Conference for Palestine (PCP), which took place in Detroit, Michigan, attracted some of the biggest names in the pro-Palestinian community (and pro-Hamas community, for that matter). These included antisemitic veteran activist Linda Sarsour, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP)’s Hatem Bazian, and propped-up pro-Hamas activist Mahmoud Khalil, among others.

The conference was filled with panelists and keynote speakers who expressed anti-Western sentiments, spoke about “intifada” as if it were an acceptable form of protest, called for an end to Zionism, and more. The language was militarized, negative, and sought to encourage “liberation” through violence and anger.

Some of the speakers are terrorists, some terror sympathizers, and many regurgitated Hamas propaganda to thousands of people, including children, attending the conference.

This was not an event that promoted peace and equality between Israel and the Palestinians, but one that incited hatred and encouraged violence.

Here are ten moments Honestreporting has chosen to highlight as the worst of the PCP:

1. Online streamer Hasan Piker encouraged attendees to “find the anger in [their] heart” to continue the Palestinian “resistance” movement “out of spite.”

What better way to make the world a better place?

It is important to note that Piker also called Jewish-American comedian Amy Schumer one of “the worst people out there.” All Schumer has done is publicly stand against antisemitism, speak out for Israeli victims of October 7, and condemn Jihadist terrorism. It’s food for thought.

2. Activist Imam Omar Suleiman expressed support for the “Holy Land Five” — men who were convicted for funneling money to Hamas through their fake non-profit, the Holy Land Five Foundation, in what was the largest successful terrorism financing prosecution in US history.

Suleiman portrayed the biggest terror financiers in US history as “men stripped away from their families for the crime of feeding Palestinian children.” The imam whitewashed the truth, calling the foundation the “largest charity for Palestine.” He sought to evoke sympathy for their families, recounting the pang of sadness he felt at a wedding for one man’s child — a celebration clouded by his absence.

3. Mayor Eduardo Martinez (Richmond, CA) said he thinks of Hamas — a terror organization — as his childhood self standing up to bullies.

The audience cheered when he gave this despicable analogy. But it’s telling — this is what the “pro-Palestine” agenda is all about. They normalize, justify, and downplay heinous and unspeakable atrocities as standing up to bullies.

4. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), a Congresswoman supposedly representing Americans, refers to the US Congress as an “empire” whose halls are “decaying” and celebrates this idea…

… while boasting that a “granddaughter of Falasteen” has been sent by Detroit to Congress.

 

Her presence as a government official lends an air of legitimacy to this anti-American and anti-Western conference. Tlaib, a Palestinian-American supposedly serving US citizens, did not even don an American flag pin, just Palestinian garb. She also spewed lies about rape and murder and insinuated that innocent Palestinians are regularly imprisoned and intentionally starved by Israel.

5. Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) founder Omar Assaf was a virtual panelist at the event, and he called for rescinding the Palestinian Authority’s recognition of Israel, a withdrawal or rejection from any peace agreements, and providing “protection” and “support” for “popular action,” also known as terrorism.

The degree of whitewashing terrorist activities and agendas, while appalling, also speaks volumes about the organizers of the conference and what their “movement” stands for. Assaf wants to “prohibit” arrests of terrorists. He does not believe in peace with Israel and has said so in previous interviews. It doesn’t seem like anyone batted an eye; in fact, the audience cheered and clapped at the end of his monologue.

6. A Columbia University career development counselor called for the downfall of the world order.

It’s one thing to stress that change is needed, but a whole other thing to suggest that the current world we live in, a world that values diplomacy and Western values, should be dumped for the “liberation” of Gaza.

7. Well-known Hamas propagandist and London-based plastic surgeon, Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah, encouraged the crowd to destabilize the West and promoted an antisemitic conspiracy that suggests Israel controls all Western institutions.

This is being said out loud at a major conference in the United States — a Western country. This kind of rhetoric may also incite violence, which would go beyond the bounds of freedom of speech. At the very least, it speaks volumes about the agenda of the pro-Palestinian movement.

8. Abu Baker Abed is a Palestinian “journalist” and a terror sympathizer. He was given a platform at the PCP, where he talked about how UK outlet The Guardian asked him to remove a post online in which he “praised the resistance” if he wanted to continue working with them, and he declined to do so.

Abed won an Iranian state media PressTV’s “journalist of the year” award, and encouraged the audience not to be deterred by threats to their reputation or career if they publicly support terrorism. The fact that the PCP invited him to speak is appalling.

9. The PCP offered a two-day children’s program, which included a curriculum on Palestinian “resistance” for ages six through twelve.

Children were invited out on the stage as the next generation of “resistance” activists, wearing keffiyehs and leading the chant, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

A Palestinian Youth Movement organizer suggested that these children will one day be on the “front lines” of protests and “won’t be deterred” by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). It’s alarming that children that young are being militarized and used for a movement’s political agenda. It absolutely appears to be indoctrination, as Stu Smith, investigative analyst for the Manhattan Institute, put it above.

10. The Detroit News newspaper was the only outlet that covered this event extensively and did not address any of the previous hateful and violent rhetoric that was promoted at the conference. 

Instead, they portrayed terror sympathizer and PressTV “journalist of the year” winner Mosab Abu Toha as an English teacher who wants to provide education for Palestinian children.

At the conference, Mosab Abu Toha, an English teacher, said one of Gaza’s greatest needs is education.

During a panel, he asked the audience to financially support efforts that ranged from teacher supplies to building new schools. Palestinians who fled to Egypt also need help with education because the country doesn’t allow them to enroll in its schools.

They also photographed violent embroidery for their online gallery. Yes, you read that right.

Photograph is a screenshot. Image credit: Katy Kildee/The Detroit News

“Armed resistance” means terrorism — violence like rape, decapitation, mutilation, murder, and brutally kidnapping and starving Israelis. This piece of embroidery, which was available for purchase at the event, justifies and encourages atrocities like October 7.

The Manhattan Institute’s Stu Smith did expose the conference for what it was, however, and presumably watched and cut all the livestreams to provide a thorough analysis.

How can a journalist and a journo-photographer attend a conference that platforms terrorists, terror sympathizers, and is filled with anti-Western rhetoric without addressing it? Quotes from Michigan Jewish leaders are welcome, but these journalists who attended the event should have blown the movement wide open. They should have reported what they witnessed.

Instead, they covered it without asking any questions — and asking questions is half the job.

The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.

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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War

Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa

Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.

Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.

“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”

GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’

Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.

“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.

“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.

“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.

After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”

RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL

Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”

Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.

“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”

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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests

A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco

Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.

People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.

“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”

Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.

On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.

Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.

On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.

“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.

Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.

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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.

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