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Inside the Terrorist-Connected Michigan Conference Where Rashida Tlaib Spoke
US Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), left, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) listen during a congressional hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, July 18, 2019. Photo: REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
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.
The post Inside the Terrorist-Connected Michigan Conference Where Rashida Tlaib Spoke first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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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.