Posted on 09/02/25
| News Source: JPost
The 2nd annual People's Conference in Palestine in Detroit saw toned-down rhetoric compared to last year's conference in terms of support for violence and terrorist organizations, but the August 29-31 event attended by Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, streamer Hassan Piker, Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein, and leaders of the anti-Israel activist community still saw elements of pro-terrorist and anti-American sentiment during panels and speeches.
The event centered mostly around concerns about a supposed genocide being conducted in Gaza by Israeli forces, with discussions on destruction to infrastructure, deaths of journalists during the war, and providing medical aid. Several speakers, including the masters of the ceremony, expressed a sense of urgency with the event occurring as the Israel Defense Forces girded themselves to push into the Hamas strongholds in Gaza City.
"We are facing another critical moment. Last night, Israel began its occupation of Gaza City and its plan to level the last inch of life in the strip," MC Taher Dahleh said, according to livestreams by BreakThrough News, proclaiming demands and objectives laid out by many of the three-day event's speakers.
"We cannot allow the normalization of another line of genocide to be crossed. The demands of the people are clear, and we must do everything in our ability, every single thing in our power to advance them. We demand a two-way arms embargo. We demand complete economic and political sanctions on Israel, on its military, and on its leadership. We demand the free flow of lifesaving humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. And we demand, most importantly, that this genocide ends now."
Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) organizer Lameess Mehann said that their movement had been able to weaken the "basis of support for Israel" by casting Zionism as genocidal, and Pikeer explained that Israeli institutions and corporations had to be removed completely from campuses, and all ties with Israel had to be severed entirely.Another PYM representative said that every sector had to become a front for confronting Zionism, explaining that the strategy was to achieve "liberation" by making the "cost of occupation" higher "than the cost of liberation."
While the activists usually discussed the achievement of these demands through protests and non-violent activity, panelists and speakers often deviated into praise for terrorists, terrorist groups, or engaged in calls for violence.
Richmond Mayor Eduardo Martinez explained in his speech that "If Palestine were a schoolyard playground, I would be a Palestinian. And that part of me, that part of me that couldn't endure the abuse anymore, would be Hamas."