The People’s Summit was a left-of-center, pro-Palestinian demonstration that counter-programmed then-President Joe Biden’s 9th Summit of the Americas on June 8th-10th, 2022. ¹ Its 3,000 participants hailed from 15 countries. ¹

The event included a large demonstration. ² Panelists included anti-Israel activist Rabab Abdulhadi, who has praised terrorism, ³ and Eugene Puryear, a co-founder of the Party for Socialism and Liberation who organized an anti-Israel rally the day after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel. ^{4  5}

Background

The People’s Summit announced points of unity: “The need to fight together against white supremacy and the violent forces who wage a daily war against Black, Latino, Asian, Arab, Indigenous & Migrant communities in the US and abroad”; support for expansive collective bargaining; “full amnesty and rights for all immigrants”; “a future of collective liberation” without discrimination against women and “Trans, Intersex, Queer and Gender Nonconforming People”; government-provided health care, housing, and food; ending “racist police violence and mass incarceration” and freeing “political prisoners”; “The erasure of the massive debts burdening countries in the Global South as the result of the legacies of colonialism and IMF plans”; “the end of vaccine apartheid,” the claim that developed countries “horde [sic]” vaccines, preventing access to people in less-developed countries; and opposition to foreign interference and lifting “deadly sanctions” against “the countries of Latin America” and the “criminal blockade against Cuba.” ⁶

Content

One panel, titled “Solidarity Beyond Borders,” which took place on June 8, featured four panelists including Rabab Abdulhadi. ⁷ Abdulhadi has praised convicted terrorists, including Leila Khaled and Sheikh Raed Salah, and traveled to Beirut in 2022 “to moderate a panel” that included Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) co-founder Salah Salah. ^{3  8}

Abdulhadi has also claimed “those who support Israel want to ethnically cleanse the Middle East and those affiliated with Israel and pro-Israel organizations are white supremacists.” ⁹

Another panel, titled “Surviving Together: Food Sovereignty, Climate Justice, and the Future of Our Planet,” featured Kawenaʻulaokalā Kapahua, a “proud member” of a Hawaiian revolutionary organization that has “fought U.S. occupation of Hawai’i since 1897.” ¹⁰

The panel “Ending Patriarchy” professed to provide “perspectives on the struggle against patriarchy and gender based violence in all of its forms in today’s world,” ¹¹ while the panel “Let Cuba Live! Young Voices Against the Blockade,” claimed that American sanctions against Cuba “deprives people living in the U.S. of all of the medical, economic, cultural, and intellectual benefits that Cuba can offer,  particularly for young people embedded in the struggle for a society based on care and solidarity, not profit and exploitation.” ¹² That panel included CODEPINK national co-director Danaka Katovich and a Party for Socialism and Liberation organizer Deja Gaston, who has argued that capitalism is “increasingly destructive and exploitative system” and that “For the people and planet to lie [sic], capitalism must die!” ¹²

Demonstration

Pictures of the event show participants engaged in a large demonstration in an urban area with signs such as “End all U.S. sanctions and blockades,” “Stop the war on black America,” “No al apartheid de vacunas” (“No to vaccine apartheid”), “Fight against white supremacy” and demands for amnesty and rights for immigrants. ²

Organizers

The People’s Summit had 14 “Convening Organizations,” including CODEPINK, the ANSWER Coalition and American Federation of Teachers local 152. It was endorsed by several dozen other left-of-center groups including Al-Awda Los Angeles, Black Lives Matter Los Angeles, China-US Solidarity Network, the Vermont AFL-CIO, and Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network. ¹³

1. Summit, People’s. 2022. “People’s Summit.” People’s Summit. 2022. https://peoplessummit2022.org/
2. “Documentation.” People’s Summit, 2022, peoplessummit2022.org/documentation.
3. AMCHA Initiative. “SFSU Professor Promoting Terrorism | AMCHA Initiative.” AMCHA Initiative, 26 Mar. 2014, amchainitiative.org/sfsu-professor-promoting-terrorism/.
4. “Eugene Puryear.” Liberation News. https://www.liberationnews.org/author/eugene_puryear/
5. Beeferman, Jason. “NYC Pro-Palestine Rally Splits Democrats over Israel.” POLITICO, 8 Oct. 2023, www.politico.com/news/2023/10/08/nyc-palestine-rally-democrats-israel-00120533.
6. “Political Platform.” People’s Summit, 2022, https://peoplessummit2022.org/political-platform
7. “Beyond Borders.” People’s Summit, 2022, peoplessummit2022.org/solidarity-beyond-borders.
8. Vincent, Isabel. “San Francisco State Slammed for Hosting Palestinian Terrorists, Named “Most Antisemitic” University: Report.” New York Post, 28 Apr. 2025, nypost.com/2025/04/28/us-news/san-francisco-state-university-slammed-for-hosting-palestinian-terrorists/. 
9. Bandler, Aaron. “UCLA Guest Lecturer Calls Zionists White Supremacists.” Jewish Journal, 21 May 2019, jewishjournal.com/los_angeles/298850/ucla-guest-lecturer-calls-zionists-white-supremacists/.
10. “Surviving Together: Food Sovereignty, Climate Justice, and the Future of Our Planet.” People’s Summit, 2022, peoplessummit2022.org/surviving-together.
11. “Ending Patriarchy.” People’s Summit, 2022, https://peoplessummit2022.org/ending-patriarchy.
12. “Let Cuba Live.” People’s Summit, 2022, https://peoplessummit2022.org/let-cuba-live.
13. “Convening Organizations.” People’s Summit, peoplessummit2022.org/orgs.