People’s Conference for Palestine

Left-of-center activist Linda Sarsour and U.S. Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) both spoke at the conference. ² One plenary session was entitled “Zionism, Imperialism and the Shifting Battlefield,” and another session discussed “clarify[ing] the relationship between the United States and Zionism by exposing all the US institutions and actors that make the genocidal Zionist project possible.” ²

Background

The People’s Conference for Palestine held its second annual meeting from August 29 to 31, 2025 in Detroit. The organizers asserted that “Zionism and imperialism are waging a continuous genocide on Gaza.” The guiding principle for the 2025 convening was “Gaza is our compass.” One of the goals was to “[i]solate and expose Zionism by making it impossible to recover its image after this genocide.” ³

Sessions claimed the existence of a “U.S.-backed, Israeli-led campaign of genocide,” that “the occupation has systematically attacked all foundations of life, focusing its violence especially on the medical system,” and that “Palestinians endure escalating settler violence, territorial expansion, annexation, starvation, siege tactics, and sustained military bombardment.” ²

The convening also featured an art exhibition claiming to highlight “the ongoing genocide in Gaza” by documenting “the devastating toll of Zionist aggression” and programming for children between the ages of six and 12 for the entire conference. ⁴

Sponsors

The People’s Conference for Palestine was convened by 12 anti-Israel groups, including Al-Awda: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, and National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP). ⁴ Several dozen groups endorsed the People’s Conference for Palestine, including ethnic advocacy groups including the Latin American and Caribbean Solidarity Network, the Black Alliance for Peace, and the Asian Youth Collective; professional groups including the Internationalist Law Center, the People’s Medic Collective DMV, and Calamansi Counseling; more general left-of-center groups including the Socialist Project and University of Cincinnati Young Democratic Socialists of America; self-identified Jewish anti-Israel groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace-National, Jews Against White Supremacy, and the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network; and local chapters of the sponsoring groups, such as the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapters at the University of Texas at Dallas, Case Western Reserve University, and Cal State University Channel Islands. ⁵

Speakers’ Alleged Support for Terrorism and Violence

The People’s Conference for Palestine featured convicted terrorists and people who have associated with terrorists. ⁶ A panelist in a session entitled “The Palestinian Struggle Behind Bars,” Hossam Shaheen, was part of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a designated terrorist group, and was sentenced to 27 years in Israeli prison on charges of attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder, but was released in February 2025 as part of a deal with Hamas to return hostages kidnapped during the October 7, 2023 attacks to Israel. ⁷ Shaheen was arrested in 2004 after recruiting and supplying terrorists. ⁷

Additionally, Arab Barghouti, son of convicted terrorist Marwan Barghouti, spoke on the panel. ⁷ The elder Barghouti is a leader of Tanzim, a Fatah-affiliated militia group. ⁷ He was sentenced to five life sentences in 2004 for participating in terror attacks that killed five, and he played an integral role in the creation of Fatah’s military wing. ⁷

The panel also featured Lama Ghosheh, a Palestinian “journalist” who was arrested on accusations of “identification with a terrorist group,” but received a suspended sentence in 2023. ⁸

Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) co-founder Omar Assaf also spoke at the conference. ⁶ The DFLP was briefly designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the U.S. government in the 1990s. ⁹ Additionally, Quds News Network co-founder Raja Abdulhaq spoke. ⁶ The “news outlet” is believed to be affiliated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Hamas, both U.S.-designated FTOs. ^{10  9}

American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) co-founder Hatem Bazian also spoke at the conference; the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pension and House Oversight Committees launched an investigation into AMP in 2024 for alleged ties to terrorism. ⁷

During a session, Michigan-based doctor Nidal Jboor appeared to call for violence against Israelis, saying, “We all know who they are — whether they are in Israel, Tel Aviv, in Washington, in Germany, in Europe,” and “They need to be locked up. They need to be taken out. They need to be neutralized.” ¹¹