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A controversial pro-Palestinian gathering in Detroit is drawing scrutiny for featuring speakers with extremist views—including two former Israeli prisoners released in a Hamas deal—alongside Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., a prominent anti-Israel congresswoman.
The second annual “People’s Conference for Palestine” conference, which is being organized by a dozen different pro-Palestinian groups, will begin Friday afternoon and will end on Sunday.
Rep. Tlaib will speak alongside several individuals accused of espousing antisemitic rhetoric, including a professor who has compared Jews to Nazis, a journalist who quipped about Hamas kidnapping “several dozen hipsters” at “some sort of rave” on Oct. 7, 2023, and a high-profile activist who once said Israel is “built on the idea that Jews are supreme to everyone else” and lost her position on the board of a major philanthropic organization amid antisemitism complaints.
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Palestinian Hamas terrorists stand guard on the day of the handover of hostages held in Gaza since the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack, as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 22, 2025. (Reuters/Hatem Khaled/File Photo)
Tlaib, herself, has been no stranger to criticism about her anti-Israel views either. She was censured in 2023 by her colleagues in Congress over alleged inflammatory rhetoric about the Israel-Hamas war. The censure followed several comments from Tlaib that drew backlash, including her use of the phrase “From the river to the sea,” a slogan that many Israel supporters consider a call for the destruction of Israel.
Tlaib also came under fire in 2023 for being part of a secret Facebook group for many years that glorified terrorists following the attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., speaks during a demonstration calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, Oct. 18, 2023, near the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades, File)
The congresswoman will be joined at the conference by two former prisoners held by Israel who gained their freedom through an Israeli prisoner swap with Hamas. One of those individuals, Hussam Shaheen, was sentenced by Israeli authorities to almost 30 years in prison during the early 2000s for murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
The other former prisoner, Omar Assaf, was formerly an official of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP). The DFLP is not a U.S.-designated terror group, but it has been targeted by U.S. sanctions.
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Other attendees of this weekend’s conference include Raja Abdulhaq, who is listed on the conference’s website as the co-founder of the Quds News Network (QNN), which was suspended from Twitter in 2019 for alleged ties to terrorism, a company spokesperson reportedly told the Times of Israel. Subsequently, other major social media platforms, like Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, all took steps to restrict QNN’s presence on their platforms.
Wesam Ahmed, another speaker, is listed as a “human rights advocate” with Al-Haq, an entity accused by the Israeli government of having ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
Meanwhile, Michigan-area activist and former candidate for Congress, Huwaida Arraf, is also slated to speak. Arraf is known for being a co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), which has previously been investigated by the FBI for possible ties to terrorists. In 2021, Arraf also penned an article which promoted using violent tactics against Israelis.
“The Palestinian resistance must take on a variety of characteristics — both nonviolent and violent,” she wrote at the time. “But most importantly it must develop a strategy involving both aspects.”
However, when reached for comment, Arraf shot back at criticism that she may be antisemitic, arguing any accusations of such are “meant to smear and silence Palestinians and anyone who dares to speak up for their rights.”
“My record is clear,” she added. “I have spent my life opposing all forms of racism, discrimination, and oppression. Conflating criticism of a government with hatred of a people is dishonest and dangerous—it weaponizes antisemitism instead of confronting it.”
A Michigan high school principal was forced to apologize to students and parents in 2023 after Arraf went off script at a “diversity assembly” and reportedly attacked Israel.
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People march in support of Palestinians in New York on Oct. 8, 2023, after the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a terror attack on Israel. (Bryan R. Smith / AFP)
Multiple university professors accused of antisemitism will also be at the event with Tlaib. One of them, Hatem Bazian, came under fire by his university, the University of California – Berkley, in 2017 after he shared an anti-Israel cartoon that drew widespread backlash for comparing Jews to Nazis, among other tropes.
“Mom, look! I is chosen! I can now kill, rape, smuggle organs & steal the land of Palestinians yay #Ashke-Nazi,” read the caption of a political cartoon shared by Bazian, the chairman of American Muslims for Palestine and the co-founder of Students for Justice in Palestine.
The caption was layered over an image of an orthodox Jewish individual who was juxtaposed next to an image of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un wearing a kippah and other traditional Jewish garb. That photo was also layered with its own caption: “Donald Trump: Now my nukes are legal & I can annex South Korea & you need to start paying me 34 billion a year in welfare.”
In 2015, Bazian, whose SJP group has fueled anti-Israel riots on college campuses, raised alarm bells when he called for an “intifada in this country that changes fundamentally the political dynamics in here,” which is widely interpreted as calling for violence against Jews. He went on to say, “They’re gonna say some Palestinian being too radical – well, you haven’t seen radicalism yet.”
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Another speaker at the event, journalist Eugene Puryear, has been slammed for trivializing Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that killed over a thousand innocent Israelis.
“As you might have seen, there was some sort of rave or desert party where they were having a great time, until the resistance came in electrified hang gliders and took at least several dozen hipsters,” Puryear said on Oct. 8, one day after the attack, according to a report from the Anti-Defamation League.
Linda Sarsour, who had to walk-back her remarks after stating Israel “is built on the idea that Jews are supreme to everyone else,” and lost her seat on the board of the Women’s March amid allegations of antisemitism, will make an appearance as well on Friday afternoon. Sarsour previously denied the allegations of antisemitism that came during her time with the Women’s March.
Activist Linda Sarsour speaks at rally in New York City. ((Photo by Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images)Imga)
“Ask them this, how can you be against white supremacy in America and the idea of being in a state based on race and class, but then you support a state like Israel that is based on supremacy, that is built on the idea that Jews are supreme to everyone else,” Sarsour asked a crowd in 2019, according to Israeli news outlet Haaretz.
Mahmoud Khalil, the former Columbia University student who the Trump administration tried to deport for allegedly inciting anti-Israel violence on his campus, will also be in attendance.
In addition to the speakers, the organizers added special programming geared for kids. “We’re proud to introduce a two-day Children’s Program for ages 6–12, featuring engaging activities and an educational curriculum that explores Palestinian history, culture, and resistance,” the conference’s website says.
Fox News Digital reached out to the conference for comment on its list of speakers, but did not immediately receive a response. Fox News Digital also reached out to several of the speakers for comment but, with the exception of Arraf, did not immediately hear back.
Fox News’ Cameron Cawthorne and Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report