Human rights NGO Amnesty International had a booth at the Detroit People’s Conference for Palestine, which featured terrorist group members as speakers, honored and quoted terrorists, and promoted armed action against the State of Israel.
In a video posted by event co-organizer Palestinian Youth Movement on Instagram, an Amnesty booth could be seen in the vendor fair at the May 24-26 conference.
Amnesty USA confirmed that it had a table “to share our organization’s work around the world, especially in the ongoing conflict in Gaza,” and “offered participants the opportunity to join our petition calling for a ceasefire in Gaza,” but emphasized to The Jerusalem Post that it did not sponsor or help organize the conference.
“Participating at a conference such as this does not mean we support all the statements made during the conference, nor does it mean we support all participants,” said Amnesty USA Senior Campaign Manager Isra Chaker.
The event featured Wisam Rafeedie, who was noted in previous Amnesty reports as an activist for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – an organization listed by the US State Department as a foreign terrorist organization.
Rafeedie, who spoke remotely on Sunday because he was denied a visa, described Israel as a racist project and assured the crowd that there was “no place for the two-state solution for any Palestinian.”
He described Hamas as part of the “Palestinian people’s liberation movement, like all the resistance factions in Gaza, both Islamic and leftist.” He also encouraged participants to go on social media to dispute the events of the October 7 massacre, such as how the “resistance” engaged in “sexual assaults, killing children, and beheadings.”
Conference keynote speaker Sana’ Daqqah, wife of PFLP terrorist Walid Daqqah, spoke on Sunday in a hall named for the deceased terrorist. Daqqah died of bone marrow cancer in an Israeli prison on April 8. He was originally imprisoned for commanding the PFLP cell that abducted, tortured, and murdered Israeli soldier Moshe Tamam in 1984.
Event praises terrorist Walid Daqqah, endorses PFLP
The conference panel repeatedly referenced, praised, and quoted Daqqah and other terrorists, including Bassel al-Araj, Ibrahim al-Nabulsi, Udai Tamimi, former PFLP spokesperson Ghassan Kanafani, and convicted murderer Assata Shakur of the Black Liberation Army.
The event was endorsed by leading PFLP member Salah Salah in a May 20 Palestinian Youth Movement Instagram video.
The conference saw the frequent glorification and advocacy on behalf of the armed “resistance” as a means of achieving the ultimate objective: the destruction of the State of Israel.
“It’s very fortifying to be here with you all. This has been a marathon of eight months but for many of us, a lifelong struggle to dismantle Zionism in the State of Israel,” International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network co-founder Sara Kershnar said on a Saturday panel on Zionism and US Imperialism. “IJAN approaches the work first and foremost following the demands for the full liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea, and we stand in our own history when we do that. We stand in our own history of resistance to genocide, including the right to resist and armed resistance as part of that history. In that way, we are unequivocally with the resistance in Palestine.”
At the opening speech on Friday, activist Yar Shoufnai explained that “eight months into this war against the most well-funded militaries of the Western world, the Palestinian resistance had demonstrated to our people, to our enemy, and to the entire world the meaning of dignity of honor or resilience and of glory.”
She continued, boasting that “the Zionist occupation continues to suffer deep humiliation, both on the battlefield in Gaza and on the world stage at the hands of the mass movement that we have built. Gaza has been transformed into the graveyard of the Merkava tank, the Namer troop carrier, the D9 bulldozer, and the occupation.”
Also on Friday, American Muslims for Palestine Outreach and Community Organizing Associate Director Taher Herzallah claimed that “the long tentacles of Zionism have always reached deep into the American heartland. Like no other place in the world, Zionism has penetrated the depths of American society – economics and politics for decades.”
“They’re losing a public narrative battle; they’re losing their ability to control us, and this means that now the gloves are off, and quite frankly, anything is possible,” Hezallah said on the War on Palestine panel. “I caution you of the days to come, because they will not be easy. There are people among us today who might not be with us next year at this conference, and this is a reality because the liberation struggle requires sacrifice, and I know everyone here is prepared to make that sacrifice.”
Palestinian Youth Movement Houston’s Mohammed Nabulsi, who served as conference MC throughout the three-day event, led the conference participants in chants calling for intifada and praising Hezbollah and Houthi maritime terrorism.
“Yemen, Yemen, make us proud, turn another ship around,” said Nabulsi, who opened the conference by honoring fighters in tunnels in Gaza.
Amnesty’s presence at the conference was not the only controversial attendance. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib also made a surprise Saturday speech at the event, and Dearborn Michigan Mayor Abdullah Hammoud delivered a video address.