Rep. Josh Gottheimer urged US Attorney-General Pam Bondi to investigate a New Jersey conference that advertised a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine member as a speaker.
The Democrat from New Jersey said on Sunday that he suspected that the Palestinian American Community Center violated the Anti-Terrorism Act by possibly providing material support to a terrorist organization by promoting a virtual address by PFLP member Wisam Rafeedie on Sunday.Citing an April 2 Jerusalem Post report on the issue, Gottheimer related that the PACC had attempted to obscure Rafeedie’s planned participation by removing his name from promotional images on its website but still listed his session, “Centering Palestinian Political Prisoners," on the agenda.
Promotional social media posts about Rafeedie’s participation remained online, but by Tuesday, most of the materials pertaining to the 7th annual PACC conference were deleted from the group’s Instagram account.Rafeedie is still active in PFLP-related events, said Gottheimer, including a 2021 Zoom event named for PFLP spokesperson Ghassan Kanafani.
Gottheimer raises PACC concerns
Gottheimer also expressed concern that the PACC received financial support from American Muslims for Palestine, which is under investigation by the Virginia Attorney-General’s Office and the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions for ties to Hamas.The PACC conference, held from Thursday until Sunday, was notable because of the participation of US Rep. Rashida Tlaib as a speaker. The Democrat from Michigan was set to hold a session alongside her son on the annual conference’s “youth day,” leading a panel on “Palestine storytime.”This was the second time that Tlaib spoke at the same conference as Rafeedie. Both participated in the Detroit People’s Conference for Palestine in May. Tlaib made a surprise appearance on the second day of the conference, and Rafeedie spoke remotely on the final conference day because he was denied a visa.Rafeedie described Israel as a racist project and said that there was “no place for the two-state solution for any Palestinian.”
The PFLP member described Hamas as part of the “Palestinian people’s liberation movement, like all the resistance factions in Gaza, both Islamic and leftist.”