More From the People’s Conference for Palestine

Yesterday Ed wrote about Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s appearance at a Detroit gathering called the People’s Conference for Palestine. Her message was basically that Palestine had won in its war against Israel, if not on the ground in Gaza then at least with the youth of America.

The Detroit Democrat and only Palestinian-American in Congress said Sunday her colleagues in Congress are “scared” by protesters at their district offices and town hall attendees questioning U.S. arms sales to Israel. She said activists are “winning” outside of Washington, D.C., and encouraged them to continue mobilizing for Palestinian rights, boycotting companies that support Israel’s war and protesting the U.S. support of Israel.

“The tide is turning in a way that it can never be turned back,” Tlaib said. “Palestine will be free.”

Didn’t we hear this same triumphalist tone five years ago from Black Lives Matter? Haven’t heard much from them lately though. The tide did turn for about a year and then it quickly turned back as people realized defunding the police was a terribly stupid idea.

That’s what these left-wing populist movements create, a platform for dumb ideas to arise and then fail spectacularly. This one will be the same. The left will move on to some other cause in a few years and Palestine will get lip service and not much else. Here’s a Columbia student speaker at the event basically saying that the current Palestine movement is just a repackaging of Occupy and the BLM riots.

🚨 Sean Eren: The Student Intifada is the heir to George Floyd riots, Occupy Wall Street, and the anti-war left.

Sean Eren — Columbia GSAPP student (Class of 2027) and National SJP steering committee member — told the People’s Conference for Palestine that last spring’s “student… pic.twitter.com/y35btZq3MO

— Stu Smith (@thestustustudio) August 30, 2025

There were a lot of speakers at this weekend conference. Many of them seemed to be advocating for the destruction of the US as their preferred path forward. “We live in an evil county. That’s just what’s happening,” said Sachin Peddada — Research Coordinator for Progressive International.

Sachin Peddada: “We Live in an Evil Country”

At the People’s Conference for Palestine, Sachin Peddada — Research Coordinator for Progressive International and a PhD student at UMass Amherst — painted the United States not just as flawed, but as fundamentally wicked:

“We live in… pic.twitter.com/6pstG5APls

— Stu Smith (@thestustustudio) August 29, 2025

Sitting next to him was Aisha Nizar of the Palestinian Youth Movement. She recommended a campaign of pressure aimed at sabotaging the US military’s F-35 fighter jet. “If one specific node of the F-35 supply chain is intervened in, it has a huge impact on our people back home,” she said.

🚨 PYM’s Aisha: How to Disrupt the F-35 Program

This may be the most alarming thing to come out of the People’s Conference for Palestine because it is a step-by-step playbook that America’s enemies could benefit from.

Aisha, a leader with the Palestinian Youth Movement,… pic.twitter.com/wl2pPMA9ar

— Stu Smith (@thestustustudio) September 1, 2025

She went on to propose targeting Maersk as a way to limit arms deliveries.

🎯 Aisha Nizar: “Maersk Is a Target”

At the People’s Conference for Palestine, Aisha Nizar of the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) laid out a militant strategy: don’t just attack weapons manufacturers like Elbit Systems, but target the logistics companies that move U.S. weapons… pic.twitter.com/pOn8K1NMNK

— Stu Smith (@thestustustudio) August 30, 2025

Not all of the conference was that practical. Some of it was just ideological programming. Here’s speaker Raja Abdulhaq explaining how the 1979 revolution in Iran inspired a wave of terrorist groups. He thinks this was a very good thing because it helped the region respond to western capitalism and individualism.

🚨 Raja Abdulhaq’s Revisionist History of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad

At the People’s Conference for Palestine, Raja Abdulhaq described the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran not as the rise of a repressive theocracy but as a “moral boost” and intellectual spark that… pic.twitter.com/KXeTgZVilW

— Stu Smith (@thestustustudio) September 3, 2025

UCLA Professor Loubna Qutami praised the movement’s success and the “student uprising.”

🚨 Academic Radicalism on Display: UCLA Professor Loubna Qutami Calls Gaza the “Compass” of Revolution

At the People’s Conference for Palestine, UCLA assistant professor Loubna Qutami — a former international general coordinator of the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) —… pic.twitter.com/h0wDzfdq7w

— Stu Smith (@thestustustudio) September 1, 2025

And always America is the main villain in this story. Hani Al-Masri, speaking in Arabic, called America the head of the snake.

🚨 Hani Al-Masri: America Is the “Head of the Snake”

Hani Al-Masri — director general of Masarat and a board member of the Yasser Arafat Foundation — praised the People’s Conference for Palestine in sweeping ideological terms.

Speaking in Arabic, Al-Masri described the U.S.… pic.twitter.com/6Lhm3N75sq

— Stu Smith (@thestustustudio) September 1, 2025

And part of that anti-American fervor comes because America is the land of capitalism and billionaires and this is a movement which is clearly taking cues from communism.

🚨 “Comrades… we fight to take down these systems” — Jenan Awaida at the People’s Conference for Palestine

Speaking in Detroit, Jenan Awaida — formerly of CAIR-LA, now with the Palestinian Youth Movement — didn’t shy away from ideological signaling. Addressing the audience as… pic.twitter.com/nSdWt0RAb3

— Stu Smith (@thestustustudio) September 1, 2025

And of course left-wing meathead Hasan Piker was there.

🚨 Hasan Piker at the People’s Conference for Palestine: “Maintain revolutionary optimism… continue to agitate.”

At the People’s Conference for Palestine, Twitch streamer Hasan Piker once again leaned on explicitly revolutionary language — invoking concepts rooted in both… pic.twitter.com/2nlwiEix6Z

— Stu Smith (@thestustustudio) August 31, 2025

He’s worked hard to downplay his own extremism, but here’s Mahmoud Khalil talking about revolution and victory, which in this case seems to mean the end of Israel’s existence. He got a big response.

🚨 “Israel must stand exposed as a pariah state” — Mahmoud Khalil’s rallying cry at the People’s Conference.

Khalil framed Zionism as a doomed project:

“Zionism only depends by portraying that Israel is a normal state, it’s an ordinary state. But our work is to strip that… pic.twitter.com/BWp4NHZWkX

— Stu Smith (@thestustustudio) August 30, 2025

It goes on and on like this. Kudos to Stu Smith from the Manhattan Institute who suffered through three days of this revolutionary cosplay. That can’t have been easy to take. Especially listening to this speaker:

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib says Hamas supporters need to mobilize and takeover.

WTF!? pic.twitter.com/UwLliBVbab

— American AF 🇺🇸 (@iAnonPatriot) September 2, 2025

But there’s no doubt these folks are having a moment right now, just as BLM did five years ago. It’s exhausting but ultimately it will fail in its goals. The only question is how much collateral damage it will do in the meantime.

This isn’t a conference. It’s a terror summit. The “People’s Conference for Palestine” in Detroit is nothing more than a gathering of terror-linked Islamist speakers disguised as “activists.” With Rashida Tlaib and American mayors lending legitimacy, the event becomes even more… pic.twitter.com/wIS6P2bcwu

— DiploAct (@diploact) August 31, 2025

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