The Media Line: 2nd Annual ‘People’s Conference for Palestine’ Returns to Detroit Amid Scrutiny

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2nd Annual ‘People’s Conference for Palestine’ Returns to Detroit Amid Scrutiny

By Aaron Poris

Speakers’ Visas are Blocked and Conference Sponsors are Attacked for Connections to Terror Groups, while Attendees and Press(?) Engage in October 7 Denial and Conspiracy Theories

Detroit, August 2025. The second annual “People’s Conference for Palestine: Gaza is the Compass” convened at Huntington Place in downtown Detroit, drawing thousands of activists, students, and community members from across the United States. The event is billed by organizers as a space to “continue building and strengthening the movement for Palestinian liberation in North America;” and calls on attendants to “Join us to strategize, prepare, and utilize the existing skills and capacity of our movement in the next phase of struggle” against “Zionism and imperialism”.

The official program included workshops on isolating Israel, Zionists, and Zionism, and how to prevent it from rehabilitating its image; as well as spaces explicitly framed around solidarity against “colonialism and imperialism”– along with daycare, cultural exhibitions and a children’s program for ages 4 and up.

When asked why they’d come to the conference, attendees speaking to The Media Line often listed ‘fun and networking with like minded activists’ as their first response. And indeed as promised by the organizers’ branches across the US and Canada, thousands of participants did come from across the country. Although despite the hype, several attendees told The Media Line their “organized” travel groups fizzled out; with whole caravans being canceled outright, leaving individuals to make their way to the conference on their own.

KNOWLEDGE GAPS AND SLOGANS

Full Disclosure: Media access to the conference was tightly regulated. Organizers required journalists to provide 48 hours notice to staff, so that they may vet and filter press. One question on the registration asking publications to divulge their “coverage plans.” Similarly, a staffer at the registration desk told The Media Line that entry would not be possible without such prior approval. So this reporter spoke to anyone who would speak to him near the entrance.

Outside the venue, conversations with attendees reflected a mix of perspectives. Most people politely declined to speak with a journalist unaffiliated with the conference (as visible by my lack of lanyard). Of those who did speak to me, most promptly ended the conversation if the questions were not couched in language that did not explicitly reflect the pro-Palestinian/anti-Israeli “Genocide” narrative. Of those who remained to speak, few engaged with oppositional viewpoints in good faith. And several – including Muslim social media influencer “Rednecks Support Palestine,” and one woman with a conference-affiliated “Press” badge – explicitly praised Hamas while engaging in outright October 7 denialism, revision, and inversions; as well as other disturbing conspiracies about “Jews” and “Zionists.”

(SEE THE VIDEO)

Ruth Tamara Poberesky, organizer of the very modest pro-Israel counter protest outside, lamented the lack in understanding. “We believe that people who support so-called Palestine lack education. They’re being brainwashed. They’re being bought and financially supported by Qatar and other countries. They don’t know what they’re talking about, and we’re trying to make a difference and maybe show them that they might be wrong.”

When pressed that conference-goers levy the same accusations at her, Poberesky replies that “of course they say that, but they have to learn history…” adding that “there already is a Palestinian Country called Jordan.”

IF “GAZA IS THE COMPASS,” IN WHAT DIRECTION DOES THAT COMPASS LEAD?

One would be forgiven for trying to explain the behavior of the few outside as marginal – But then one sees that the conference itself aligns with bad actors. A look into the featured guest speakers and affiliates to the conference reveals that many are under investigation or have already been connected to terror organizations like Hamas, the PFLP, the DFLP, and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Hussam Shaheen – who delivered his address over video since his visa was denied by the Trump administration – had served time in Israeli prisons for serious offenses. A member of the proscribed terror organization, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, Shaheen was sentenced in 2004 to 27 years in prison for attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder during the second intifada. He was released with nearly 1200 other prisoners in February 2025 as part of deal with Hamas, and in exchange for living and dead Israeli hostages taken on October 7, 2023.

Speaker Raja Abdulhaq’s claim to fame is as Co-founded of the Quds News Network (QNN) which was suspended from Twitter/X in 2019 over Abdulhaq’s links to, and explicit support, for Hamas.

75 year old Omar Assaf – also denied a VISA to enter the United States – served as a long time official in the Marxist DFLP terror group, serving 8 years in Israeli prison for his involvement and advocacy of “armed struggle” even after his release. Assaf praised the October 7 massacre, and now serves as the coordinator of the Executive Committees of the Palestinian Popular Conference – a group whose goal critics argue is to further militarize and radicalize the PLO by opening it up to elections with additional militant factions as candidates. Furthermore, its 2017 iteration held in Turkey and known as the “Popular Conference of Palestinians Abroad” was organized in partnership with Hamas financiers and Muslim Brotherhood-linked backers like Essam Youssef, Majed Al-Zeer, and Zaher Birawi.

ECHOES FROM LAST YEAR

But in this sense, not much has changed… as last year’s conference was also found to be closely tied to the PFLP, or the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – a US designated terrorist organization. One of 2024’s keynote speakers was even Sana’ Daqqa, widow of PFLP terrorist Walid Daqqa who died while serving a life sentence in Israeli prison… convicted for his participation in a cell of Arab-Israelis who kidnapped IDF soldier Moshe Tamam in 1984, gouged out his eyes, and castrated him before shooting him dead.

Similarly, the sponsors list is a veritable who’s-who of Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood affiliates; including Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) whose national umbrella allegedly receives over $3-million annually from groups linked to Hamas. Likewise there’s Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), an organization whose Jewish character has consistently come under question, and which has trafficked in anti-semitic conspiracies, and has campaigned for the release of convicted terrorist murderers like Marwan Barghouti. And now, the Palestine Youth Movement (PYM) which is under fire from U.S Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas); alongside the conference as a whole and several of its other partners.

Taking to x/Twitter, Cotton called on the IRS to investigate PYM over alleged ties to terror groups and violations of US Tax Codes; writing that “An organization that supports terrorists, breaks U.S. law and promotes antisemitism shouldn’t benefit from the U.S. tax code.”