The "People's Conference for Palestine" Gears up for Second Summit in Detroit

Following last year's widely condemned conference featuring Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and members of U.S.-designated terror groups, the conference has begun announcing its list of speakers

Jul 15, 2025

The organizers of the "People's Conference for Palestine" have unveiled some of their speaker lineup for the second annual gathering, scheduled for August 29-31, 2025. The promotional materials showcase multiple speakers who face international travel restrictions, maintain documented ties to terrorism, and have openly advocated for “violent resistance” methods.

This speaker selection indicates the 2025 conference may embrace an even more militant approach than its inaugural event, which featured members of the U.S.-designated terror group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), as well as speakers who called for the downfall of the United States.

Ghassan Abu-Sittah

A British-Palestinian plastic surgeon, Abu-Sittah has been a prominent media figure during the Gaza conflict, frequently offering commentary that aligns with Hamas narratives. He has publicly eulogized Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) founding member Maher Al-Yamani—a group designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and EU—and was filmed mourning at his grave. Abu-Sittah was previously banned from entering France and Germany.

In an interview on Russian state television, Abu-Sittah has condemned Palestinian Authority (PA) and Fatah members as “traitors,” while praising “the resistance in Gaza”—a term widely understood to refer to terror groups. He has dismissed anti-Hamas protests in Gaza as “psychological warfare” and “betrayal,” suggesting that dissent against Hamas is tantamount to treachery.

Omar Assaf

Now 74, Assaf spent eight years in Israeli prisons as an admitted member of the Marxist-Leninist PFLP off-shoot, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), an organization that participated in the October 7th massacre. Even after his release, he continues to champion “armed struggle.”

Credit: People’s Conference for Palestine on Instagram

Huwaida Arraf

International Solidarity Movement (ISM) co-founder Huwaida Arraf has publicly acknowledged that ISM activists work with Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the PFLP—all U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations. In 2002, she and other ISM activists provided food and shelter to approximately 40 Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades terrorists who had taken hostages in Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity. In a 2002 article, she wrote that "Palestinian resistance must take on a variety of characteristics—both nonviolent and violent" and stated that "we accept that Palestinians have a right to resist with arms."

Linda Sarsour

The Women’s March co-founder, who was ousted from her position due to antisemitic statements she had made, tweeted “Nothing is creepier than Zionism” in 2012 and as co-chair of the Woman’s March insisted that “pro-Israel Zionists” cannot be feminists. At the 2017 Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) convention, she urged American Muslims to wage “jihad” against the “fascists… in the White House.”

She has repeatedly embraced convicted PFLP bomber Rasmea Odeh and advocated for Sharia law. Additionally, Sarsour has been accused of having “roots in the Muslim Brotherhood” and has been a member of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terror financing scandal in American history.

Nora Barrows-Friedman

Associate editor at The Electronic Intifada (EI), Barrows-Friedman amplifies content labelling Israel “genocidal” and hosts representatives of NGOs that Israel has designated as terrorist front groups. The co-founder and executive director of EI was arrested in Switzerland in January 2025 based on his support for terrorist organizations. In December 2023, Barrows-Friedman shared an update on X of the “victories” of Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades, including the claim celebrating that 50 Israeli soldiers had been injured or killed and calling them “(US)-Israeli forces.”

Mousa Alsadah

Writer and researcher Mousa Alsadah was expelled from his university in the UAE for "activist behavior" related to Arab Spring protests before securing a scholarship to the University of Amsterdam through "Study Without Borders." Despite claiming to research migrant integration in the Netherlands, his actual work focuses on "Arab liberation" and "resistance."

In July 2024, he published "Palestine: An Algerian Moment," comparing the Hamas-led October 7 attack to the Algerian Revolution against French colonialism. In the article, he celebrated October 7th as a watershed military operation, endorsed violent resistance, rejected peaceful solutions, and branded those advocating for negotiated settlements as "collaborators."

Diana Buttu

The Canadian-Palestinian lawyer, a former PLO negotiator, now argues Israel is “beyond an apartheid regime” and calls for dissolving the Palestinian Authority saying after it’s absolution Palestinians could “once again confront Israel’s occupation in a strategic way.” She also spoke about Hamas potentially joining the replacement. In interviews, she has defended Hamas stocking rockets in schools and shooting rockets at Israeli civilian populations.

Lama Ghosheh

The East-Jerusalem journalist was convicted in July 2023 of “incitement to violence” and “identification with a terrorist organization” for Israel over 11 Facebook posts lauding Palestinian terrorists. An Israeli court imposed nine months of community service and a three-year suspended prison term, citing the reach of her 20,000-plus followers.

Mariam Barghouti

An American-born Palestinian journalist based in Ramallah, Mariam has built her reputation on provocative commentary about Israeli policies. Barghouti published a particularly inflammatory statement declaring that "Israel has been beating Hitler at his own game since 1948.”

As Hamas launched its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Barghouti celebrated the moment with a tweet that "Gaza just broke out of prison," words that effectively endorse the deadly assault that claimed over 1,200 lives.

Abubaker Abed

Also featured is Abubaker Abed, a Palestinian journalist now based in Ireland, whose commentary has extended beyond criticism of Israel to justification of violence against his own people. In a January social media post, Abed rationalized Hamas’ extrajudicial execution of Palestinians, arguing that they were all "collaborating with the Israeli military to steal aid, geolocate Palestinian people, and bomb them." On October 7th, he posted on X that "glad tidings are spread around Gaza.…"

Layan Fuleihan

An activist and educational director at The People's Forum, Layan has openly promoted the concept of “martyrdom.” During her speech at last year’s conference, she invoked the memory of PFLP terrorist Walid Daqqa, and declared that Palestinians have "two options: with victory or death," language that critics argue constitutes a clear endorsement of terrorism.

Fadi Quran

A Stanford University graduate, Fadi was detained by Palestinian Authority security forces in 2021 alongside Khader Adnan, a now-deceased Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader who had been arrested at least 12 times for his terror activities. Photographs show Fadi protesting alongside Bassel Al-Araj, a Palestinian intellectual-turned-terrorist who was part of a terrorist cell and was killed in a gunfight with the IDF.

Lamees Mehanna

An activist and associate director at Columbia University, Lamees reportedly called for the elimination of Israel in December 2023, stating, “2023 was the beginning of the end for the Zionist entity Israel,” and demanding “an end to the occupation” and “an end to all Western aid and complicity in the State of Israel.” She has allegedly also led chants supporting Palestinian terrorism and has been affiliated with the Palestinian Youth Movement.

Hatem Bazian

Hatem Bazian is a Palestinian-American professor at UC Berkeley and co-founder of both Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), widely recognized as a leading figure in campus activism against Israel. Bazian is also a leader of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and has a documented history of making statements critics label as antisemitic, including denying Jewish peoplehood, comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, and amplified conspiracy theories about Israeli actions, such as claims of organ harvesting.

Last Year’s Conference

Last year’s saw PFLP co-founder Salah Salah send a video endorsement for the conference, while PFLP member Wisam Rafeedie spoke to the audience virtually and praised the October 7 massacre. News outlets documented dozens of chants urging a “global intifada,” and applauding the Houthi terror group’s missile attacks on Israel, and calling for the dismantlement of the United States.

The conference's extremist nature was further exemplified by its decision to name the main hall after Walid Daqqa, a convicted PFLP terrorist who participated in the 1984 kidnapping, torture, and murder of Israeli soldier Moshe Tamam. His widow, Sana Daqqa, was a keynote speaker at the 2024 event.

Those precedents, combined with the 2025 line-up above, suggest the upcoming conference will serve less as a civil-society teach-in than as a megaphone for groups historically aligned with Hamas and the PFLP.