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A U.S.-based pro-Palestinian group is preparing to host two men with documented ties to designated terrorist organizations for an October 24 discussion about the upcoming American and Israeli elections, including a convicted terrorist released from Israeli prison in the 2025 Hamas hostage deal.
The People’s Center for Palestine (PCP), an organization involved in political education, activist training, and children’s summer camps, has invited Hossam Shaheen, a former leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades convicted in Israel of attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder, and Sami Al-Arian, a former American professor who pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide services to Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).
The October 24 webinar, titled “Palestine & the 2026 Elections: Forces, Stakes, and Possibilities,” will examine American support for Israel, electoral developments, and their implications for the pro-Palestinian movement in the United States.
Neither speaker’s terrorism-related history is disclosed in the event’s promotional material, which presents Shaheen as a Palestinian political analyst and Al-Arian as a Palestinian thinker now residing in Turkey after four decades in the United States.
A Convicted Terrorist Released in the Hamas Hostage Deal
Shaheen, whose full name is Hossam Zuhdi Dawoud Shaheen, was a senior figure in Fatah’s armed Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades during the Second Intifada.
According to a September 2025 Jerusalem Post investigation, Shaheen established an Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades cell in the Jerusalem area, recruited operatives, and supplied weapons for attacks. He was arrested in Ramallah in January 2004 and sentenced to 27 years in prison for attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
His leadership role was also acknowledged in an August 2026 Arabic-language biography published by the Vision Center for Political Development, which identifies him as having become one of the leaders of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades during the Second Intifada.
Shaheen was released on February 1, 2025, after approximately 21 years in Israeli custody, as part of the prisoner exchange accompanying the ceasefire and hostage release agreement between Israel and Hamas.
Months later, he appeared remotely at the August 2025 People’s Conference for Palestine in Detroit, participating in a session titled “The Palestinian Struggle Behind Bars.”
His appearance had already generated controversy before the conference. In an August 21 letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Michigan Republican lawmakers highlighted Shaheen’s criminal history and urged scrutiny of international speakers associated with terrorist organizations.
The Jerusalem Post subsequently confirmed that Shaheen spoke remotely at the gathering, despite his panel being absent from the conference’s official video archive. The connection is particularly significant because PCP was itself among the organizations involved in convening the 2025 conference, alongside the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), the People’s Forum, and other activist groups.
Sami Al-Arian’s Palestinian Islamic Jihad Conviction
The second speaker, Sami Al-Arian, is a former University of South Florida professor who was prosecuted in one of the most prominent American terrorism-financing cases of the 2000s.
In April 2006, Al-Arian pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide services to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization responsible for attacks against Israeli civilians.
He was sentenced to 57 months in prison. At sentencing, federal Judge James Moody described him as a “master manipulator” and a “leader of the PIJ,” according to the Justice Department. Al-Arian had previously been acquitted on eight charges, with jurors deadlocked on others, before his guilty plea resolved the remaining prosecution.
The Organization Behind the Webinar
PCP describes itself on its website as a resource and organizing institution dedicated to strengthening the Palestinian movement in the diaspora.
The center also states:
“Through resources and programming ranging from educational sessions to summer camps and conferences, we build capacity for the Palestinian liberation struggle and solidarity movement.”
Its activities reflect that objective. PCP has developed political-education programs, organizer-training initiatives, publishing projects, and children’s summer camps while participating in larger American pro-Palestinian coalitions.
Several members of PCP’s leadership have documented backgrounds in the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM). Operations and communications manager Jenan Awaida, education director Danya Al-Saleh, and publications editor Kaleem Hawa have all been publicly identified as PYM organizers. Its board president, Hatem Al-Mohtasib, is a co-founder of San Diego’s Majdal Arab Community Center.
PCP accepts public contributions through Givebutter, although its broader financial structure remains unclear.
Promotion of Literature By of Convicted PFLP Terrorists
PCP’s educational and publishing activities also intersect with the Palestinian prisoners’ movement and promotion of pro-terror literature.
As Jewish Onliner previously reported, the organization sponsored a panel at the September 2026 Socialism Conference in Chicago, organized by Haymarket Books.
The session, titled “Palestinian Revolutionary Thought and the Prisoners’ Movement,” featured three PCP personnel, Jenan Awaida, Danya Al-Saleh, and Ribhi Hussein, and explored the writings of figures including Ahmad Qatamesh and Walid Daqqa.
Qatamesh has been accused by Israeli authorities of holding leadership roles in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), another U.S.-designated terrorist organization. Daqqa was convicted for his involvement in the 1984 kidnapping and murder of Israeli soldier Moshe Tamam.
PCP has also announced a publishing collaboration with Monthly Review Press to translate Daqqa’s novel The Ticket Seller into English, with plans to distribute the book through political movements, universities, and bookstores.
Its educational materials feature Ghassan Kanafani, a founding figure and former spokesperson of the PFLP, including in promotional material for its Winter School for Palestine Organizing.
Children’s Summer Camp Workbook Features Images of Armed Terrorists and Activist Training
One of PCP’s more concerning initiatives is “Camp Palestine”, a summer program developed with Southern California-based Sawa SoCal for Palestinian children and teenagers aged 7 to 18.
According to the center’s camp website, the organizations began developing the initiative in 2024 and held their second annual camp in 2026.
An examination of three workbooks published by PCP reveals that the program’s curriculum extends beyond Palestinian history, geography, and cultural identity.
The 40-page high-school workbook, intended for participants aged 14–17, includes a lesson titled “Palestinian Organizing in Exile and Under Occupation.”
On page 24, teenagers are instructed to fill out a chart identifying organizations discussed during a lecture. Directly beneath the exercise are two photographs depicting armed Palestinian terrorists carrying rifles and other weapons.
Later sections move explicitly into contemporary political organizing.
Page 33 asks students how Palestinian youth in the United States can contribute to the Palestinian struggle today. The following page introduces concepts including political power, strategy, and tactics, listing walkouts, divestment campaigns, encampments, coalition-building, protests, and strikes as examples of student organizing.
Students are subsequently asked to consider how to expand their influence, identify potential supporters, select tactics, and determine which actions to undertake first.
Near the workbook’s conclusion, a page features a photograph and message attributed to Anas al-Sharif, an Al Jazeera journalist killed in an Israeli airstrike in August 2025. The Israeli military identified al-Sharif as a Hamas operative who led a terrorist cell involved in advancing rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers. The IDF said intelligence recovered in Gaza, including personnel rosters, training records, phone directories, and payroll documents, established his membership and operational role within Hamas.
The final page asks teenagers to sign a personal commitment to continue learning and using their newly acquired knowledge “in service of Palestine.”
The Big Picture
Its October 24 webinar now brings two figures with documented histories involving U.S.-designated terrorist organizations into a discussion of American elections: a former Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades leader convicted of violent offenses and a former professor whom a federal judge identified as a leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Neither man’s terrorism-related background is disclosed in the event’s promotional materials.