Theresa Montano

The May 2024 and August 2025 People's Conference for Palestine (PCP) brought together several convicted terrorists or their spouses, dozens of anti-American and anti-Israel organizations and agitators, and thousands of activists in Detroit, Michigan.

They gathered under the backdrop of Israel's war against the Hamas terror group in Gaza, which Israel launched after 1,200 Israelis were murdered during the Hamas terror attacks of October 7, 2023.

They also gathered under the banner: "Gaza is the compass!...Zionism and imperialism [the U.S.] are waging a continuous genocide on Gaza, and we, the people of the world, will fight at every turn to reject it."

The Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) was the driver behind both conferences. PYM declared regarding the 2024 conference that "Palestinian prisoners are the compass of our struggle," a show of support for terrorists in Israeli jail. PYM's 2025 conference theme: “Gaza is the Compass.”

Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) sent a contingent to the 2024 conference, and they formally endorsed the 2025 conference.

The 2024 The People's Conference openly declared its goal to dismantle American and Israeli power structures, using the event as "an opportunity for us as a movement to develop...our people's right to resist the relationship between U.S. imperialism and Zionism...allow[ing] us to chart a path forward of resistance and struggle within the belly of the beast...to consolidate and concretize what our resistance will look like." Speeches and workshops also focused on tactics for mass mobilization to dismantle of the pro-Israel network.

The terms "empire" and "belly of the beast" are both euphemisms that anti-American activists use to describe the U.S. The term “resistance” is used as a euphemism for nationalistic terror.

The keynote speaker at the 2024 conference was the wife of Walid Daqqah, a terrorist with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). He was convicted of kidnapping and killing an Israeli soldier four decades earlier and the PFLP is a communist terror group designated by the U.S. State Department as a foreign terror organization.

Other speakers at the 2024 conference included U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) executive Taher Herzallah, and Mohammed Nabulsi, 2024 conference co-organizer and PYM activist.

The 2025 People’s Conference for Palestine also united participants with U.S.-based extremist organizations, designated terrorist affiliates and communist groups, all with the goal of coordinating strategies for confronting Zionism and U.S. “imperialism.” The event was co-organized by several anti-American and anti-Israel organizations in addition to PYM.

Speakers for the 2025 conference included two terrorists released from Israeli prisons, as well as anti-Israel political figures Linda Sarsour and pro-Hamas activist Mahmoud Khalil, and Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib.

Both conferences were held in support of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

The watermelon has been appropriated by terrorists and anti-Israel activists as a symbol of Palestinian "resistance" to "Israeli occupation," as it shares the Pan-Arab colors. It gained widespread popularity and usage following the Hamas terror attacks of October 7, 2023.

“Free Palestine!” is a chant used to call for Israel's destruction, acting as a shorter version of "From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free!" It was shouted during multiple deadly attacks on pro-Israel activists in 2025 in America. It has been used to vandalize synagogues and other Jewish buildings, and has been described as a "battle cry for the death of Jews.”

The symbol of red handprints employed by the anti-Israel community is a reference to the October 2000 Ramallah Lynching. The iconic picture representing the anti-Semitic atrocity perpetrated by a lynch mob depicts one of the terrorists who perpetrated the atrocity standing at a window with his hands in the air and his palms facing outward covered in the blood of the two Israeli soldiers he helped murder and mutilate.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas murdered approximately 1,200 Israelis, kidnapped 251 and wounded thousands. War crimes included various systematic sexual crimes like gang rape and genital mutilation. Men and women were violated, even after being murdered. Victims who survived that day, including hostages, endured forms of humiliation and torture.

Gazans working in the targeted Israeli villages provided intelligence to Hamas on which families to kill and torture, including long-time employers. Many Palestinian civilians joined in and celebrated the attacks. Hamas livestreamed their crimes on social media, including to victims’ accounts for families to see. To learn more, see the Canary Mission page on Hamas.