Palestinian Militants Meet: Ugly, Angry and Violent Voices

Khalil Calls for A National Liberation Movement

As I asked in my previous post, will this be a fall of peace or one of violence by Palestinian extremists?

Much was foretold this last weekend by Mahmoud Khalil, the formerly arrested Columbia University Palestinian student leader, who spoke before the pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel “People’s Conference for Palestine” held in Detroit, Michigan.

Khalil, the keynote speaker, told a room packed with thousands of pro-Palestinian militants that they should organize a “national liberation movement” in the United States.

“We should build a national liberation movement,” Khalil advised the activist audience who openly strategized for “resistance.”

The organizers were meeting in Michigan, home to the largest Palestinian American population in the country. And behind closed doors in strategy sessions, they were planning for the “next phase” of their protests within the United States.

Ugly, offensive, angry voices were heard throughout the three days of the meeting. According to the media group Honest Reporting the conference language showed it “was militarized, negative, and sought to encourage ‘liberation’ through violence and anger.”

Historically, national liberation movements have been uniformly violent. From Algeria and Vietnam, they have embraced the worldwide Marxist viewpoint that only violent struggle can lead to ultimate, revolutionary change.

Moreover, numerous speakers at the Detroit conference included actual terror leaders, according to Media Line. One of the most outrageous speakers was Hussam Shaheen, formerly of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade. Shaheen served 27 years in prison in Israel for attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder and was released in February 2025, along with hundreds of other terrorists in return for some of the hostages taken by Hamas during the October 7, 2023, attack.

Joining Shaheen was Omar Assaf, one of the founders of the U.S.-designated terrorist group called the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP).

Also speaking was Raja Abdulhaq who was banned from X for Hamas ties, and Mosab Abu Toha, who defended the atrocities of the October 7, 2023, attack and disparaged Israelis who were kidnapped by Hamas.

And speaking from East Jerusalem via video was Lama Ghosheh, who was convicted for inciting violence and praising terrorism in the West Bank and in Gaza. Anti-Israel activist Linda Sansour, of course, also spoke to the activists.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who was elected as the first Palestinian to Congress was there too. She defiantly told cheering Palestinian activists, “We aren’t going anywhere. We’re just getting started. I want to say to all of them, look at this room, mother-fuckers - we aren’t going anywhere!”

Tlaib routinely denounced many of America’s political institutions, including the U.S. Congress where she serves, saying they were objectively evil. “The political situation that I have to work in, that we are surrounded by, was built on slavery, genocide, rape and oppression.”

Channelling the rhetoric of the 1970’s she urged the activists to seek the “power in the streets,” telling the adoring crowd, “the power that we will have in the streets and pushing these institutions is going to work!”

Turkish American Twitch influencer Hasan Piker also appeared as a speaker. He has been repeatedly sanctioned by the streaming service. Piker told the Palestinian radicals they should act out of anger. “Do it out of spite…Find that anger within your heart to continue. Spite is also a good enough motivator,” he reportedly said.

Piker is infamous for saying “America deserved 9/11,” which he later claimed was satirical. But he’s been slammed by many sides, as Andrew Marantz of The New Yorker reported. "When Piker is criticized by the right, it’s usually for soft-pedalling the brutality of Hamas, or the Houthis, or the Chinese Communist Party... By the left, he is more likely to be dismissed as a limousine socialist who lives in a $2.7-million house."

The Jewish Federation of Detroit said it was found the conference disturbing.

“We’re deeply disturbed that the (conference) provides a platform to speakers advocating for the destruction of Israel,” said Erin Cavataro, the group’s director of community relations to the Detroit News. “(It) does nothing to advance peace and alarmingly escalates tensions in Detroit, around the country and abroad.”

Across the country, Pro-Palestinian violence against Jews appears to be building. This past Sunday, a group of protesters violently assaulted Jews in progressive Santa Monica, including an Israeli whose cousin was kidnapped from the Nova Festival on October 7 and later was murdered.

Ariel Yaakov Marciano, 24, was attacked at the Santa Monica Pier by a group of around 20 young men. He had traveled from Sacramento to Los Angeles for his cousin’s Bar Mitzvah.

The Jewish Journal reported that a week earlier that several Israelis were also attacked while walking home from synagogue near Wilshire and Crescent Heights. Eyal Dahan, who has two American-born sons currently serving in combat units in the IDF, told the Journal: “We were coming back from synagogue when a group of Hispanics ran toward us. They demanded that I say, ‘Free Palestine.’ I responded with, ‘Long Live the IDF.’ Then someone came from behind and punched me.”

Dahan added that he recognized the attacker from a video Marciano posted on social media. “It‘s the same guy who attacked me. They’re being paid $150 for three hours of protesting. They have nothing better to do.”

It comes on the heels of word last week that Jews in Boulder, Colorado are no longer publicly identifying their quiet walk that calls for the release of the hostages.

The peaceful group, called “Boulder Run For Their Lives” are no longer publicizing their walk “out of safety concerns.” This is the group in which 29 Jews were attacked and eight were burned last June after an anti-Israel man used Molotov cocktails to maim as many Jews as possible. A month after the attack, one of the victims, an 82-year-old woman, died from her “severe injuries.”

Mohamed Soliman, who faces 12 federal hate crimes and at least 100 state criminal charges in the June 1 attack said he wanted to “kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead.”

The group will no longer live-stream their walk, and they have hired private security and protection from off-duty police officers.

It also comes on the heels of seven anti-Israel protesters breaking into and occupying the office of Microsoft’s president. All were arrested and the Microsoft workers were fired.

The FBI reported that in 2024, 70% of all religious-based hate crimes were directed against Jews. It was the highest level since the bureau began keeping records on hate crimes in America.

Now, we have to see how this fall unfolds. Will it be peaceful or full of street violence glorifying Hamas?

Stay tuned.