All international speakers for the August 29-31 Detroit People’s Conference for Palestine will be placed on a visa ‘“look out” status due to the terrorist sympathies of many lecturers, a State Department spokesperson said Friday evening following a Jerusalem Post report revealing that event speakers would include a convicted terrorist released as part of a hostage deal with Hamas.
The State Department is flagging the speakers so that it will be alerted if a visa request is submitted and can process the matter accordingly. The spokesperson said that it would ensure applicants don’t pose safety or security risks to the US or intend to engage in activities contrary to the terms of admission into the country.
Following the Tuesday Post report that Hussam Shaheen would be speaking at the Detroit conference, Congresspeople John Moolenaar, Jack Bergman, Bill Huizenga, Tim Walberg, Tom Barrett, Lisa McClain, and John James sent letters to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Attorney-General Pam Bondi urging the administration not to allow the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade terrorist to travel to Michigan.
The representatives warned Bondi on Thursday that while freedom of speech was a cornerstone of the country, allowing those with ties to federally designated terrorist groups to incite violence and antisemitism raised serious safety concerns.
“We request your Department to investigate to the fullest extent of the law any connections to terrorist organizations of those affiliated with the People’s Conference for Palestine and their invited guests,” read the letter to the attorney-general.
The politicians argued to Rubio that the country was under no obligation to let those with ties to terrorist organizations into its borders.
Detroit organizers reject efforts by pro-Israel figures to silence conference
As outrage spread about the Detroit conference participation by Shaheen and former Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) official Omar Assaf, event organizers said that it rejected attempts by pro-Israel figures and media to “smear and silence” the conference and would not “cower in the face of their attacks.”
“We want to be very clear: We remain undeterred and committed to the struggle for Palestinian liberation,” the People’s Conference said on Instagram on Wednesday. “The world has witnessed two years of genocide with full US complicity. While public support for Israel has plummeted, pro-Israel figures now believe that if they vilify Palestinian prisoners and journalists, they can pull the wool back over the eyes of the public. We affirm that nothing will silence us from sharing the stories of Palestinians tortured in Israeli prisons or of journalists who risked their lives to document Israel’s genocide.”
Organizers also charged that figures who once professed to champion free speech were now attempting to silence Palestinian activists.
After his 2004 arrest and sentencing to 27 years in prison for attempted murder and conspiracy to kill, Shaheen was released on February 1, 2025, along with hundreds of other terrorists as part of a deal in exchange for live and deceased hostages captured by Gazan forces during the October 7, 2023, massacre.
The People’s Conference announced last Monday that attendees would be able to “hear directly about the prisoners' struggle in Zionist prisons from freed prisoner, Hossam Shaheen.”
Assaf is also set to speak, and now represents the Popular Conference, which seeks reform of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO, which, immediately after the October 7 massacre, called for the Palestinian body to support the conflict against Israel.
The People’s Conference did not respond to queries about whether Shaheen and Assaf would be speaking remotely or in person, but the previous year’s conference also experienced a similar situation with Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) member Wisam Rafeedie.
Rafeedie was denied a visa and spoke at the event through a video call.
Last year’s event saw intense rhetoric in favor of terrorists and armed conflict as a means of destroying Israel. The keynote speaker was Sana’ Daqqah, wife of deceased PFLP terrorist Walid Daqqah.