The Shift: Tlaib smeared from both sides for the People’s Conference speech

I spent last weekend in Detroit, covering the People’s Conference for Palestine.

Over 3,000 people attended the event, where activists assessed and strategized the next phase of the protest movement. Every panel I attended was informative and inspiring, but my favorite part was being able to chat with organizers from around the country about their local fights. What campaigns they’re working on, what opposition they face, and what the political landscape looks like in their city or town.

Saturday featured a surprise speech from Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), who pulled no punches in calling out Democratic support for Israel’s assault. She said the President was “enabling” a “genocidal maniac” in Netanyahu and questioned why her colleagues lacked the courage to speak out on Gaza. “It is disgraceful that the Biden administration, and my colleagues in Congress, continue to smear (college protesters) for protesting,” she told the crowd. “It is cowardly. But we’re not going to forget in November, are we?”

Tlaib’s speech was predictably attacked across social media by Biden supporters. Talking Points Memo founder Josh Marshall said she should get primaried. Jonathan Chait wrote (yet another) column attacking the left over its position on Gaza. “In short, Tlaib is so angry at Biden for denouncing antisemitic rhetoric at pro-Palestine protests that she wants to elect the man who is promising to deport them from the country,” writes Chait.

Personally I think Tlaib is actually angry at Biden over the ongoing mass murder, but I dunno.

There’s a neat trick to figure out which Democrats get criticized for hurting Biden’s chances in November. If you’re on the left, you get criticized. If you’re on the right, you don’t. John Fetterman can show up on Fox News criticizing the administration over suspending a weapons shipment and no one claims that he’s supporting Trump.

Tlaib is also facing backlash for even attending the event. As these things generally go, pro-Israel voices and sites are claiming that the conference had terrorist connections and celebrated pro-terror messages. “The conference was decorated with terrorist propaganda,” declared Jewish Insider’s newsletter.

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) said Tlaib “should be removed from Congress immediately” over the speech, but (as usual) she also faced attacks within her own party.

“It’s unconscionable that Tlaib spoke at a conference alongside affiliates of a known terrorist group,” tweeted the lobbying group DMFI. “American leaders should be condemning, not condoning, terrorism. To her discredit, she also spread vicious lies about President Biden.”

In a statement to Jewish Insider Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) distanced himself from Tlaib, while somehow roping in China and Russia.

“As Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Senator Peters is also concerned that foreign adversaries, like the Chinese and Russian governments, have and will continue to try to exploit divisions within U.S. domestic politics to sow chaos, something our nation’s intelligence officials have warned about,” it read. “He urges Michiganders to be attentive to such potential interventions by foreign actors and organizations.”

On the last day of the conference news of the Rafah bombing broke. Before moving on from the subject, I think it’s worth visiting the closing statement made by the convening organizations. It’s a good summary of the current moment, but also reflects on what comes next:

A few hours ago, in Rafah, the Zionist occupation bombed a camp of displaced Palestinians sheltering in a so-called humanitarian zone. We call it a camp, but in reality it is a space densely packed with over 1.4 million forcibly displaced people who are seeking refuge in makeshift tents. The Zionist entity has made the entirety of the Gaza Strip unlivable. It has made safe havens into zones of destruction. The Zionist occupation has reached new levels of barbarity and this is because the western criminal forces have given the Zionist entity the material, military, and ideological support necessary for them to continue waging this war with complete impunity.

This is not a humanitarian crisis. This is a genocidal war against a colonized people to stifle and break our spirit. This is a war against humanity itself.

But brothers and sisters; do not let the occupation’s rage and blind destruction distract you from the absolute truth. The truth is that there are no bombs strong enough, no fires hot enough, no prison brutal enough to destroy the spirit of the Palestinian people. We are not a people that can ever be destroyed. The occupation does not know that for the Palestinian people, the dead becomes the martyr. The prisoner becomes the teacher. The besieged becomes the free. And the refugee becomes the key that will surely return to its rightful home. Victory is not an abstract concept or an unknown future. Victory is on the horizon. Victory is what we are here to organize for.

Our message to the Occupiers, to the forces of death and destruction: You have murdered and maimed with total impunity; you think your bombs and technologies of war will break the spirit and will of the Palestinian people; you think that your repression of our movement will stop us. But every martyr and every prisoner only strengthens our resolve and conviction: as families are destroyed and men are imprisoned, as our people in Gaza continue to be displaced into refugee tents, continue to face famine, and endure this brutal genocide, the least we can do—the very least that we can do—is to refuse capitulation and demobilization. No amount of intimidation or repression will deter the masses who have been awakened and exposed to the racist and genocidal nature of Zionism. We will be here, in the streets, on our campuses, in our classrooms, in our workplaces, every day until Zionism is defeated and until the total liberation and return of our people.

All of you here today, have been written into the history of the Palestinian struggle. We convened in Detroit, at the People’s Conference for Palestine, with over 3,500 people from across North America, and tens of thousands of people online. We have made our message clear: that we, the movement for Palestine in North America, and across the world, are here to fight until victory.

The convening organizations assembled this conference amidst both genocide and revolution—because it is our duty to grow this movement, as one arm out of many in the ongoing national liberation struggle for Falasteen. Over the course of the last three days, we have taken lessons from our history and present in order to apply them to the future. We have heard from movement leaders their experiences of victory, challenges, and defeats. We have built connections and relationships that will drive our movement forward. We honored our martyrs and prisoners, and the families that continue to carry their legacy.

They attempted to stop us; denying visas for speakers and harassing participants at the airports, and yet we were undeterred. Over the course of the last three days, we have consolidated around the immense contributions of the student movement and labor sector; explored the advancements in the cultural front; deepened our knowledge of how imperialism and imprisonment operate in Palestine; strategized around how to cut ties with Zionism in our workplaces; and aligned on campaign targets.

At this conference, we fundraised over $200,000 to rebuild Gaza and to support our people in Gaza, who have paid and continue to pay the ultimate sacrifice for liberation – and we know this is only a drop in the ocean of what we can and should do.

Friends, and comrades, brothers and sisters, we are up against an enemy that is highly organized. And so, we must be more organized. This is our commitment—the commitment to organization—that we leave here with.

We know that it is the resistance on the ground that will determine the course of the battle for Palestine, and that the battle will be long, and the conditions impossible to predict. However, it is certain that we are one step closer to liberation, and that liberation is not only possible, it is visible, tangible, and demanded by the masses of the world. But in order to march closer to liberation we in the far diaspora must be ready and we must prepare.

And so, before we conclude, we would like to highlight the ways all of you can continue to organize for Palestine. We have decided, as a steering committee, to build out infrastructure to better coordinate and respond to this moment. I want to leave you here with two important announcement.

First, June 8th will mark 8 months of US-Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people, and marks the 54th anniversary of the occupation of Gaza. A month ago, Biden said that the invasion of Rafah was a red line. But now, the invasion of Rafah has continued for weeks, has expanded to the entire Gaza Strip, and Biden’s red line is nowhere to be seen. Instead of following through and stopping military aid to Israel, Biden has authorized billions more in weapons shipments to be used to kill and massacre Palestinians.

Biden can’t draw the line, but we can. On June 8th, we will come together from across the country and surround the White House. Wearing red, and raising our demands high, we will show the world that we are the red line. We demand an immediate ceasefire, an immediate end to the siege on Gaza, the freedom for all Palestinian prisoners, and an end to the occupation of Palestine.

Finally, today, the Palestinian Youth Movement is launching a campaign to advance the demand for an arms embargo which will target the shipping and logistics company Maersk. This is the logistics company that has been responsible for transporting the most weapons and weapons components to Israel since the beginning of the genocide. This is the company that shipped 90% of the weapons that the US used in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is the company that is responsible for shipping thousands of weapons that are being used to massacre our people in Gaza.

We will not only go after one weapons company — we will go after ALL of them. For the past 8 months, people have been picketing and protesting individual weapons companies but now is the time for organized targeted campaigns. By going after Maersk, we are disrupting the literal flow and transportation of weapons of mass destruction. We will be hitting empire where it hurts most. So join our campaign, follow the Palestinian Youth movement to embark on an international campaign because we know that the power of the people can and will bring empire to its knees.

And with this, we end with a quote by the late martyr and revolutionary, Ghassan Kanafani, “Imperialism has laid its body over the world, the head in Eastern Asia, the heart in the Middle East, its arteries reaching Africa and Latin America. Wherever you strike it, you damage it, and you serve the World Revolution.” No matter what, WE will be at the forefront, continuing to expose their crimes and complicity in orchestrating the genocide by generating a political, economic, and moral crisis for imperialism that they cannot ignore.

Long live international solidarity, long live the Palestinian struggle!

AIPAC Starts Spending Big

We knew that AIPAC was going to spend more than $100 million this election season and the spout was recently turned to full blast.

The group’s Super PAC United Democracy Project plopped down $320,000 to spend against Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) for a single week.

AIPAC is backing prosecutor Wesley Bell in the race and he’s already taken more than $800,000 from the group.

“UDP, AIPAC, and their extensive network of far-right billionaires, anti-abortion extremists, and GOP megadonors have been promising to spend millions in their effort to defeat me ever since they first bribed my opponent to enter this race,” said Bush in a statement. “Unfortunately for them, organized people beats organized money, and our community is ready to show that St. Louis is not for sale.”

A blitz of pro-Israel money has also hit New York’s 16th district, where Jamaal Bowman is fighting for his political life against the pro-Israel George Latimer. AIPAC has already spent $8 million on the upcoming race. How many has Bowman been able to spend so far? Just $715,000.

Bowman was recently endorsed by the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). You might recall that the group considered expelling Bowman from the organization a few years ago, after he visited Israel on a J Street trip and voted for additional Iron Dome funding.

His criticisms of Israel have grown stronger since then, and he is one of the only congressional members to refer to the situation as a genocide. “Jamaal has been one of the strongest voices against genocide and for peace as many of his colleagues rush to warmonger,” tweeted the chapter, after they voted to endorse him. “Together, we WILL defend this seat from AIPAC and pro-war extremists!”

Bowman was asked about AIPAC’s spending during a recent appearance on CNN. “AIPAC, unfortunately, has shown itself to be a racist organization, an organization that’s supporting a genocide in Gaza right now,” he said. “And my opponent has partnered with them even though the majority of their donors are MAGA racist Republicans trying to take our voting rights, trying to take reproductive rights, gutting affirmative action, and supporting fascism.”

New York’s Democratic primary will take place in a month, while Missouri’s won’t occur until August.

Odds & Ends

🏫 The ‘blurred lines’ of Columbia’s Task Force on Anti-Semitism

🪧 The student uprising is fighting for all of us

🇮🇱 The dead end of liberal American Zionism

💰 Bowman echoes Democratic base on ‘genocide’ — and is ‘secretly’ targeted by the Israel lobby

🇮🇱 Jewish Insider: Fetterman renounces Harvard in Yeshiva University commencement address

⚖️ Middle East Eye: Why the Biden administration decided not to sanction the ICC

🇺🇳 Center for Constitutional Rights: U.S. Non-Profit Supporting Palestinian Refugees Faces Baseless Lawsuit Aimed at Defunding UNRWA

✝️ Pax Christi USA: Christian orgs call for boycott and divestment of companies supporting Israel’s military oppression of Palestinians

🇺🇸 Common Dreams: Ocasio-Cortez Says Biden Must Suspend Israeli Aid After ‘Indefensible Atrocity’ in Rafah

📱 Former Biden advisor Symone Sanders on Twitter: “The statements from some administration officials about not being able to verify what’s happening in Gaza are absurd. We can all see the pictures. It’s horrific.”

🚪 The Guardian: Two more US officials resign over Biden administration’s position on Gaza war

🏙️ Counterpunch: Brandon Johnson Dines with Biden, While Protests at the DNC Loom on the Horizon

🇺🇸 Truthout: Rafah Invasion Was Once Biden’s “Red Line” — But Israel Continues to Cross It

🛠️ In These Times: In an Historic Show of Labor Solidarity with Palestine, UAW Local 4811’s Stand-up Strike Grows by 12,000

🇺🇸 Jacqueline Sweet on Twitter: “Bronx Rep. Richie Torres was hosted last night at the home of controversial far-right Trump supporter and PR exec Ronn Torossian, who is also known for an alleged association with Pamela Geller, who is an anti-Muslim activist, herself known for multiple controversies, including pushing Obama birtherism.”

🏫 The Nation: The Gaza Protests Were a Mask-Off Moment for American Universities

🗳️ Politico: Bowman in crosshairs of Black voter group

📺 Jacobin: On Gaza, the Media Constantly Parrots the US Government Line