“Squad” Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) is slated to be a speaker at a conference headed by an anti-Israel coalition that has come under fire for being linked to Palestinian terror groups, a flyer shows.
Tlaib will appear between Oct. 27-29 in Houston, Texas, at the national conference for the United States Campaign for Palestinian Rights, which has reportedly fiscally sponsored the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions National Committee and accused Israel of “apartheid,” “ethnic cleansing,” and “genocide,” according to the campaign’s website.
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“It is anti-American and even treasonous for Tlaib to speak at a USCPR conference that falsely condemns America as an ‘imperialist,’ and aims to ‘mobilize action’ against America, Israel, Jews, and Jews on American college campuses,” President Morton Klein of the Zionist Organization of America, the oldest pro-Israel American nonprofit group, told the Washington Examiner. “The leadership of the Democratic Party should publicly condemn Rashida Tlaib and demand she not speak at this anti-American, anti-semitic conference.”
News of Tlaib’s forthcoming appearance at the USCPR event comes as she continues to face heightened criticism from Republicans and her Democratic colleagues over her anti-Israel positions. In May, Permanent Israel Representative to the United Nations Gilad Erdan said the congresswoman’s “ignorance and hatred toward the Jewish people and the state of Israel know no bounds,” following Tlaib posting on social media that “the apartheid state of Israel was born out of violence and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.”
Many House Democrats, including Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Elaine Luria (D-VA), Jerry Nadler (D-NY), and Ritchie Torres (D-NY), notably condemned Tlaib last September upon her alleging that “Israel’s apartheid government” does not align with “progressive values.” Tlaib joined other left-leaning Democrats in July to boycott Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s joint address to Congress, releasing a joint statement with Rep. Cori Bush (R-MO) that dubbed Israel “an apartheid state.”
USCPR, which fundraises through its U.S. charity called Education for Just Peace in the Middle East, has routinely slammed efforts by Israel’s government to thwart terrorism. This includes its signing of a statement in August 2022 that took issue with its move to designate six Palestinian groups as proxies for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine — a U.S.-designated terror organization.
The BDS National Committee, which Tablet revealed in 2018 was sponsored by USCPR, includes the Council of National and Islamic Forces in Palestine, according to its website. The council’s members have, in turn, included U.S.-designated terror groups, such as the Popular Front, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Palestinian Liberation Front, and others, according to the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, the BDS coalition website, and the U.S. State Department.
Jeffrey Berk, head of the pro-Israel advocacy group TruthTells, said it’s “incomprehensible” Tlaib would choose to be affiliated with USCPR — calling for her to be censured.
The conference is taking place at Hilton Houston Post Oak by the Galleria, a 4-star hotel, while regular admission costs $225 per ticket. The Hilton is only roughly five miles from Congregation Beth Yeshurun, a conservative synagogue that serves 2,000 families.
Other speakers for the USCPR are listed as liberal activist Marc Lamont Hill, Diala Shamas, a lawyer who has said “Boycott is among oldest & noblest forms of protests” upon reacting to entrepreneur Andrew Yang criticizing BDS in 2021, and Nida Abubaker, the daughter of Shukri Abu Baker.
Shukri Abu Baker was sentenced by the Justice Department in 2009 to 65 years in prison and convicted on 10 counts of conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, among other charges. He incorporated the Holy Land Foundation, a defunct nonprofit group that the U.S. government shut down in December 2001 over it bankrolling the terror group Hamas.
“Seize the Moment! Together we’re building toward a vibrant future where all people can be free, in defiance of Israeli repression and U.S. imperialism,” a description of the conference on USCPR’s website reads. “We’ll convene at a critical moment, in solidarity with the Palestinian people resisting 75+ years of ethnic cleansing.”
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Tlaib’s office and the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights did not reply to requests for comment.
A spokesman for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) did not reply.
