Around 4500 Palestinian activists, organisers, and allies gathered last week in Detroit in the US for the People’s Conference for Palestine, the second such gathering since the genocide intensified in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on southern Israel.
Entitled ‘Gaza Is the Compass,’ the conference was a space for collective determination of next steps in the movement to put an end to the current critical moment, as well as bring together critical voices in the struggle to plan ahead for a better future. It was a conference that focused on what ‘the people,’ not politicians or academics, can and are willing to do.
The conveners of the conference were mostly grassroots organisers from the Palestine Youth Movement, the Palestinian Feminist Collective, the US Palestinian Community Network, National Students for Justice in Palestine, The People’s Forum, Al-Awda: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, the Arab Resource Organizing Center, and more.
Continuing a history of radicalism
The choice of Detroit as the host city was no mere happenstance: it is home to the largest Arab community in the US, it is a majority Black city that bears the scars of racism and economic depression, and yet is phoenix-like in its defiance. It is also home to the first Palestinian American member of congress, the fiery Rashida Tlaib. And, as organiser Rama Ali Kassed reminded us, Detroit is also home to the first successful BDS campaign for Palestine, when United Auto Workers boycotted Israel bonds in the 1970s.
For organisers, Detroit is an icon of resilience and revival, overcoming hardship through collective work that is community-driven. As Congresswoman Tlaib put it, the city is a reminder that “it is not Congress that will free us, it is always us, it can only be us.”
The energy throughout the gathering was intense. From keynotes and plenaries to workshops and side conversations outside meeting rooms and at vendor tables, as well as late at night at Arabic food restaurants in nearby Dearborn, participants left with clear analysis as well as concrete tools and strategies to bring back to their hometowns, workplaces, and unions.
Speakers urged us to take bold action, disrupt the supply chain of death and destruction, and asserted their conviction that liberation is just around the corner. We were constantly reminded that whatever price we may pay for our activism in the diaspora, that price pales when compared to what our people are going through in Gaza.
Professor Hatem Bazian gave a fiery address uplifting students, as he explained that, just as South Africa was the “address” of the student movement of the 1970s and 1980s, so Gaza is the central address of today’s student movement. He added that history will remember the students who were expelled and denied their degrees, while tossing the chancellors and administrators and police officers who arrested them into the dustbin of history.
Organising to win
Human rights activist Huwaida Arraf insisted on the power of the people to break the siege, reminding us that Gaza does not need “aid,” it needs freedom. And the audience rose to its feet when Mahmoud Khalil, the outspoken student activist who was kidnapped and imprisoned for over 100 days, urged us to continue speaking up. As he finished his remarks, the crowd erupted with the chant “We believe that we can win,” a collective version of the mantra that had sustained him during his imprisonment.
There was a general understanding that, just as one cannot expect to win a military conflict with a hypermilitarised power through conventional warfare, so our activism has to be “guerilla activism,” rather than lobbying politicians, bribing, and other such dirty politics at which the Zionists excel. AIPAC, of course, was deservedly singled out for contempt and scorn.
Some of the sessions gave practical advice. PYM organizer Aisha Nizar, for example, explained that going for various components of the supply chain of weapons transportation, in different locations and factories, is a highly effective strategy that can disrupt the entire system. And, as an Italian speaker pointed out, because the EU is currently ramping up its armament, primarily because of Russia’s war on Ukraine, Palestinians must build coalitions with Europeans who are opposed to militarisation.
Felipe Uthman of Chile explained that in the Latin American context, reaching out to people through the common love of football , especially the very popular Club Deportivo Palestino, was the way to start conversations, and organising, around Palestine.
On campuses across North America the movement for Gaza did not stop once the encampments were taken down at the end of last academic year, instead, it pivoted. And, as we approach the second anniversary of October 7, there is an ever greater commitment to forge coalitions, reinforce alliances, strategise and organise together. Our intention is not only to end the current genocide, but also confront racism, militarism, authoritarianism, incarceration, and repression everywhere.
What is happening in Gaza today will soon happen again, or is already taking place here in North America too.
Hope?
On my last day in Detroit, as I entered the rideshare car to the airport, I immediately noticed that the driver had a keffiyeh wrapped around his car head rest. I commented on it, and he told me he had grown up in a white Evangelical family steeped in Zionist ideology, but that he somehow broke free from the lies, many years ago. He said he was a proud and loud anti-Zionist, and that his keffiyeh was his way of starting political conversations with passengers.
I texted a friend of mine about the encounter, and she responded that, on her flight back, the passenger next to her noticed her conference T-shirt, told her he was a doctor, and asked her where he could send contributions.
Another friend, who always decks himself out in political clothes, from his hat to his shirt to his bags and water bottle, posted that he was getting many smiles and nods as he walked through the airport.
It’s true, the movement for Palestine has gained ground. And while I still think there is something jarring about feeling hopeful here in the US while the genocide, the starvation, the destruction continue unabated in Gaza, at least for now, I also want to allow myself to hope. Because if we understand that we are not just in the belly of the beast, paying taxes that fund the genocide, but rather, in the brain of the monster, which has so far absolved Israel of its crimes, then we must also understand that the groundswell of support for Palestine, is indeed the beginning of the end of Zionism.
The task is huge, but not so daunting as to make us give up. Our commitment is unwavering, we know we are on the right side of history, and we know that we will win.
Nada Elia is Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies at Western Washington University, and author of Greater than the Sum of Our Parts: Feminism, Inter/Nationalism, and Palestine.
Follow her on X: @nadaelia48
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