For the second year in a row, Palestinian diaspora and solidarity activists are set to convene in Detroit, Michigan, for the second edition of the People’s Conference for Palestine.
Last year in late May, 3,000 pro-Palestine activists met in Detroit for a three-day conference. The conference took place at a historic juncture for the Palestine movement in North America, weeks after the height of the global student movement of “Gaza Solidarity Encampments” and eight months into Israel’s genocide of the Gaza Strip. In this political moment, when global consciousness in solidarity with Palestine reached new heights, leaders in the pro-Palestine movement throughout North America met to review strategy and plan for the future.
Activists discussed the highlights of the growing movement for Palestine, which had seen skyrocketing mass participation since October of 2023. These highlights included the historic national marches in Washington DC against the genocide, students protesting for divestment on their college campuses, sometimes enduring brutal state repression, and university workers in California going on strike for the right of these students to protest. Conference attendees heard from celebrated figures in the fight for Palestinian liberation, including Sana’ Daqqah, activist, journalist, and the wife of the martyred prisoner Walid Daqqah, and physician Mustafa Barghouti, secretary general of the Palestinian National Initiative.
This conference also marked the official launch of the Palestinian Youth Movement’s campaign “Mask Off Maersk,” aiming to shed light on the enormous role played by Danish shipping giant Maersk in transporting weapons to Israel as it carries out genocide in Gaza. The past year has marked major victories in this campaign, including Spain’s government blocking Maersk ships bound for Israel, Palestine solidarity protests in Morocco successfully delaying a Maersk ship reportedly carrying military equipment to the Zionist state, all culminating the the most recent major victory – Maersk deciding to divest from companies in Israeli settlements.
This year’s conference is being organized by a coalition of 12 groups – the Palestinian Youth Movement, the US Palestinian Community Network, The People’s Forum, Al-Awda: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, the Palestinian Feminist Collective, the ANSWER Coalition, the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, the People’s Center for Palestine, National Students for Justice in Palestine, Writers Against the War on Gaza, and the Arab Resource Organizing Center (AROC).
To discuss what’s in store for this year as activists once again convene to address the current moment and strategize for the future, Peoples Dispatch spoke to Roua Daas, an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement. According to Daas, this year’s conference is centered around three goals: “to isolate and expose Zionism,” “to engage our role and ability to support in the rebuilding of Gaza and strengthen the steadfastness of the Palestinian people,” and “to strengthen the grassroots movement for Palestine in North America.”
“The Zionists have done everything in their power to rewrite history,” Daas told Peoples Dispatch. “But the Zionists ultimately have failed. The grassroots movement has been able to expose the truth about Israel to the world, and we must continue to do so.”
Read the full interview below:
Peoples Dispatch: What is the importance of this current political moment in pro-Palestine activism, and why do you feel it’s important to build the movement for Palestine in North America in particular?
Roua Daas: This conference is a really critical intervention in this moment in time for a few reasons. As we have seen over the past few months, the Trump administration has been leading an assault on pro-Palestine activism in the US in an attempt to decapitate a movement that has taken the country and the entire world by storm.
We see this with the detention of Mahmoud Khalil and other pro-Palestine activists. We understand this as an attempt by the state to respond to the question of how much repression can we actually get away with. And with the recent release of Mahmoud Khalil, what we already know to be true has been reaffirmed: that when the people rise, they win.
This conference is an affirmation that no matter what the Trump administration or any fascist or imperial government throws at us, the people will never back down. The Trump administration’s crackdown on Palestine organizing has been a testament to how powerful our organizing in North America has been, and how important and crucial it’s been to not just the Palestine liberation movement in general, but also to the demand for a ceasefire and an end to the current genocide.
This conference is going to include a lot of different things. It’s going to include some really important political programing that covers the significant developments that we’ve seen unfold across the Arab world and have like the geopolitical changes that we have seen, and it’s also going to feature really rich cultural performances.
This conference is going to be a place for all ages and all backgrounds. It’s a place for children and youth to engage with their Palestinian national identity. It’s a place for community members to build connections. It’s a place for organizers to learn new strategies. It’s really a place for everyone.
PD: The first Palestine conference was held during the Biden administration. Based on what you’ve said about Trump’s policies, can you expand on what it’s been like setting up for this conference in this political context, versus last year?
RD: When we put on when we put together the First People’s Conference for Palestine last year, we were also in a really critical moment in not just the genocide, but in the Palestine movement in North America. We were in the midst of the student encampments. We had seen that after almost a year of genocide, the people all around the US, all around Canada, had stood up and were continuing to stand up for Palestinian liberation.
The organizing of this conference, both the first and the second time, comes amid a moment in which we are intervening in Zionist tactics, whether it be under the Biden administration or the Trump administration, that have attempted to stifle our movement.
We know that as part of their attempts to distort reality, Zionists have tried to paint the Palestine movement as a fringe movement or and discredit anyone that speaks out against it. But we know that that is a lie, that our movement is a people’s movement, and that hundreds of millions of people have continued to take action and to protest and to rise, and this conference will be a continuation of that.
The Zionists have done everything in their power to rewrite history. From targeting journalists in Gaza, to spending millions of dollars on propaganda to the deportations, and attempting to discredit and demonize those who have bravely stood with the Palestinian people.
But the Zionists ultimately have failed. The grassroots movement has been able to expose the truth about Israel to the world, and we must continue to do so.
I think it’s really important to view this conference as part of that effort. It is part of the effort to record history. It is part of the effort to popularize the truth and to show that if there is, there is no better way of continuing to expose Israel than thousands of people saying that I will continue to protest, I will continue to organize in my local community, I will continue to demand an arms embargo, and I will fly across the country to attend a national conference.
PD: We’re also at a time where we have this regime of mass deportations imposed by the Trump administration. You spoke earlier about Mahmoud Khalil. Many see the struggle for his release as an intersection between the movement for Palestine and the movement for immigrant rights. Could you speak to the ways that this mass movement, that is quite popular throughout North America, has intersected with other struggles around issues that some might see as unrelated?
RD: I think the past 20 months of of genocide and of political organizing for the Palestine has really changed the world in many ways.
I think one of the ways that it’s done that is exactly what you’re talking about, over the past almost two years at this point, not just Palestinians, but people of conscience, and anyone that wants justice and liberation for for all peoples have been able to see the systems of oppression as as they connect between all struggles.
As we’re seeing deportations of of immigrants in in many places across the US by the Trump administration, we see, of course, also the deportations of students who have fought for Palestine and spoke out against the genocide. Seeing these movements and this repression occur at the same time has displayed these connections and has enabled people to to stand together in a time where it is really necessary.
PD: I also wanted to ask you about the recent victory in the Mask Off Maersk campaign. It is quite remarkable that Maersk did vote to divest from Israeli settlements. This is a campaign that was announced in last year’s Palestine Conference. What’s planned for the future?
RD: As you said, the Palestinian Youth movement launched the Mask of Maersk Campaign at the First People’s Conference for Palestine. This campaign works to target the world’s largest logistics company, which is Maersk, for being a key player in the transportation of military cargo to Israel. And recently, Maersk announced that it is cutting ties with companies linked to illegal Israeli settlements, which makes it one of the first and largest shipping and logistics companies to commit to compliance with the UNHCR’s database.
This has been a really historic move by Maersk, a leader in the industry, and sets a precedent for commerce with entities that flout international law. And we know that this victory was won through tireless research, organizing, and continued pressure by both the Mask Off Maersk campaign and the global popular pressure for a people’s arms embargo.
So whether that be in the mobilizations that have happened in the US, whether that be the workers in Morocco, whether that be actions happening in Rotterdam and all of these pressure points that have come together in order to pressure Maersk to cut ties with these companies, at the People’s Conference for Palestine this year we’ll actually be discussing some of the key lessons that we have learned and building the next phases of the campaign and the arms embargo movement.
