Rashida Tlaib To Speak at ‘Palestinian Diaspora’ Conference Alongside Avowed Terrorist Operative

William Rafeedie ran a ‘clandestine publishing house for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine’ in 1982

On Thursday, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) will speak at a conference on the “Power of the Palestinian Diaspora” with her son, Adam. Three days later, the conference is set to feature an avowed member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a U.S.-designated terror group, according to since-deleted online promotional materials reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.

Tlaib’s talk, titled, “Palestine Storytime,” will “introduce young children to Palestinian culture, history, and resistance through storytelling” and also feature her teenaged son, according to the Palestinian American Community Center (PACC), the organization behind the conference.  On the conference’s closing day, attendees will hear from Wissam Rafeedie, who operated a “clandestine publishing house for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine” before Israeli forces arrested him in 1991, according to anti-Israel organization Amnesty International. More recently, in the wake of Oct. 7, Rafeedie lauded Hamas as “part of the resistance of the Palestinian people.”

Rafeedie’s session—which is “fully virtual,” likely because Rafeedie could not secure a visa to enter the United States—is “dedicated to shedding light on the lives of Palestinian political prisoners and their ongoing resistance within Israeli prisons,” according to PACC’s promotional materials. While those materials first included the names and photos of all speakers, including Rafeedie, PACC quietly amended its website in the last week to swap in graphics that mention Tlaib but not Rafeedie.

The news comes as Tlaib barrels forward with her signature brand of anti-Israel advocacy. On Sunday, she introduced a measure that would block $4 billion in weapons sales to Israel, citing the Jewish state’s “genocidal bombing campaign.”

It is not the first time that Tlaib has spoken at a conference that also featured Rafeedie. Last year, she spoke at the People’s Conference for Palestine alongside Rafeedie and Salah Salah, a founding member of the PFLP. Rafeedie has, in recent years, defended Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror spree in Israel, claimed the “Zionists lie like they breathe,” and deemed Hamas “part of the resistance of the Palestinian people.”

Neither Tlaib nor PACC responded to requests for comment.

The group is based in Clifton, New Jersey, and has held an annual conference for the better part of a decade. Last year’s event declared that “Palestine is at the intersection of all forms of oppression” and featured remarks by Linda Sarsour, the notorious anti-Semitic activist who compared Zionism to “white supremacy in America.”

Liora Rez, the founder and executive director of StopAntisemitism, said Talib “has no business participating in an event that elevates a member of a known terrorist group.”

“Tlaib’s continued alignment with extremist figures speaks volumes about her disregard for American values and the fight against terrorism,” Rez told the Free Beacon. “What’s even more nauseating is her dragging her son into it.”

PACC, a registered nonprofit, bills itself as a “strictly a non-political and non-religious organization” with a mission to “sustain and strengthen ties to Palestinian heritage while empowering the success and well-being of the entire community.”

The center, however, helped mount an effort earlier this year to oppose the New Jersey legislature’s adoption of the the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of anti-Semitism, which is widely backed by pro-Israel groups in America. PACC and its allies opposed the move, claiming it would force the “Palestinian movement” to “relinquish the freedom of speech.”

PACC has also publicly promoted a children’s coloring book, From the River to Sea, a phrase that advocates for Israel’s destruction and replacement with a Palestinian state.