by
Mike Rogers
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers, a former FBI agent and Congressman, on Friday condemned two scheduled speakers at a Detroit event — the International People’s Conference for Palestine, set for August 29–31.
“We shouldn’t be rolling out the red carpet for people who praise the murder of innocent kids, parents, and grandparents, or who enable terror in our communities," Rogers said in a statement. "They have no business rallying hate here in Michigan, and families deserve to know whether their Senate candidates will stand against it.”
The speakers include Hussam Shaheen, who had been serving a 27-year sentence in an Israeli prison for attempted murder but was released in February during a hostage exchange with Hamas.
The other speaker is Omar Assaf, a 74-year-old Palestinian activist from Ramallah in the West Bank. According to The Jerusalem Post and Haaretz, an Israeli publication, Assaf is the coordinator of the executive committees of the Palestinian Popular Conference, which praised the Oct. 7 attacks in southern Israel. After the attacks, he was held in an Israeli prison for six months without charges before being released.
Conference organizers have pushed back in recent days on social media against critics of the speakers, saying:
"We reject the attempt by pro-Israel figures and media to smear and silence the People’s Conference for Palestine. These same figures, who spent years screeching about free speech, are now calling on the federal government to crack down on our rights and silence Palestinian organizing. We want to be very clear: we remain undeterred and committed to the struggle for Palestinian liberation. The world has witnessed two years of genocide with full US complicity."
Also Read:
►Controversy Surrounds Palestinian Set To Speak at Detroit Conference. He Was Freed in Hamas-Israeli Hostage Swap (Deadline Detroit)
