Tlaib tells pro-Palestinian activists to continue protest: 'We are winning'

Carol Thompson, The Detroit News on Aug 31, 2025

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Pro-Palestinian activists are making headway with Americans and in Congress, U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib said during a sweeping speech to thousands gathered for a weekend conference in downtown Detroit.

She said her colleagues in Congress are "scared" by protesters at their district offices and town hall attendees questioning U.S. arms sales to Israel. She said activists are "winning" outside of Washington, D.C., and encouraged them to continue mobilizing for Palestinian rights, boycotting companies that support Israel's war and protesting the U.S. support of Israel.

"The tide is turning in a way that it can never be turned back," she said. "Palestine will be free."

Tlaib was the closing speaker at the People's Conference for Palestine, a weekend conference at Huntington Place that ended Sunday. She exited to a standing ovation.

The conference was organized by pro-Palestinian groups. Other speakers included doctors who have worked recently in Gaza, a local civil rights attorney, journalists, artists and activists including Mahmoud Khalil, who was detained for 104 days for his role in pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University.

Khalil spoke Saturday. He said he continues to appear publicly and speak on behalf of Gaza despite the risk it places on his freedom because "silence is not an option."

"I will not remain silent in the face of genocide," he said. "I will not be silent when people are being starved and massacred."

Tlaib is first Palestinian American elected to Congress, which she noted is an achievement of the Detroit voters who sent her to D.C. She credited Detroit and her Palestinian heritage with teaching her to rely on people, not institutions, and to continue speaking up for Palestinian people.

"They thought they could kill us, rape us, imprison us, uproot us from our olive tree farms, starve our children to death, and we would disappear," she said. "Well guess what? Now we're in Congress."

Tlaib read a letter written by a Palestinian woman about her experience raising children amid the bombing, food insecurity and squalid conditions in Gaza. She also likened America's arms sales to Israel to recent moves by the Republican-led Congress and the Trump Administration to cut health care spending and food assistance programs in the most recent budget and deploy federal agents in cities including Los Angeles, California, and Washington, D.C.

"A government that doesn't value human life in Gaza will never value human life in our country," Tlaib said.

Erin Cavataro, the Jewish Federation of Detroit's director of community relations, previously told The News her organization is "deeply disturbed that the (conference) provides a platform to speakers advocating for the destruction of Israel.

"(It) does nothing to advance peace and alarmingly escalates tensions in Detroit, around the country and abroad," she said.

Cavataro also said she looks forward to a day when there is peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and when the region is not threatened by terrorist organizations.

Tlaib spoke after Belal Muhammad, a mixed martial artist and former UFC Welterweight Champion who is of Palestinian descent. He said his fights are merely games compared to the fighting Palestinians do daily to survive. They are "the strongest people in the world," he said.

Muhammad encouraged people to proudly display Palestinian flags and wear their keffiyeh to symbolize their Palestinian heritage.

"Show them we walk with pride," he said. "Show them who you are."

Israel launched a massive offensive into Gaza after Hamas-led militants attacked Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023, killing roughly 1,200 people and capturing 251. Hamas still holds some hostages amid foundering cease-fire negotiations.

Since it started its campaign in 2023, Israel has killed more than 63,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The United Nations in August declared there was famine in Gaza alongside increasing spread of preventable disease.

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