[News] The Struggle in Solidarity with Palestine Gains Strength in Detroit

[Anti-Imperialist News]

resumen-english.org
<https://resumen-english.org/2025/09/the-struggle-in-solidarity-with-palestine-gains-strength-in-detroit/>
The Struggle in Solidarity with Palestine Gains Strength in Detroit
------------------------------

By Bill Hackwell on September 1, 2025 in Detroit Michigan

all photos: Bill Hackwell

In a tremendous organizing effort, the second annual *People’s Conference
for Palestine: Gaza is the* *Compass* in Detroit has just concluded after a
3 day convention that organizers report drew 4,600 participants from around
the US and abroad. The event flew in the face of Trump and his pro Zionist
team who are the underwriters of the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian
people.

The conference brought together thousands of activists, journalists, labor
leaders and people of conscience despite attempts to undermine and prohibit
it from happening. “They have tried to intimidate us with smears, with
false accusations, and with every single available threat at their disposal
to stop this conference from happening, but we will not stop“, said Taher
Dahleh an activist and organizer with the *Palestinian Youth Movement,* the
convening organization of the People’s Conference.

It becomes ever more clear to anyone with their eyes open  that the US and
Israel, its garrison out post in the Middle East, is not just trying to
defeat the armed struggle, but to wipe Palestine off the map and all its
people out of existence. Their military operations through relentless
carpet bombing and starvation are oriented to kill men, women and
especially children who carry the future of the indigenous people of
Palestine. The over 250 journalists who have been targeted and killed for

all photos: Bill Hackwell

exposing the genocide were honored throughout the 3 days that included over
20 sessions and plenaries, exhibits, including Palestinian cultural
performances, a vendor fair and art exhibits.

A particularly moving panel on the final day of the conference featured
doctors who had worked in Gaza against impossible odds and talked about how
all 36 hospitals in Gaza have been bombed and stories about young children
carrying their wounded younger siblings miles to barely functioning
emergency rooms. To even compound this aspect of the genocidal war, the US
has recently stopped accepting anyone with a Palestinian passport from
obtaining visas including wounded Palestinian children coming for medical
treatment.

*Cuban solidarity activists at the Conference*

In the tradition of Fidel and the Cuban people, who have always stood for
the Palestinian cause, a large group of

Cuban solidarity activists from the National Network on Cuba in the US came
from South Carolina, California, Tennessee, Missouri, Maryland, Utah,
Illinois and New York, attended the conference. Cuba has held large
demonstrations in support of Palestine since the Israeli campaign of death
and destruction began often led by Cuban President Miguel Diaz Canel.
Despite suffering under the longest sanctions regime in history, Cuba has
given free medical training to more than 1,500 Palestinian students since
1982. 250 are currently studying in Havana, and an additional  200 places
were announced in 2024.

*Gaza is a mirror being held up to humanity*

Dr. Mohammad Mustafa, a Palestinian emergency doctor, living in Australia,
who has done medical missions to

Gaza, experienced at al-Ahli Arab hospital before it was bombed perhaps
explained it best why Gaza is our compass.  Gaza is the measure of our
humanity. It is the litmus test that reveals who we are; as individuals, as
a nation, as a world.

Dr. Mohammad Mustafa

I am a doctor who was trained to believe in one principal that healthcare
is a human right. No discrimination, no exception; but in Gaza that promise
is broken. Healthcare in Gaza is not a failure by accident but sabotage by
design with doctors killed and aid blocked. That is the reality of Gaza. It
is a mirror that is being held up to humanity. Why is it that baby formula
is banned from Gaza? Why is it that feeding a child considered a threat?
Why are ambulances and hospitals turned into targets of war? When did bread
and milk become weapons? When did saving lives become a crime? Gaza is the
only place on earth where nourishing a baby is an act of resistance. It is
the only place where life itself is viewed as a weapon of war.

The high level of energy and determination to escalate the movement for
Palestine in the US was evident throughout the three days of the conference
and the urgency was understood.

Source: Resumen Latinoamericano -English

all photos: Bill Hackwell
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20250903/4f0bc194/attachment.htm>