Speakers Use ArabCon Platform to Promote Antisemitic and Pro-Terror Views

At the 45th annual ArabCon in Dearborn, Michigan, several speakers engaged in the promotion of antisemitism and the defense of terrorism, including the Hamas-led terror attack against Israel on October 7, 2023.

ArabCon, which this year took place on September 25–28, is organized by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC). ArabCon brings together members of the American-Arab community and others to discuss current political, social, and cultural issues. For the second year in a row, significant discussion throughout the weekend’s sessions was dedicated to the topic of Zionism and Israel.

Notable Commentary Throughout the Conference

Speakers frequently vilified Zionism—the movement for the self-determination and statehood for the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland—and Zionists, which encompass the vast majority of Jews around the world. Simultaneously, speakers defended terrorists and extolled their actions.

Such rhetoric was on full display during a September 27 session, titled, “The Psychological Warfare of Zionism.”

Sam Ali, one of the emcees of ArabCon 2025, described Zionism as “a system of control that extends far beyond borders and battlefields,” alleging that Zionism “works to shape minds, rewrite narratives, and silence truth...Zionism has waged a war not just on land, but on memory, dignity and collective consciousness.”

Dr. Sawssan Ahmed, a California State University, Fullerton, professor who moderated the session, referred to the "Al-Aqsa Flood,” using Hamas’s name for its October 7 attack.

Other speakers employed similar rhetoric throughout the weekend. Hazami Barmada, an anti-Israel activist, referred to Zionists as “vile.” Barmada encouraged anti-Israel activists to work to “shift the tides” on public opinion about Israel and Zionism by confronting Americans “at their workplaces, in their communities and their synagogues and their churches, in front of their places of work.”

During a session on the closing day of the conference, Rabab Abdulhadi, a San Francisco State University professor known for her extreme anti-Zionist and pro-terror rhetoric, refused to condemn the October 7 attack, stating, "I condemn Israel and the United States…I never, ever condemn Palestinian resistance and anyone[’s] resistance around the world." Abdulhadi, characterized Hamas’s actions on October 7 as the “liberation of prisoners” and undermined the death toll of the attacks, remarking that “nobody even checked how many [were] quote unquote civilians and how many were soldiers and how many were killed by the Israeli military.”

Multiple speakers echoed classic antisemitic tropes which accuse Jews of being dishonest and of wielding nefarious, outsized power and control over government, media, education and more.

Sim Kern, a Houston-based journalist and writer, promoted the insidious falsehood that Israelis of Ashkenazi descent have no basis for their presence in Israel by denying their historical ties to the land, stating that “there's no archaeological record that European Jews actually came from Palestine.” Kern further alleged that Zionists intentionally try to promote the supposed deception of historical ties to the land by directing funding for Jewish cultural institutions and education in ways that only advance a “Zionist narrative.”

The rhetoric at this year’s conference followed some similarly troubling, antisemitic statements made at ArabCon 2024. Last year, for example, ADC data strategist Mohammed Maraqa stated that “the difference between our community and the Jewish community” is that “the Jewish community is led by their business people, by their moneyed interests.” In another session, speakers claimed that Zionists own “every single” social media platform and that Arab people are “more Semitic” than Jewish people.

Speakers and Attendees

A number of lawmakers, elected officials and political candidates spoke at the conference, including U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA); Michigan State Rep. Alabas Farhat; former Michigan State Rep. and House Majority Leader Abraham Aiyash; Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist; Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud; and candidate for U.S. Senate Abdul El-Sayed.

Notable speakers and attendees included:

• Rabab Abdulhadi, a San Francisco State University professor and Founding Director of the school’s Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas (AMED) Studies Program who has repeatedly praised designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs), defended the October 7 attack, and denied the sexual violence committed by Hamas against Israeli women;
• Guy Christensen, an anti-Zionist social media influencer with millions of followers whose online activities include defending the murder of two individuals outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. in May 2025;
• Zahra Billoo, the Executive Director of the Council on American Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) San Francisco office who has a history of making antisemitic statements and justifying violent terror attacks;
• Medea Benjamin, cofounder of the anti-Israel organization CODEPINK, which often engages in aggressive harassment of so-called “Zionist” individuals;
• Hazami Barmada, an anti-Israel activist who has frequently led aggressive and disruptive protests that cross the line from political critique to antisemitic harassment;
• Dr. Sawssan Ahmed, a clinical psychologist, member of the American Psychological Association (APA) Council of Representatives, and Professor of Psychology at California State University, Fullerton;
• Lara Sheehi, one of the founding members of the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism (ICSZ) who is also a clinical psychologist, a University of South Africa research fellow, and former assistant professor at George Washington University who was accused and ultimately cleared of discriminating against Jewish and Israeli students.

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