EXTREMISMSpeakers 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.