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Rep. Rashida Tlaib spoke over Memorial Day weekend at a conference endorsed by individuals associated with a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.
The Michigan Democrat spoke at the People’s Conference for Palestine on Saturday, where she chided President Joe Biden for not doing enough to stop Israel from conducting a “genocide,” according to a video posted to Instagram by the Palestinian Youth Movement, one of the event’s organizers.
Salah Salah, a founding member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, endorsed the conference, and Wisam Rafeedie, another individual who produced literature for the PFLP, spoke to attendees about how “movements achieve transformation.”
The State Department designated the PFLP as a terrorist organization in 1997. The organization has conducted “suicide operations,” hijacked planes, and launched rockets at civilians, according to the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
The PFLP also reportedly participated in the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks and held Israeli hostages, according to NGO Monitor, an Israeli nonprofit. The terrorist group posted multiple images and videos of their fighters infiltrating Israeli military installations to its Telegram channel on and after Oct. 7, according to NGO Monitor.
A message from the Palestinian intellectual and revolutionary Salah Salah in support of the People’s Conference for Palestine, May 24-26 in Detroit, Michigan. We’ll see you soon at the conference — link to register in our bio! ?? pic.twitter.com/y8T3LJTgI1
— Palestinian Youth Movement (@palyouthmvmt) May 19, 2024
“I extend to you my thanks and regards for these efforts that are a continuation of your achievements organizing unprecedented protests across North America and other capitals and cities around the world,” Salah said in a May 19 translated video posted by the Palestinian Youth Movement. “This is an initiative of extreme importance, I call on members of the Palestinian and Arab communities and friends and supporters of our cause to participate in this People’s Conference.”
Salah compared the actions of “Zionist forces” to Nazis in his endorsement of the conference, according to the translated video.
“Participation in this People’s Conference is crucial on a large scale and on the highest level to set a plan that offers further coordination and an agreement on a strategy for unified action that guarantees continuity and consistency to achieve the goals and tasks posed by the conference,” he continued.
Rafeedie ran an underground publishing operation for the PFLP in the 1980s and was detained by the Israeli government for involvement with the organization in 1991, according to Amnesty International. He also endorsed the conference before it started, according to a post on X.
Yesterday, I saw that PFLP member Wisam Rafeedie, who is set to speak later today (presumably virtually), also endorsed it pic.twitter.com/FQFyx7wEVz
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) May 26, 2024
Rafeedie participated in a panel at the conference that explored how pro-Palestinian activists in America can “utilize this moment of heightened contradictions to advance our struggle for liberation from within the imperial core,” according to the event’s website.
“These Zionists lie like they breathe,” Rafeedie said during his appearance, according to the Palestinian Youth Movement.
“These Zionists lie like they breathe.” – Wisam Rafeedie pic.twitter.com/PTuRClVtzp
— Palestinian Youth Movement (@palyouthmvmt) May 26, 2024
Tlaib called Biden an “enabler” during her speech at the conference, according to video posted by the Palestinian Youth Movement.
“The International Court of Justice just ruled that the Israeli government must stop its invasion of Rafah. But President Biden says what’s happening in Gaza is not a genocide,” she said. “Where’s your red line, President Biden?”
The United Nations International Court of Justice ruled on May 24 that Israel must end its military operations in Rafah, a city in the southern region of Gaza, due to the impact the continued assault would have on the civilian population. Biden previously vowed to restrict aid to Israel if the Jewish state invaded Rafah, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken later confirming that the United States is holding back some of its aid.
Tlaib and the Palestinian Youth Movement did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment. Rafeedie and Salah could not be reached for comment.
Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation
The post Rep. Tlaib Addresses Conference Endorsed by Founding Member of Palestinian Terrorist Group appeared first on The Daily Signal.
Biden administration officials circulated and discussed a memo authored by a coalition of liberal groups aimed at getting more college students to participate in elections as part of the Education Department’s presidentially ordered voter-registration efforts, newly surfaced emails show.
Groups that donated millions to elect Democrats and are funded by major liberal donors submitted a list of recommendations to the Education Department in 2021 outlining ways the department could get college students, a historically liberal demographic, to vote more, according to emails obtained by The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project. [Heritage founded The Daily Signal in 2014.]
The memo recommended that the Education Department include a voter registration option on its college financial aid application, use resources to make students aware of vote-by-mail opportunities, and allow universities to use federal work-study to pay students for nonpartisan election work.
The coalition of groups sent its memo in response to President Joe Biden’s 2021 executive order directing federal agencies to promote voter registration, education, and participation, offering recommendations on how to implement it.
Nick Lee, deputy assistant secretary for higher education, shared the memo with Annmarie Weisman, another deputy assistant secretary, and Gregory Martin, another department official, emails show. Lee explained to Weisman and Martin that he had been discussing ways to implement Biden’s executive order with an Education Department policy director and that he was willing to speak further on the topic.
Lee also shared the memo with members of the Education Department’s Office of the General Counsel, again explaining that the department was in the process of finalizing responses to Biden’s voting executive order, emails show.
The Biden administration may have been receptive to at least one of the recommendations the coalition of left-of-center groups offered.
In April 2022, the Education Department clarified that universities could pay students with federal work-study funds to engage in election-related work. Although students may be compensated for voter registration work, they cannot be paid using federal funds “for work involving partisan or nonpartisan political activity, including party-affiliated voter registration activities, as this is expressly prohibited,” the department said.
In February, the Education Department expanded on the specific work that federal funds could cover, stating that “supporting broad-based get-out-the-vote activities, voter registration, providing voter assistance at a polling place or through a voter hotline or serving as a poll worker” were all acceptable.
Although Biden’s executive order stresses that agencies should tap “nonpartisan third-party organizations” to aid with voter registration efforts, the effects of registering more college students to vote could be a boon for the Democratic Party.
A September 2020 poll found that 70% of college students said they would vote for Biden in that year’s election, compared to just 18% who said they would vote for then-President Donald Trump. Strong turnout among college students in 2022 helped Democrats pull off a better-than-expected midterm election performance, NPR reported.
Heading into the November presidential election, Biden’s reelection campaign is seeking to mobilize college students.
The president held a 23-point lead over Trump among college students heading into the election, according to a Harvard Institute of Politics poll conducted in March.
The groups that sought to push the Education Department to mobilize more college voters themselves have ties to the Democratic Party.
The American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, for instance, are both signatories of the memo and have spent millions of dollars to help elect Democrats through their political action committees, Federal Election Commission records show. Both groups endorsed Biden in the 2024 Democratic primary season and historically have supported the Democratic Party.
New America Foundation, which signed on to the memo through its education program, has received extensive support from the Soros family’s philanthropic network, pulling in millions since 2016, according to a grant database. George Soros himself has donated massive sums to Democrats and is one of the largest figures in the left-of-center philanthropic world.
The Voter Participation Center, another group that signed on to the memo, has received over $1 million from nonprofits managed by Arabella Advisors, tax filings show.
Arabella Advisors is a consultancy firm that manages a network of nonprofits that spend millions every year on efforts to help liberal groups and Democrats.
The Voter Participation Center on its website claims to work diligently to mobilize members of the “New American Majority,” which includes people of color and unmarried women, to register to vote and cast ballots.
Republicans have taken issue with the Biden administration’s approach to using federal resources to juice voter participation.
“We have concerns about the lack of constitutional and statutory authority for federal agencies to engage in any activity outside the agency’s authorized mission, including federal voting access and registration activities,” a May 13 letter from the House Oversight Committee sent to Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young reads.
The Education Department, New America, the Voter Participation Center, the National Education Association, and the American Federation of Teachers didn’t immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.
Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation
The post Biden Education Department Shared Activists’ Memo on Mobilizing Dem-Leaning Voters appeared first on The Daily Signal.
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