Texas Hotel Axes Palestinian Conference That Was to Feature Rashida Tlaib - Gov. Greg Abbott Celebrates
For an all-star gathering of American anti-Semites, it was a time to “Seize the Moment.”
The Hilton Hotel in Houston apparently wasn’t so sure.
And on Tuesday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was applauding Hilton’s decision to cancel a conference by a pro-Palestinian activist group scheduled for next week — where the keynote speaker was Rep. Rashida Tlaib.
The event was the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights National Conference, with the theme “Seize the Moment.”
“Together we’re building toward a vibrant future where all are free, in defiance of Israeli repression and U.S. imperialism,” the program states, managing to be both anti-Semitic and anti-American at the same time.
But given that at this particular moment, headlines are dominated by a war in the Middle East kicked off by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas and its savage massacre of more than 1,000 Israelis in a massive surprise attack Oct. 7, the honchos at Hilton decided the time just wasn’t right.
The conference had been scheduled for Oct. 27-29 at the Hilton Houston-Post Oak by the Galleria, a hotel near the city’s massive shopping center The Galleria.
Speakers included some of the best-known anti-Semites in American life today, such as:
- Tlaib, the Michigan Democrat who can’t bring herself to condemn the decapitation of Jewish babies;
- Former CNN commentator Marc Lamont Hill, who lost his job with the liberal network back in 2018 for using a speech at the United Nations to implicitly call for the destruction of Israel. (Naturally, he’s in academia now);
- And Democratic darling and activist Linda Sarsour, a woman well accomplished at the leftist trick of blending progressive politics with hatred of Jews.
Abbott applauded the cancellation, branding the Campaign for Palestinian Rights a group that supports “antisemitism like that supported by Hamas.”
Hilton Hotels in Houston was correct to pull the plug on the U.S. Campaign for Palestine Rights event hosted by Hamas supporters.
Texas has no room for hate & antisemitism like that supported by Hamas.
No location in Texas should host or sponsor USCPR. https://t.co/XyM16oJ9IV
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) October 17, 2023
According to the Houston Chronicle, the hotel’s decision followed an online protest spurred by conservative activist Laura Loomer, who’d urged her huge social media following to contact Hilton to complain.
“Loomer claimed, without evidence, that the organization supports terrorism,” the Chronicle reported. “Other, smaller conservative accounts posted similar calls to action.”
Gotta love that “without evidence” qualifier that seems to get inserted into every report about statements that don’t come from the leftward end of the political spectrum. (The phrase never gets used in stories about, say, the evidence-free claims by activists that American police target unarmed black men to kill without cause.)
And, in fact, there is a fair amount of evidence to at least suspect that the USPCR was more than a little sympathetic to anti-Semitic causes.
Tlaib makes no secret of her loathing for the state of Israel — among other embarrassments, she’s introduced a resolution trying to get the United States Congress to officially recognize a Palestinian day of mourning for the establishment of the Jewish state in 1948.
Hill, the former CNN mouthpiece and current professor at City University of New York, torched his own career for the pleasure of echoing the policy of the terrorist group Hamas in his U.N. speech where he declared that “from the river to the sea, Palestine must be free.”
A glance at a map, knowing that the “river” is the Jordan and the “sea” is the Mediterranean shows that “Palestine must be free,” pretty much eliminates the state of Israel that’s existed for 75 years now.
For Hilton, hosting the conference raised too many questions about security, according to a statement the company gave to KHOU-TV in Houston.
“The safety and security of our Team Members and guests is our top priority,” the statement said, according to KHOU.
“Given escalating security concerns in the current environment, the hotel has determined that it cannot serve as the venue for this event because of the potential risks to our Team Members and guests. Our priority is and will remain the safety and security of everyone we welcome at our hotels.”
Considering that the “current environment” was caused by the appalling bloodlust that was on international display from Hamas monsters murdering, raping and kidnapping Israelis, canceling a conference for an organization that marks in lockstep with Hamas was probably a smart idea by the hotel chain.
But the country could have benefitted from knowing exactly what “security” concerns there were. When it comes to matters involving Palestinian groups and the “liberation” of the land they call “Palestine,” there’s really only one direction terrorist violence tends to flow from — and it’s not Israel or Israel’s supporters.
What might have been an even smarter idea was turning down the event in the first place.
To be clear, Tlaib, Hill and Sarsour — and anyone crawling out from under the rocks with them — have every right in the world to spew their filth in the United States to anyone who will listen.
The First Amendment guarantees the right to free speech (a value conservatives cherish but progressives trample when they can), but it doesn’t guarantee anyone or any organization the right to the hospitality suites of a major hotel chain just for the purpose of propagating genocidal beliefs.
And to be even clearer, the massacre of Oct. 7 wasn’t an aberration for the groups that advocate the goals of the Campaign for Palestinian Rights, it was the logical implementation of their beliefs. That’s what this conference was about.
Hilton could have seized its own moment. And it wouldn’t have been so hard.
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