Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) distanced himself from some speakers and attendees at the ArabCon conference that he attended in Dearborn, Mich., while defending their First Amendment right to free speech.

The conference, held last week, included a series of speakers who had previously expressed support for terrorism and made antisemitic comments. Several panelists laughed at the notion of condemning the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, defended Hamas as “Palestinian resistance” and said the group should not be condemned and defended convicted terrorists and terrorist financiers, according to excerpts of the event shared online.

In another video circulating online, an audience questioner is met with cheers and applause from other audience members for urging speakers to stop condemning Oct. 7 and Hamas. And another speaker claimed that law, medicine and engineering are “Zionist-controlled fields.”

During his own separate panel at the event, Khanna dismissed the notion that there were any “pro-terror radical[s]” speaking at the event or attending the conference, referencing criticism he faced prior to the event.

“I don’t agree with everyone who spoke at the conference, but I do believe in free speech. You can’t just be for free speech when it’s convenient. I’ve unequivocally condemned the Oct. 7 attacks and called for the release of the hostages,” Khanna said in a statement to Jewish Insider on Monday, when pressed about whether he considered the comments of other speakers and attendees to constitute pro-terror radicalism.

Online, Khanna pushed back against critics of his appearance at the conference for intercutting his comments with offensive remarks by other speakers. “You know I spoke on a different panel and wasn’t there for this and I have condemned Hamas attacks and Oct 7. Attack my ideas, but play it straight,” he said.

The California Democrat has said he was unaware of any other remarks made at the conference, and that he was “in and out for my panel from 10-11 on Saturday. It was a 3 day conference.”

Sirene Abou-Chakra, the newly appointed head of global philanthropy for General Motors, has a lengthy history of anti-Israel tweets on her public X account.

A native of Dearborn, Mich., Abou-Chakra, who took over the auto company’s mammoth philanthropy arm in June, previously served as the chief development officer for the city of Detroit and also spent a decade with Google as an account executive. 

But it’s her extensive anti-Israel social media history that raises questions about how her hiring will impact GM’s relationship with the Detroit-area Jewish community, in addition to its extensive business relationships with the Jewish state.

“The country was built on lies and justifies its ongoing savagery on continued lies,” Abou-Chakra wrote of Israel in a since-deleted post on X in September 2022. 

The tweet was a response to a post from Matt Duss, a former advisor to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), criticizing Israel over the death of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in 2022. Israel has said the Al Jazeera journalist, who was killed in the West Bank town of Jenin during a raid by the IDF, was hit during an exchange of fire between Israeli forces and Palestinian terrorists. 

One day later, Abou-Chakra reposted a tweet from the “Electronic Intifada” account citing reporting from CNN about Abu Akleh’s death with the quote: “Just a reminder as the Israeli PR machine continues to spew lies.”

In a tweet posted in late June of that year, Abou-Chakra wrote that “Israel is not a democracy when its Arab citizens aren’t afforded the same rights and when journalists are shot indiscriminately (35 killed since 2000).”

Four days after that post, Abou-Chakra responded to a post asking if Israel would “ever admit or apologize” for Abu Akleh’s death, writing, “The list of major newspapers and NGOs pointing to an Israeli execution grows by the day. And no, Israel won’t apologize because this is in character.”

In July of 2024, Abou-Chakra claimed that the pro-Hamas protests in Washington during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to a joint session of Congress were “planted” by pro-Israel actors. 

“Haven’t seen this at any pro Palestine rally all year and there have been thousands. *He* comes to town and all of a sudden ‘Hamas’ graffiti, anti semitic dolls, and American flags are burned? I have a hard time believing this wasn’t planted by the other side,” she wrote.

During the protest at Union Station, demonstrators assaulted a police officer while he was making an arrest; spray-painted “Hamas is comin” on a statue outside the station, along with other pro-Hamas graffiti; carried Hamas flags; called for a “final solution”; burned an effigy of Netanyahu and carried another showing him with horns covered in blood; and took down and burned an American flag outside the station before replacing it with a Palestinian flag.

In a November 2019 tweet that has been deleted but was featured in a Deadline Detroit article at the time, Abou-Chakra criticized Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for visiting Israel. Notably, Whitmer’s trip included a stop at GM’s headquarters in Herzliya, which was opened in 2008 and currently employs more than 700 employees.

“Apartheid is the Israeli regime restricting @RashidaTlaib movements in Palestine yet inviting @GovWhitmer to discuss trade. 2 US government officials from Michigan. 1 major difference,” Abou Chakra wrote. “Arabness is a crime in Israel, and this week 8 from the same family in Gaza paid that price.”

Spokespeople for GM did not respond to Jewish Insider’s multiple requests for comment on Abou-Chakra’s social media posts. 

The posts, almost all of which were still online prior to JI first reaching out to GM on Wednesday, had been taken down by Thursday morning. Despite this, the automaker’s press office declined to respond to a subsequent message. 

Michigan lawmakers from both parties are condemning Ahmed Al-Qazwini, a Dearborn, Mich.-area imam and Shiite scholar, for saying in a sermon last month that killing Zionists is “a win-win situation.” 

“Can you lose against a Zionist in the battlefield?” Al-Qazwini said during a Dec. 13 sermon at the Islamic Institute of America in Dearborn Heights, a heavily Arab American area. “It’s impossible to lose, because there is one of two scenarios, one of two outcomes. Either you kill him and you send him to hell, you’ve prevailed, or he kills you and he sends you to paradise. What other option is there? How can you lose? It’s a win-win situation,” Al-Qazwini said during the sermon, a video of which was posted on the Middle East Media Research Institute’s website.

Al-Qazwini described Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Biden administration as each being “the greatest loser today” over the situation in the Middle East, adding, “It’s those Arab puppets, those Arab governments that not only are they indifferent, not only do they neglect. No, but they conspire with the Zionists in killing Muslims.”

The Islamic Institute of America did not respond to Jewish Insider’s request for comment regarding Al-Qazwini’s sermon. The remarks, which began circulating on social media this past week, were met with condemnation from a handful of congressional lawmakers. 

Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) told JI in a statement, “These remarks were shocking. He glorified violence and hatred, and his antisemitic rhetoric has no place in Michigan — or anywhere in our country for that matter. I unequivocally condemn his statements.”

Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) said, “Advocating for violence is reprehensible. Full Stop. In Michigan, our diverse faiths and diverse beliefs are a strength.”

Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) said, “I condemn the dangerous remarks of Mr. Qazwini in December 2024 at the Islamic Institute of America in Dearborn Heights, MI. We do not need religious institutions in the U.S. calling for violence or the killing of other people based on one’s religious beliefs. The path to peace is impeded by words like this.”

“These comments are clearly reprehensible, both in their calls for violence and their blatant antisemitism,” Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-MI) told JI. “Inflammatory language like this sews the seeds of violence, endangering innocent people and moving the conversation away from the peace we would like to achieve.”

Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI) said, “Antisemitism is on the rise in our country, and comments like this are inexcusable and appalling. I strongly condemn violence and antisemitism of any kind. We must root out this hate from our institutions and the hearts and minds of those who seek to harm our Jewish brothers and sisters.”

“This is absolutely appalling,” Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-MI) told JI. “I completely condemn this violent and unacceptable rhetoric.”

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, did not respond to JI’s request for comment before publication. Nor did Reps. John James (R-MI), Tim Walberg (R-MI) and Tom Barrett (R-MI).