ZOA National President Morton A. Klein released the following statement:
The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) praises the Hilton Hotel in Houston for canceling the vicious anti-Israel, antisemitic, anti-American, anti-India and anti-Hindu USCPR (U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights) “Seize the Moment” National conference, which was scheduled for October 27-29, 2023. ZOA President Morton A. Klein and ZOA attorney Liz Berney and ZOA leaders and activists had made many calls that may have helped Hilton Hotels come to the right decision. ZOA moreover agrees with and thanks Texas Governor Greg Abbott for his tweet yesterday evening, saying:
“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.”
The USCPR conference was an abomination. Scheduled speakers included a “who’s who” list of notorious Jew-haters and Israel-haters (Rashida Tlaib, Mark Lamont Hill, Linda Sarsour, BDS co-founder Omar Barghouti, Lara Kiswani, numerous others); and officials of front groups for designated foreign terror organization PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestinian), including Defense of Children International-Palestine (DCI-Palestine) and Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC). (See “Terrorists in Suits” (Israel Ministry of Strategic Affairs) and “PFLP Ties of the Six Designated Terror NGOs” (NGO Monitor) exposing these groups’ extensive PFLP terror links.)
The USCPR “Seize the Moment” conference programs included:
- freeing criminal terror supporters convicted for funneling money to Hamas;
- preventing Israel from obtaining arms to defend herself at this precarious time;
- opposing efforts to combat antisemitism (e.g., opposing the excellent IHRA definition of antisemitism);
- launching boycott campaigns against individual American families who support Israel;
- “Confronting Zionism on College Campuses” (meaning, more attacks on Jewish students)
- “mobilization in order to combat” Israel, India, Zionists and Hindus;
- “advancing” the UC Berkeley “BDS strategy” (e.g., preventing supporters of Israel from speaking to campus groups)
- Standing with six front groups of the PFLP and Hamas terror organizations (and trying to pass these terror affiliates off as “human rights groups”)
We believe that any hotel or venue that goes forward with hosting this conference would violate 18 U.S. Code § 2339B, the federal criminal law prohibiting “providing material support or resources to designated foreign terrorist organizations.” The definition of “material support or resources” includes providing “any property, tangible or intangible, or service, including currency or monetary instruments or financial securities, financial services, lodging, training, expert advice or assistance, safehouses, false documentation or identification, communications equipment, facilities, weapons, lethal substances, explosives, personnel (18 U.S. Code § 2339A.)
In addition, we believe that hosting the conference would violate hotels’ and venues’ codes of conduct and ethics guidelines.