Detroit pro-Palestinian conference calls for 'destroying the idea of America'

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) appeared at a pro-Palestinian conference in Detroit on Friday, where one of the panelists denounced the United States as “an evil country” and urged that “the idea of America” be “destroyed in Americans’ heads," according to Fox News. The comments came during the opening day of the “People’s Conference for Palestine,” a three-day event featuring a mix of activists, academics, and controversial speakers, including two individuals previously imprisoned by Israel and freed in a Hamas prisoner deal.

Sachin Peddada, a PhD student in economics and research coordinator at Progressive International, made the remarks while speaking on a panel titled “No Weapons for Genocide: The People Demand an Arms Embargo.”

“We live in an evil country,” Peddada declared, as the audience broke into applause. He went on to accuse the US of being “the most responsible country for what is happening not only in Gaza but also the West Bank and also all over the global south” since October 7, 2023.

Peddada argued that America functions as “the sole superpower of the world” with “an agenda that is driven primarily by the accumulation of profit at the expense of human lives.”

Responding to a question about how Americans can participate, he paraphrased Palestinian author Bassel al-Araj, saying, “The average American will never understand the plight of the Palestinian person because the state of Israel is a carbon copy of the United States. And, therefore, the thing to do is to destroy the idea of America in Americans’ heads so that they can see the humanity of everybody outside the warping of American exceptionalism and imperialism and all these evil things.”

He added that Americans have “a unique responsibility” from within “the heart of the empire” to act in solidarity with Palestinians.

Conference programming began Friday afternoon with an elaborate ceremony where attendees waved Palestinian flags and were asked to rise for “our national anthem,” performed in a foreign language.

Reaction online quickly followed. One user on X wrote, “As an American, I find this galling. My culture and history have already been relentlessly attacked — statues of Washington, Jefferson, and other Founders torn down as ‘controversial.’ Now we have conference speakers openly talking about ‘destroying the idea of America.’”