“Over the past few days, we have learned so much from Palestinian organizers from all over the world,” said VietRise Executive Director Tracy La in an Instagram video posted from the People’s Conference for Palestine that took place at the ed of August in Detroit. Wrapped in a mandatory keffiyeh, she gushed about how “excited” her group was to be there.
La and the radical organization she founded and leads, VietRise, are highly active in Santa Ana and Garden Grove politics, particularly in pushing severe rent control, allowing non-citizens to vote in American elections and against law enforcement.
La doesn’t really say exactly what she and her group learned, other than her already zealous commitment to “fight Zionism and OC” has been turbocharged.
What was there to earn at the People’s Conference for Palestine?
The Anti-Defamation League reported on the conference and published a report on the massive meet-ups participants and what they were saying – providing at least some idea of what Ms. La thought had so much to teach her and VietRise.
Some excerpts from the report:
“The conference, which took place from August 29-31, 2025, demonstrated how certain concerning trends and tactics that gained traction in the wake of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, terror attacks on Israel have become normalized nearly two years later. These included the open and explicit glorification of terror groups like Hamas; calls to eradicate Zionism and target Zionists; encouraging the use of potentially unlawful, direct-action approaches that go beyond standard protest activity; the platforming of individuals convicted for terrorist activities; and extreme calls not for a ceasefire but to abolish Israel.”
“The conference’s incendiary tone was clear from the outset. Eduardo Martinez, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)-aligned mayor of Richmond, California, drew resounding cheers from the crowd during the event’s opening session for explicitly justifying Hamas’s October 7 attacks. Martinez stated, “If Palestine were a schoolyard playground, I would be a Palestinian. And that part of me that couldn’t endure the abuse any more would be Hamas.”
While hobnobbing at the conference with other fans of anti-Israeli violence, Martinez wore a red baseball cap emblazoned with ”DD TT IDF” – which stands for “Death Death to the IDF”, a chant popular with pro-Palestine progressives.
“During a session titled “The Palestinian Struggle Behind Bars,” speakers openly praised current and former terrorists, who were also cheered by the crowd. The panel featured a virtual address by Hossam Shaheen, a member of the designated terror group the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades (AAMB) who served more than 20 years in prison in Israel on charges of attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Shaheen was freed as part of a temporary Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement in early 2025 that included a release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Israeli hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7.”
“Shaheen was joined on the panel by Arab Barghouti, son of the prominent Palestinian figure Marwan Barghouti, an imprisoned convicted terrorist and leader of the Fatah-affiliated militia group Tanzim. Lama Ghosheh, a Palestinian journalist who in 2023 received a suspended sentence after being arrested on allegations of “identification with a terrorist group,” also spoke on the panel.”
“Omar Assaf—a co-founder of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), which was at one time recognized by the U.S. government as a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO)—spoke on a panel later in the weekend.”
“Echoing comments made during his appearance at last year’s conference, Raja Abdulhaq—co-founder of Palestinian news agency Quds News Network, which reportedly has a reputation for being affiliated with U.S.-designated terror group Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ)—lauded the “Axis of Resistance,” a term that refers to Iran and its proxies of terrorist organizations in the Middle East. During a plenary titled “Zionism, Imperialism, and the Shifting Battlefield,” Abdulhaq justified the actions of groups like Hamas, Hezbollah and PIJ as “authentic indigenous response to a violent, colonial project.”
One has to wonder if Ms. La feels there is much to learn from Abdulhaq.
Judging by the ADL report, normalizing violence against Israelis was…well…the norm at the People’s Conference for Palestine:
“Hani Al-Masri, one of the founders of the West Bank-based Masarat – The Palestinian Center for Policy Research and Strategic Studies, spoke on that same panel. He celebrated “the valor of the Palestinian resistance,” characterizing the October 7 attacks as “a normal and natural reaction” to Israel’s actions and referring to the fact that “Palestinians are fighting” as “a miracle.” Al-Masri elicited fervent applause from the crowd when he stated that “the Palestinian population is still much greater than the Jews that are settled there.””
“Speakers frequently invoked the names and actions of terror group leaders. Healthcare Workers for Palestine (HCW4P) representative Maisa Morrar praised Hamas co-founder Abdel Aziz Rantisi and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) co-founder George Habash. Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha expressed reverence for the late PFLP terrorist Walid Daqqa and PFLP spokesperson Ghassan Kanafani.”
The entire ADL report is here.
And you can see the conference program here. There was also an accompanying Children’s Program to inculcate young minds with the spirit of anti-Israeli struggle and “resistance.”
The People’s Conference for Palestine was clearly a days-long anti-Israel hate-fest. So what lessons did Ms. La and VietRise learn – because as she says in the Instagram video, they “learned so much.” What lessons and ideas for “direct action” and “fighting Zionism” did VietRise bring back to Orange County – especially to Santa Ana and Garden Grove, the group’s main stomping ground. Judging from the program at the People’s Conference for Palestine, it sure isn’t one of peaceful coexistence.
