Dear Friends:
The Hamas-linked, radical anti-Israel Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) is hosting its national banquet this Saturday night, October 21, 2023, at the Marriott Crystal Gateway in Arlington, Virginia, focusing on “Solidarity with Palestine and Gaza.” As the Free Beacon noted, CAIR blamed Israel for Hamas’ slaughter of Israeli civilians, and the CAIR banquet will galvanize efforts to stop Israel from defending against Hamas terrorists. The banquet will also incite against Israel; increase antisemitism; and provide support for designated terror organization Hamas. U.S. federal penal laws prohibit providing material support or resources – including facilities – to designated terrorist organizations. (18 U.S. Code § 2339A and B.)
The CAIR banquet will feature extreme, virulent antisemite, Israel-basher and terror-inciter Linda Sarsour. Notably, Sarsour was also slated to speak at the antisemitic, anti-Israel, anti-American, anti-India, anti-Hindu USCPR (US Campaign for Palestinian Rights) convention at the Houston Hilton the following week, but the Hilton Hotel had the good sense and decency to cancel the USCPR convention. (See “ZOA Praises Hilton Hotel for Canceling Palestinian/Hamas Terrorist-Supporting Conference on Oct. 27-29,” Oct. 18, 2023.) The Marriott Hotel should likewise cancel the CAIR banquet featuring the same incendiary, terror-supporting speaker.
Please join ZOA in calling Marriott to demand that they cancel this dangerous CAIR event:
Crystal Gateway Marriott, Arlington, VA: (703) 920-3230 (event venue)
Marriott Customer Service: (800) 535-4028
Marriott Int’l Corporate: (301) 380-3000
Email: Marriott Int’l Pres. & CEO Anthony Capuano: anthony.capuano@marriott.com
Marriott Business Integrity Line: (888) 888-9188
(Please feel free to keep ZOA informed of your efforts and any response, at liz@zoa.org. Thank you again for your activism!)
BACKGROUND:
CAIR’s Incitement Against Israel: The dangerous CAIR event is occurring just two weeks after Hamas savagely raped, burnt, tortured and murdered 1500 innocent Israelis including babies; wounded over 4,000 innocent Israelis; kidnapped 200 or more innocent Israelis; and paraded the Jews whom Hamas had murdered or raped and captured through Gaza to cheering crowds. The CAIR event is taking place while Hamas, Hezbollah and PIJ continue firing rockets at Israel; and while antisemitism is rampant in the U.S.
Notably, immediately after Hamas slaughtered so many innocent Jews, CAIR issued an outrageous joint statement with other radical anti-Israel groups falsely accusing Israel of “recent unprovoked and continuous attacks . . . on Palestinian towns, cities, and refugee camps” and “targeted and indiscriminate killing of civilians, including innocent children, women, and the elderly.” In other words, CAIR inverted the truth to accuse Israel of what Hamas had just done to Israelis. Further, the day after Hamas’ slaughter of so many innocent Jews and Jewish babies, CAIR issued another statement calling Hamas’ actions “legitimate” “resistance,” and condemning elected officials’ statements supporting Israel. CAIR has continued to issue daily statements attacking Israel.
There will undoubtedly be more such horrendous incitement at the CAIR banquet. See below re: the banquet speakers. By hosting the CAIR banquet, Marriott is violating its own policies to act with integrity and assure security.
The CAIR Banquet Speakers:
The CAIR banquet’s keynote speaker, terror-inciter Linda Sarsour, infamously called throwing rocks at Israelis the “definition of courage”; said she was “honored and privileged” to stand with PFLP terrorist Rasmea Odeh, who murdered Jewish students; tweeted “nothing is creepier than Zionism”; praised the Intifada terror wars (in which Palestinian-Arab terrorists murdered and maimed thousands of innocent Israelis) as “invaluable on many fronts”; falsely blamed Israel for American police killings of Blacks; demanded that Jews must not be “humanized”; proclaimed that no Zionists would be allowed at a rally, and more.
During the past two weeks, Sarsour has repeatedly raged against Israel and the U.S. on Instagram. She asserted: “The US government wants a genocide” [in Gaza]. She repeatedly falsely accused “the U.S.-backed Israeli apartheid regime” of “massacring Palestinians,” threatened that this will cause “deeper vengeance” against Israel; and demanded (in capital letters) to “end the occupation’ (meaning demolish Israel); and falsely accused Israel of perpetrating “atrocities,” and demanded that everyone stand against Israel.
Another listed CAIR banquet speaker, Mahmoud Abdul Rauf (born Chris Jackson) tweeted immediately after Hamas’ horrific massacre of innocent Jews: “Oh Palestine! Remain resilient. The conscientious among us are on your side and will never abandon you. . . . A victory is near…” Also, this week, among other vicious statements, Rauf accused the NBA of “vicious support of an internationally known ZIONIST and worse than APARTHEID and MURDEROUS OCCUPATION called the State of Israel.”
Another CAIR banquet speaker is CAIR’s nominal plaintiff in CAIR’s lawsuit to dismantle the U.S. terrorist watch list. Dismantling the watch list would endanger every American.
And still another slated speaker, Altaf Husain, just retweeted anti-Israel BDS group co-founder Hatem Bazian’s tweet: “#GenocideJoe Biden is heading to visit Israel to incite and sanctify Netanyahu’s War Crimes after the US vetoed another UN Security Council resolution related to Palestine. Way to go Genocide Joe!”
Marriott needs to cancel this event!