US Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) asks questions during a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, June 13, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Leah Millis

US Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has withdrawn from an anti-Israel conference hosted by a group accused of promoting terrorism.

The Palestine Digital Activism Forum is a two-day online event that aims to “empower and enrich Palestinian digital activity.” Sessions this year include “The Palestinian Telecommunications Sector: Between War, Destruction, Innovation, and Artificial Intelligence” and “AI in Wartime: Gaza, Automated Warfare, Surveillance, and the Battle of Narratives,” among others.

Warren was scheduled to deliver a videotaped speech next Tuesday at the annual event run by 7amleh – The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media. According to the conference itinerary as of Thursday morning, Warren’s speech was set to be on “how to protect the public and develop ethical AI [artificial intelligence].”

Later on Thursday, however, after The Algemeiner reported on her participation in the event, Warren abruptly backed out of the conference.

“Senator Warren will not participate in the digital forum,” a spokesperson in Warren’s office told Jewish Insider, which first reported her plan to withdraw. “Her office has received a large volume of claims about individuals associated with the event, and, although we do not assume any of the claims are true, we have not had capacity to sift through it all and have decided to focus our time and energy opposing [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s unfolding catastrophe in Gaza in other ways.”

The senator’s name no longer appears on the conference’s schedule.

NGO Monitor, a Jerusalem-based research institute, has tracked 7amleh’s activities for several years, finding that the organization has celebrated terrorism, promoted the demonization of Israel, and supported the rollback of social media efforts to combat antisemitism.

In the wake of the Palestinian terror group Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, several high-profile members of 7amleh expressed support for Hamas, whose fighters murdered 1,200 people and abducted over 250 others as hostages during their onslaught.

On Oct. 7, 7amleh board member Neveen Abu Rahmoun endorsed Hamas’ violent acts of murder and abduction as legitimate “resistance” on Facebook.  

“The Palestinian resistance is imposing a new stage since the beginning of the Al-Aqsa flood operation [Hamas’ name for the Oct. 7 attacks] by resistance fighters infiltrating into numerous Israeli neighborhoods in the settlements, by creating points of contact, and by firing rockets of the resistance,” Rahmoun posted. “Israel, in its turn, is constrained by this and has announced a state of high mobilization for war. The message of the resistance is clear, it has started and it shall escalate and shall impose a new reality.”

On Oct. 9, the organization’s project coordinator, Mohammad Badarneh, expressed approval of the Hamas massacre on Facebook, seemingly encouraging more Palestinians to participate in terrorism against Israel. 

“The ‘only important’ value of a human being living under occupation is the extent of his resistance to that occupation, in all possible means,” Badarneh said. 

On Oct. 12, Jalal Abukhater, 7amleh’s Advocacy Manager, lambasted Zionism as an inherently racist and genocidal ideology. 

“Europe exported an ideology of ethnic-supremacy prone to commit genocidal violence.. all the way to our blessed little land. They called it Zionism, and it is ceaseless,” Abukhater posted on X/Twitter.

Roughly 45 percent of Israeli Jews are Mizrahi — Jews who trace their ethnic origins to the Middle East and North Africa. Meanwhile, 21 percent of Israel’s population identifies as Arab. Conversely, Arab and Muslim countries in the region expelled roughly 900,000 Jews between 1920-1970.

Prior to the Oct. 7 massacre, Ahmad Qadi, 7amleh’s “monitoring and documentation officer,” voiced public approval of violence against Israeli Jews.

In response to a Jan. 2023 terror attack against a Jerusalem synagogue which left seven Israeli civilians dead, Qadi posted on Facebook, “For decades, the Israeli criminal entity has been… sowing seeds of despair and doubt in the effectiveness of resistance. Even until now, the Israeli war machine has not been able to see the truth — that every Israeli crime is met with greater determination for sacrifice, broader resistance, and an untamed determination to victory.”

Qadi also posted pictures from the 2014 Jerusalem synagogue attack in which four Jews were murdered. Glorifying the attacks, Qadi wrote, “I have been wishing for pictures like these for a while, and I still wonder — of what these men are made of?! #deeply_exciting.” He then added, “‘Heroes,’ ‘Men of Palestine,’ Congratulations and mercy for all the resistance fighters and martyrs. Our loyalty is to whomever resists and to all who defend the honor of the Palestinian people and its nation.”

On Nov. 1 of last year, 7amleh released a 13-page report downplaying the proliferation of antisemitism online following the Oct. 7 terror attacks against Israel. Critics argued the report was a veiled attempt to thwart efforts to remove antisemitic and pro-terrorism material on social media under the guise of “​​protecting the human rights of Palestinians in the online space.”

“We are also gravely concerned about the significant and disproportionate censorship of Palestinian voices, which severely restricts freedom of expression and access to information, more direly so with journalists and human rights defenders. This is compounded by the one-sided and context-lacking portrayal of the region’s situation by mainstream media,” the report read. 

Warren’s decision to speak at an anti-Israel conference could indicate a broader shift in the lawmaker’s views on Israel. In March, the progressive senator called for a “ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas, an act that would leave the terror group in control of Gaza. That same month, she joined a letter urging US President Joe Biden to stop arms shipments to Israel.

While speaking at the Islamic Center of Boston in April, Warren suggested that Israel’s military response targeting Hamas in Gaza could be tantamount to a “genocide.” On Monday, she referred to the Israeli military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, Hamas’ last major stronghold in the Palestinian enclave, as an “assault.”

Editor’s note: The Algemeiner initially reported on the morning of Thursday, May 30, 2024 that Warren was set to speak at the 7amleh conference. Later in the day, Warren canceled her appearance amid backlash, as first reported by Jewish Insider. This story has been updated accordingly, both in the headline and body of the article, to reflect Warren’s change in plans.