The Palestine Solidarity Movement's (PSM) much anticipated 5th annual conference at Georgetown University on Feb 17-19th seemed more subdued than its predecessors. Maybe PSM had learned its lesson. Past conferences had created firestorms of controversy because of their extremist rhetoric and anti-Semitic chants and their open defense of terrorism. But no one should be fooled. The crowd may have been smaller than in the past—only 200 or so students and community activists—and the volume turned down, but the message and agenda were decidedly more radical. PSM wants the “ethno-religious” Jewish State eliminated.

The largely Arab-American, kaffiya-clad students received a weekend of training in how to promote "divest from Israel" campaigns, how to influence the media and deceive church groups, how to frame campaigns to demonize Israel and Zionism and to prove that Israel is worse than apartheid South Africa.

The people under the PSM umbrella were not there to find out how to build peace-directed coalitions through promoting dialogue with pro-Israel advocates around the world. Nor were they there to learn how to improve the lives of ordinary Palestinians by building hospitals and schools. Real Palestinians seemed almost irrelevant. When an audience member asked whether Palestinians should be consulted about the boycotts, University of Wisconsin Al Awda and Boycott leader Mohammed Abed answered that “Human rights issues are too important. A human rights group doesn’t wait for a nod [of approval] even from Palestinian civil society.”...

...When Hamas or elections came up, they gave twisted answers. Palestinians had fair and free elections. The electorate will not allow Hamas to impose laws that violate human rights. “If they ask how we can deal with Hamas and its fundamentalism, ask them how they deal with an American fundamentalist president,” urged Omar Barghouti, a journalist and Tel Aviv University PhD candidate who was the ‘surprise’ guest speaker from ‘Palestine.’

Even when the speakers’ own lives contradicted their lies about “Israeli apartheid,” they didn’t flinch. “I have not been subjected to any racism personally at Tel Aviv University,” Barghouti admitted when asked about his experiences. “But this is not about me,” he hastily added. “This is about a system of racism.” No one pressed him to explain how or why he, a prominent anti-Israel activist, escaped the snares of a ‘brutal racist system.’ They couldn’t discuss real facts about Israel. That would interfere with their wholesale effort to portray Israel as evil.

Non-violence was not high on the agenda. Opening panelist Philip Farah told the audience that Mahatma Ghandi had once said that “If the choice were between violence and submission, we would choose violence a thousand times.”...