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Fearing Negative Coverage, ‘American Muslims for Palestine’ Conference Ejects Legal Insurrection Reporter

Fearing Negative Coverage, ‘American Muslims for Palestine’ Conference Ejects Legal Insurrection Reporter

The AMP official removing me declared that based on my prior reporting about AMP, I clearly had “no intention of writing anything positive”

I have researched and written extensively about American Muslims for Palestine, a key connector of anti-Israel Islamist and radical leftist groups, including fringe anti-Zionist Jews who provide cover.

You can read more about AMP and the groups it works with in these posts by me:

I have spent years following AMP’s activity, including while I worked at the Middle East Forum.

When AMP announced its annual conference in Chicago (starting Thanksgiving Day through Saturday) with the theme of influencing the 2020 elections, I was intrigued.

The conference featured notorious anti-Israel speakers like Linda Sarsour, Hatem Bazian, Marc Lamont Hill, and Ariel Gold. This year, Rep. Rashida Tlaib is featured as a Guest of Honor. and is delivering the Keynote Speech.

Not surprisingly, the conference is devoted to the singular notion of destroying Israel. I’ll have more on the conference in a later post.

I signed up to attend, paid the registration fee, and booked a room at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare Chicago, the official conference hotel, where the conference took place. I entered the event on Friday and received the final itinerary packet and swag bag without a problem.

My companion and I entered the morning English-language session: “Palestine 102: Post-Nakba to Oslo” presented by Rawan Aldamen. We settled quietly in the back of the room to listen to the lecture.

https://www.facebook.com/PalestineConvention/photos/a.1697156540597534/2370177203295461/?type=3&theater

[A photo of the Nakba 102 session published by the convention. I am pictured sitting quietly in the back of the room, circled in blue. Screenshot from Facebook, November 29, 2019.]

We’d barely been there 10 minutes when we were approached by a group of AMP officials who asked us to leave our seats and follow them. They led us down the hall and back into the open space full of organization booths, and explained that we were being asked to leave.

When I asked why, an AMP official explained that I had written negatively about AMP in the past, and that I thus could not possibly be interested in simply hearing what conference speakers had to say. He said I was “totally biased” and declared that I clearly had “no intention of writing anything positive” or “fair.”  Thus, I had “no choice” in the matter. I was being forced to leave, like it or not.

I asked the AMP officials what they were afraid of. I was not planning to disrupt the event at all. None would answer.

Nor would they answer when I asked if, perhaps, they didn’t really feel that their claims about Israel were compelling enough to convince me. I inquired: Were they really so insecure about their own messaging?

The men expelling me from the conference demanded I not photograph them, claiming (falsely) it would be illegal. They even demanded my phone, which I refused to hand over. I did manage to snap a quick selfie as I was being whisked away. [See Featured Image]

They summoned a hotel representative and threatened to call the police. I told them they were welcome to do so. The Hyatt hotel representative demanded, in the midst of the crowd of AMP mostly male officials, that I divulge my room number. Again, I refused. In response, the hotel representative sneered that he knew my name, so he already had my room number. When I asked him why, then, he felt he needed to demand the number, he did not say. He did, however, threaten to kick me out of the hotel entirely.

One of the AMP marchers continued to follow me around the hotel lobby at a distance of about 20 feet. I waved at him and asked if he was planning on trailing me all day long. He refused to answer but continued to stare. The Hyatt staff apparently felt that this, at least, was beyond the pale, and informed AMP that their employees were not permitted to stalk me in the hotel lobby. They continued to use a walkie-talkie system to monitor and communicate about my movements in the hotel’s public spaces, and the hotel was forced to reprimand them once again.

There is much more to this story, which I will publish in a later post, but for now it is worth reflecting on the reason for my expulsion. AMP equated “fair” reporting with “positive” reporting; similarly, anything negative about AMP—whether argued with evidence and facts or not—was unacceptable to them and necessitated my exclusion.

AMP positions itself as at the forefront of the ‘intersectional’ fight against Israel, helped along by radically anti-Israel activists from other groups. Not surprisingly, AMP’s conduct in trying to stifle unflattering but accurate coverage confirms my prior reporting about AMP’s true intentions.

———–

Samantha Mandeles is Senior Researcher and Outreach Director at the Legal Insurrection Foundation.

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Comments

Thank you, Samantha, for your courage and commitment. Please take this as a badge of honor and continue to expose the bigots and antisemites.

    Tom Servo in reply to Vijeta Uniyal. | December 1, 2019 at 10:03 am

    Very courageous! Allow me to suggest, though, that if you ever do things like this again arrange to have two sizable men with you, or at least observing. These people go very quickly to physical assault in their home countries; they have no inhibitions about doing so with critics here, except for the fear they might not get away with it.

    These people are gangsters, criminals, and thugs. I can’t imagine anyone being surprised at the way they’ve acted.

    Samantha Mandeles in reply to Vijeta Uniyal. | December 2, 2019 at 6:25 pm

    <3 My heart is full! Thank you for your kind words, everyone!

“had “no intention of writing anything positive””

…based upon the false AMP premise that there would be only positive things to write.

Muslims and leftists have been getting away with outrageous, antiAmerican conferences and organizational meetings being censored from a neutral press, while being praised by the MSM which actively assists the propaganda.

HAMP may be exoosed for comm8fraud. Hyatt may be legally exposed too.

JusticeDelivered | November 30, 2019 at 9:26 pm

Future collection of information needs to be collected covertly. Most hotels have considerable CCTV units, perhaps all the recordings could somehow be acquired? How about roving attendees walking around covertly recording?

Thanks, Samantha, and yasher koach!

They’re going to catch more flack for kicking you out than if they had just left you quietly sit there and cashed your check.

They did refund your fees, correct? I have not seen any conference agreements that specify that you will write nice things about them, so I would guess they’re in breach of contract if they keep your money.

You need hidden camera capability to video future confrontations.
Some video glasses are somewhat subtle if klutzy in style, I do not know if prescription lenses can be installed ‘tho.

Genocide and enslavement aside, this is comical: by refusing her entry, they already wrote their negative story, and we can assume they are even more dangerous than we could imagine.

All that’s missing is pelosi in her subservient headscarf:

http://fredfryinternational.blogspot.com/2007/04/nancy-pelosi-submits-to-islam-in-syria.html

Fascists stick together. It’s once they gain power over free people that they start killing each other.

    I don’t mind that if she’d also wear a scarf at a synagogue, or the Vatican for that matter. General modesty is fine.

    But I wouldn’t be surprised if we can get some pictures of her being less modest in places of other religions that also ask for modesty.

Tried to drop a link but I guess it was ‘disappeared.’ Pro ject
very toss… they provide hidden cameras for this type of undercover journalism.

Does anybody know where AMP gets its money? DO they receive any taxpayer funds?

Thank you for trying to cover this.
These types of events, and all CAIR events need someone on the inside covering what’s happening for those of us out here.
Why don’t they want information coming out? What are they hiding?

    Tom Servo in reply to lc. | December 1, 2019 at 10:06 am

    with all due respect, we really don’t need anyone covering them from the inside, except for possible use in the info-wars. Because we all know what they’re trying to hide. “Death to Israel” is their only reason for being, that’s all they want, that’s all they work for.

Hmmmm! You paid the AMP registration fee and registered for the event, and you paid for and were given a room at the Hyatt hotel. Seems like you had a right to attend the AMP conference and to be on the Hyatt hotel’s premises without being harassed and removed by AMP and Hyatt. I hope you consider taking legal action against AMP and Hyatt.

    Note that she does not say they kicked her out of the hotel, merely that the one clerk threatened to.

    Also, hotels have the right to kick you out for being “disruptive”. And, if you are disruptive, you’re violating the terms of the contract for your stay. So a breach of contract threat is fairly meaningless to them – their lawyers have it covered.

    The conference… maybe not so much. (But, relief would likely be limited to return of your registration fees. And court costs, if required.)

      Barry in reply to GWB. | December 1, 2019 at 10:58 pm

      Of course, she wasn’t disruptive.

      GWB in reply to GWB. | December 2, 2019 at 4:26 pm

      Sad, a downvote for stating facts.

      No, she was evidently not truly disruptive. But my point was the hotel is well-protected by lawyers and would not likely lose big in a suit of the sort imagined.

Under Pelosi’s leadership, America’s culture wields the twin swords of intolerance and injustice as they slice through the last vestiges
of freedom and liberty.

The AMP official removing me declared that based on my prior reporting about AMP, I clearly had “no intention of writing anything positive”

And every intention of writing anything accurate. Can’t allow that, can they?

Sunlight Is The Best Disinfectant ?

Legal Insurection is about sunlight. The AMP and their Jew Haters are not.

I am very disappointed Hyatt did not protect its guest. I get if there is a dispute between two guests it gets difficult for Hyatt–but protecting a guest room # is standard safety protocol at all hotels.

Hyatt screwed up–Badly.

    Barry in reply to EBL. | December 1, 2019 at 11:52 am

    Sue the bastards. They took sides and chose evil.

    GWB in reply to EBL. | December 1, 2019 at 12:30 pm

    Read the whole story, EBL. It looks like the one clerk was in on the scam, but the rest of the hotel staff, maybe not so much. It IS the hotel staff that is telling the AMP folks they can’t stalk a guest in the hotel.

    Maybe their protections were inadequate, but it doesn’t look like they were entirely without some redeeming value in this.

    Gremlin1974 in reply to EBL. | December 1, 2019 at 3:08 pm

    The most likely explanation is that the “hotel staff” is probably connected with the group in question, which is why the conference is being held there.

The self-hating Jews who founded and run Hyatt are total Pritzkers.

I agree in most regards with the previous comments. You showed real courage, Samantha.

Where I differ, and it’s not a small nit to pick, is on the recommendation to take two sizeable men with you.

I don’t want to come across as somebody who is more than he was. I was Navy intel. My contribution to Naval SPECWAR was to keep them supplied with crayons and construction paper and leave them alone to do their mission planning.

But I do have some experience with the special warfare types, mostly Navy SEALs and Recon Marines, but also Army types (Rangers lead the way!).

They are not big men. I’m not a big, imposing guy, but then I can’t think of a SEAL, Recon Marine, Ranger, or Green Beret who met that description. You probably would have been surprised if I introduced you to one of my friends and told you, OBTW, he’s a SEAL.

I also know a few bodyguards. Some of them are huge. So by all means bring a big man for the sheer intimidation factor. But some of the huge bodyguards I know work with much smaller men. It’s always the smaller guy who has the gun. Because everyone expects the huge guy to be the bodyguard.

Women also work well in the “surprise!” part of the equation.

A further aside.

If I went to a meeting of some organization that labels itself anything like “American Muslims for Palestine,” and I wasn’t kicked out, I would feel insulted.

Ah,, the promotion of Violence, Destruction and Killings are ILLEGAL in OUR Nation yet the Diaper Head were allowed to have their meeting to do such. Who allowed them to meet ???? Oh ya,,, the DemonRats/LibTurds ,,,, We as ARMED Citizens should have paid them a visit and showed them this is OUR Nation and to get the F**K OUT !!!

Well they were right, you wrote a deservedly negative piece. Well done!