First Liberty Institute, the legal counsel for the organizing groups of the 2024 Israel Summit, raised questions to the Sonesta Nashville Airport Hotel’s reasoning behind its decision to break its contractual obligation to host the event next week.
The Israel Summit was expected to be hosted next week at the Sonesta Hotel until hotel leadership contacted one of the summit’s sponsors, notifying the group that it was dropping its contract to host the event, citing “threatening” calls and messages.
In an email obtained by First Liberty Institute, Jodi Pfeiffer, the director of sales and marketing of the Sonesta Hotel, said the hotel was dropping its contract to host the Israel Summit due to “credible threats” regarding safety which were “confirmed by law enforcement officials.”
The email, sent on May 10 to event organizers HaYovel and The Israel Guys read:
We have received credible threats regarding the safety of your group, our guests and employees, our hotel and sister property, and to businesses in our neighborhood. Those threats were confirmed by law enforcement [officials] in the last 24 hours. Consequently, we are invoking our rights under the force majeure clause of the contract and unfortunately are canceling the event that was scheduled for May 20-22, including canceling any guestroom reservations associated with the event. We are sincerely sorry.
We will begin the process of crediting all deposits back to you as quickly as possible.
However, when First Liberty Institute contacted the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) regarding the “credible threats” cited by the hotel, MNPD Chief John Drake denied that the department was in “no way a party” to the hotel’s “corporate decision to cancel” the event.
Drake added that while MNPD was aware of “external messages” from groups urging the hotel to cancel the event, the department was “prepared to help the hotel create a safety and security” for the event.
Drake’s email to First Liberty Institute reads as follows:
The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department did not advocate, in any shape or form, for the cancellation of the conference at the Sonesta Hotel. Any inference to the contrary is false. Equally false is the assertion in an on-line article that this police department voiced concerns about persons being in physical danger. In fact, members of the police department did, indeed, meet with hotel management at its request to talk about the conference. We let it be known that we were absolutely prepared to help the hotel create a safety and security plan, as we would with any of our city’s hotels, and offer additional support if needed. At the same time, I am aware that the Sonesta was receiving a number of external messages urging that it not host the event.
In the end, the Sonesta Hotel made a corporate decision to cancel. This police department was in no way a party to that decision.
Hiram Sasser, executive general counsel at First Liberty Institute, said the hotel’s conflicting claims amid MNPD’s email are “very troubling.”
“This is very troubling that the Sonesta Hotel may have misled HaYovel,” Sasser said in a statement. “Someone here is not telling the truth, but I believe Chief Drake. We are calling on the Sonesta Hotel to offer proof that Chief Drake said the hotel should cancel The Israel Summit due to threats, or to apologize to Chief Drake for claiming he said there is a threat.”
First Liberty Institute first contacted the Sonesta Hotel after hotel leadership breached its contract to host the event, notifying the hotel that its decision was “unlawful religious discrimination in a place of public accommodation.”
The Israel Summit has since been moved to the Ramsey Event Center in Franklin at the invitation of financial advisor and radio host Dave Ramsey. The summit will take place next week on May 20-22.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Sonesta Nashville Airport” by Sonesta Nashville Airport.
