Apparently bowing to public pressure, the Sheraton Mesa in Wrigleyville West has canceled the controversial Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) banquet featuring U.S. Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-12).
“Thank you everyone! I am sure there were multiple groups working at this, but I believe we all contributed to this success,” celebrated the organizer of the change.org petition calling on the hotel to cancel the event, scheduled for Nov.18. “Something we can all feel good about. I just called Sheraton Mesa Conference planning and the event has been CANCELLED!”
As The Arizona Sun Times first reported, a Phoenix resident launched the petition on October 22. As of Tuesday morning, it had received some 6,600 signatures in support.
On Tuesday afternoon, the petition site declared victory.
Hotel officials did not return a call on Tuesday seeking comment. A hotel official the day before told The Arizona Sun Times that the hotel would not comment on the matter.
CAIR has not returned several requests for comment. The CAIR-Arizona website continued to promote the event with Tlaib at the Sheraton Mesa in Wrigleyville West.
The petition states, “Tlaib’s history of antisemitic remarks and her response to attacks on our ally, Israel, are disgraceful and cannot go unchecked.”
“This event features Rashida Tlaib who has regularly shown her blatant antisemitism and support of Hamas. Including just the last few days when she continued PUSHING THE LIE that Israel killed 500 civilians at a hospital even after ALL THE INTELLIGENCE and OUR OWN PRESIDENT said this was not true and in fact it was the terrorist in Gaza that did it,” the petition notes.
Tlaib has faced criticism from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle for her response to Hamas’ barbaric terrorist attack that killed and wounded thousands of innocent Israelis, Americans, and others. Tlaib, a Palestinian American routinely accused of antisemitism, has pushed a narrative that Israel was behind a rocket attack at a Gaza hospital that reportedly killed hundreds, even after Israeli and U.S. intelligence debunked the claims.
She has yet to correct or delete the post.
A call to Tlaib’s Washington, D.C. office was not answered.
Mindy Franklin, an Israel community activist in the Phoenix area with knowledge of the petition, told The Sun Times on Monday that the petition should serve as a wake-up call for Sheraton Mesa.
“Hopefully they do wake up,” the activist said. “CAIR is a promoter of hate. So is (Tlaib),” she said. “This is America and we’re all about freedom of speech, but not when you are spreading hate and evil.”
The Arizona chapter of CAIR, based in Mesa, has followed the lead of the national chapter, which, one day after Hamas launched a terrorist attack against innocent Israeli civilians, called for Jihad. The Muslim organization’s silence on the brutal actions of Hamas, the torture, rape, and murder of more than 1,400 human beings, was deafening.
“We all have a responsibility to do what we can for the people in Gaza. Speak out about the injustices taking place, write to your local officials, donate to verified sources,” CAIR-Arizona said on its X account.
Within hours of Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel, CAIR co-founder and executive director Nihad Awad tweeted in Arabic, “All Arab peoples must go out on Sunday, October 8, and every day, in demonstrations in support of the Palestinians and in rejection of normalization with the occupier and the apartheid regime.”
Other hotels have canceled similar CAIR events.
The Marriott Crystal Gateway hotel in Crystal City, Virginia., located in the shadow of the nation’s capital, reportedly canceled the CAIR planned annual banquet.
In Texas, the Hilton Houston Post Oak by the Galleria canceled a conference of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights over unspecified safety concerns.
“On to the next battle for justice!” the Arizona petition organizer declared in an update.
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
