House Dem lashes out at pro-Israel 'motherf---ers' during fiery speech: 'We ain't going anywhere'

Tlaib also drilled into the United States as an "empire in Washington, D.C.," saying, "the political structures that I have to work in, that we all are surrounded by, was built on slavery and genocide and rape and oppression."

"Gaza is the compass in this country," said Tlaib.

The conference opened on Friday afternoon with an elaborate ceremony, in which a speaker, after leading the crowd in chants, invited attendees to rise for "our national anthem" as a band began playing a song in a foreign language. People wearing keffiyehs proceeded in, holding Palestinian flags.

Peddada urged the pro-Palestinian movement to "destroy the idea of America in Americans' heads so that they can see the humanity of everybody outside the warping of American exceptionalism and imperialism and all these evil things."  

"To obfuscate that point or beat around the bush there does not serve us; we live in an evil country, that's just what's happening," he said as the crowd broke into applause.