After nearly being canceled, the “Consequence of Palestine“ conference took place at Gorham’s First Parish United Church of Christ on Saturday, Feb. 28. The conference was sponsored by the Maine Coalition for Palestine and Maine Voices for Palestinian Rights.
Approximately 300 people were registered to attend, from all around New England. According to organizers, most were able to attend despite the change of venue, and about 100 people participated via a video connection.

The event had been scheduled to take place on USM’s Portland campus. However, just five days before the conference was supposed to begin, USM administrators informed organizers that they had rescinded permission to hold it on campus. The conference organizers then began exploring alternate options, including First Parish UCC church.

In an email, Reverend Christine Dyke stated “in talking with them, I knew they were having a difficult time finding a space because of the treasury designation of the first speaker. We knew that it would be a low risk event for the church, so we were glad to say “yes.” As a congregation we engage in many justice projects, and this was an event that addressed the injustice in Palestine, and the injustice of silencing an employee of the UN who was speaking truth to power.”

A university spokesperson said the cancellation happened because one of the planned participants was barred from participating, even via video call, without specific Treasury Department approval (which the university believed had not been obtained).

According to organizers, USM’s chief objection to the conference was the planned participation (via video call) of Francesca Albanese, an Italian who has been designated as “U.N. Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Countries.” Last year, the U.S. government objected to certain comments Albanese had made and sanctioned her, barring her from receiving funds from any U.S. enterprise. Organizers stated that they believed they were in compliance with the federal rules.
In the end, Albanese’s video participation from Italy went ahead as scheduled.

In an email, a conference organizer stated that overall the conference was “excellent.” She went on to refer to “a spirit of community and resilience, as we had rallied together to find a new venue and hustled to take care of the logistics with just a few days’ lead time.” She added “registration numbers surged after people found out about USM’s actions. The conference participants came from around New England. The response was universally enthusiastic, especially when Francesca Albanese spoke remotely.”

One of the main purposes of the conference was to highlight the deaths of over 70,000 civilian Palestinians in Gaza over the past two-and-a-half years. These deaths have occurred since the Israeli military began a counteroffensive involving Gaza and other areas, following Hamas attacks against Israel that began Oct. 7, 2023.

Conference participant Fateh Azzam (a member of Maine Coalition for Palestine) was quoted as stating “we are seeing the severe consequences of this failure after two-and-a-half years of horrific genocide and continued ethnic cleansing. For Palestinians, but also for the rest of the world, we are discovering just how callous and brutal intertwining systems of political and economic power are.”

Underscoring the conference speakers’ calls for peace in the Middle East and around the world was the fact that the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran was announced on Saturday morning, just before participants began arriving for the conference.