DOJ meets with Arab American groups over canceled meetings in major hotel chains

Arab American and Muslim civic organizations recently met with the Justice Department to raise concerns about a series of event cancellations by major hotels in the weeks following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.

The organizations aired their concerns during a one-hour zoom meeting with a DOJ deputy director as well as three lawyers with the DOJ Civil Rights Division and three staffers, according to details of the meeting shared exclusively with POLITICO. A spokesperson for the Justice Department declined to comment.

Leaders of the organizations told the DOJ that the hotels claimed to receive threatening calls and messages, which was the reason cited for canceling the events. The Arab American groups say the hotels — which include Hyatt, Marriott and Hilton hotel chains — haven’t offered specifics about the safety concerns.

“There’s no showing of documentation as yet,” said William Haddad, a retired judge for the Circuit Court of Cook County in Chicago, who is among Arab American leaders who met with Justice officials to express their concerns about the hotels’ actions.

Arab American groups say the cancellations for the October and November events were arbitrary.

“This was devastating for us,” said Warren David, head of the Arab America Foundation, which had planned its national two-day summit and fundraising gala at the Doubletree Hilton Orlando at SeaWorld.

“[The hotel] received some phone calls [from people] that saw our event on social media,” David told POLITICO. “They said callers were surprised that the Doubletree Hilton would host such an event. But the hotel wouldn’t tell us who actually called.”

His group expected 400 attendees for the cultural and educational summit featuring panels with 30 speakers and a performance by a national classic Arab music ensemble from New York City. The hotel refunded the money put toward reserving the space, but David said the cancellation disrupted attendees' plans in other ways. Some attendees lost money on flights and weren’t able to participate in family reunions they had planned as part of the conference, he told POLITICO.

The manager of the Doubletree Hilton and Hilton's corporate office didn’t return requests for comment.

The Arab America Foundation’s event wasn’t the only one canceled in recent weeks.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim-American civil rights and advocacy group, said its 29th annual banquet in Arlington, Va., scheduled for Oct. 21, was canceled by the Marriott Crystal Gateway, in Arlington, Va. The groups say targeting of their events is part of a bigger problem of anti-Arab sentiment.

“Members of our community who lived through the post-9/11 years say what they’re seeing today is worse,” said Edward Ahmed Mitchell, deputy executive director of CAIR.

In a statement to POLITICO, Crystal Gateway Marriott said it “determined that we are unable to move forward with an event … due to significant risks to the safety of event attendees, guests and associates.”

American Muslims for Palestine switched the location of its Nov. 24 event at the last minute after the Hyatt Regency Hotel O’Hare in Chicago canceled the group’s annual event citing concerns for safety, according to a hotel statement. And a Hilton hotel in Houston canceled an event for the Virginia-based American Muslims for Palestine for similar reasons.

Haddad, who was at the meeting with the DOJ, said “It feels a lot like 2001." He was an attorney who represented an Arab-American organization that saw its planned event abruptly canceled by the Des Moines Marriott hours after the 9/11 attacks.

At the time, the group received an apology from the Marriott, a $115,000 donation to its scholarship fund and an agreement with the DOJ that the hotel would conduct sensitivity training for the staff.

“We hope that the Justice Department makes a thorough investigation of the suspicious last-minute cancellations of the MENA [Middle East and North Africa] events,” Haddad said.