Shocking footage from a recent anti-Israel demonstration in New York City shows over a thousand demonstrators rallying behind calls for Israel’s demise while advocating a violent uprising and revolution against the Jewish state.
Footage from the Tuesday event showed a crowd of pro-Palestinian supporters, some wearing Palestinian symbols such as Keffiyeh scarves and waving Palestinian flags, gathered in front of the Israeli consulate in Manhattan.
While some are seen carrying signs attacking “U.S. imperialism” and calling for boycotts and a halt to U.S. aid to Israel, other signs called for full-blown violence.
One sign read, “Support Palestinian resistance,” featuring a picture of young man who appeared to be lobbing a stone, while another read, “There is only one solution: Intifada, revolution.” Both signs bore the logo of “Within Our Lifetime” (WOL), a New York-based Palestinian pro-terror group responsible for the demonstration.
The rally’s violent calls were echoed in the rhetoric of its central speaker, WOL Chair Nerdeen Kiswani, who won the title “antisemite of the year” by Stopantisemitism.org last year following several incidents of terrorist glorification, threatening violence, and having been accused of spreading hate “by disguising it as criticisms of Israel.”
Kiswani is also the former president of the City of New York University (CUNY) branch of the radical Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) whose activists have reportedly physically assaulted, intimidated and harassed Jewish students on campus.
Kiswani, leading the crowd with a loudspeaker, stated, “We marched through the streets because there are dozens of Zionist institutions peppered throughout this city who raise money to fund settlements.”
Claiming that Gaza “is in a constant state of genocide,” she also defended the Palestinian right to “resist” Israel’s very existence.
“So the people of Gaza and the people of Palestine have always had a right to resist — whether it’s resisting the siege and blockade, or resisting the creation of Israel’s existence,” she said.
“We have to support the right of Palestinians to resist this by any means necessary,” she added.
Support for “resistance” is largely a reference to the continuous “holy war” against the Jewish state. The name “Hamas,” the U.S. designated terror organization which currently rules Gaza, is an acronym for “Islamic resistance movement.”
Openly calling for a violent uprising, or intifada, against the Jewish state, Kiswani led chants of, “There is only one solution: intifada, revolution.”
Kiswani also criticized “Fox News, the New York Times, CNN, and all of these other mainstream outlets who keep lying on our people, lying on our struggle, hiding and protecting Israel from accountability,” prompting boos directed at the media from the crowd.
Several chants of the crowd were also captured on film.
One chant, “Zionists, you will learn: refugees will return,” referenced those Palestinians who largely left their homes in anticipation of the 1948 Arab war against the nascent Jewish state, many responding to the calls of Arab leaders to get out of the way of their advancing armies.
In other chants, demonstrators clarified they had no interest in coexistence with a Jewish state, but sought only a Palestinian one in its place.
“We don’t want two states; we want all of it!” went one chant, negating Israel’s right to exist.
Another chant, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” also precluded Israel’s existence.
At one point the crowd also erupted with calls for an intifada. “Intifada, Intifada!” the crowd shouted as it marched through downtown Manhattan.
At another point, a pro-Palestinian demonstrator warned, “If you touch al-Aqsa [mosque], we will wreak havoc…. we’ll do World War III so we can to liberate it from you… just like [Crusade-era Islamic leader] Salah-ad-Din.”
After the rally, demonstrators marched to Union Square.
The rabid anti-Israel NY4Palestine coalition, which has been leading many of the New York City protests that have resulted in violence targeting Jews, was a lead organizer of the rally.
The coalition includes Al-Awda: The Palestinian Right to Return Coalition, which “supports the struggle for the liberation of Palestine” against the “racism and discrimination inherent in Zionist ideology,” and has regularly hosted convicted terrorists at its events, while senior members of the group have expressed support for violence against Israelis and have been accused of antisemitism on social media.
The radical Soros-funded Alliance for Global Justice (AFGJ) is a “fiscal sponsor” of NY4Palestine’s Palestine Freedom Fund, which “as a first initiative” has raised nearly $20,000 to fund legal expenses for Palestinian protesters who participated in antisemitic demonstrations that descended into violence against Jews in Midtown Manhattan in May.
The U.S. has faced a recent outbreak of antisemitic attacks targeting Jews in New York City and other cities across the nation, largely attributed to pro-Palestinian incitement.
Last month, pro-Palestinian demonstrators were filmed attacking Jews in Manhattan — allegedly harassing and beating pro-Israel counter-demonstrators; shooting fireworks at a crowd of onlookers; and spitting on diners eating in a local restaurant.
Also, a small explosive was thrown from a pickup truck in the Diamond District — a predominantly Jewish area — sending worried bystanders running for safety. The pickup truck was part of a convoy of vehicles waving Palestinian flags, sources said.
Follow Joshua Klein on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.
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