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Within Our Lifetime

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Within Our Lifetime - United For Palestine
PurposeAnti-Zionist activism
Location
Founder and chair
Nerdeen Kiswani
Websitewolpalestine.com

Within Our Lifetime - United For Palestine (WOL),[1] is a pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist activist organization primarily active in New York City. The group, which expresses support for the Palestinian right to resist against Israel,[2][3][4] has been one of the key organizers in the city's Israel-Hamas war protests,[5] alongside Jewish Voice for Peace, Palestinian Youth Movement, and Democratic Socialists of America.[3]

The organization was founded and is currently led by the Palestinian-American Muslim Nerdeen Kiswani.[1] They are based out of Bay Ridge, a neighborhood in Brooklyn that is home to the majority of Palestinians in New York City.[6][7]

WOL organizes around four principles: the Palestinian right of return, anti-Zionism, the Palestinian right to resist, and internationalism.[8] While WOL is centered around Palestinian liberation, they are generally anti-imperialist.[8] The New York Police Department has deployed its Strategic Response Group and flying helicopters and drones at WOL protests since October 7, 2023 (the day the war began)[9] as well as banned the use of megaphones and air horns entirely.[10][5] Local publication Hell Gate has referred to this as an "escalating crackdown on pro-Palestine protests".[10]

Description

WOL is Palestinian-led and active among youth[11] and on university campuses, primarily in the New York City area.[12][13] The group is most closely affiliated with activists at the City University of New York (CUNY), where leaders delivered anti-Zionist commencement speeches in 2022 and 2023; Kiswani herself was president of the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at CUNY School of Law.[14][15] Besides Kiswani, other prominent organizers include Abdullah Akl[5][16][17] and Fatima Mohammed.[5][18]

The name "Within Our Lifetime" was chosen as a reflection of Kiswani's confidence in a imminent Palestinian liberation,[1] as reflected in one of the group's protest chants, "We will free Palestine, within our lifetime!".[19] WOL refers to its protests as "floods" (as in "Flood Manhattan for Gaza", for example); Haaretz has speculated that these are references to "Al-Aqsa Flood" (the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel).[20]

WOL closely works with SJP on campus initiatives and protests. Both groups are anti-Zionist, call to "Globalize the Intifada", ostracize Zionists, and refuse to speak with what they claim to be the "Zionist media."[15]

Along with SJP, WOL is considered to have become a hybrid organization that includes activists from different backgrounds involved in pro-Palestinian activism.[12] Jews from the anti-Zionist sect Neturei Karta have often participated in WOL's protests.[21][22][23] Flags displayed by WOL protestors, besides the Palestinian one, have included those of Hezbollah,[24] Vatican City,[25] the LGBT community, [26][27] and other Middle Eastern countries such as Lebanon and Algeria.[28]

The group has expressed hostility to American president Joe Biden and New York City mayor Eric Adams on account of their pro-Israel stances,[29][30][31][17] and diverges from groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace and Democratic Socialists of America in that they do not wish to work with the Democratic Party.[3]

History

Prewar activity

2019

On 19 April 2019, WOL protestors broke out into spontaneous dabke at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York as part of a protest against gentrification led by Decolonize This Place (DTP).[11]

2022

WOL was temporarily banned from Instagram after it posted a collage on 8 March 2022 featuring Rasmea Odeh, convicted of involvement in the 1969 Jerusalem bombings and Leila Khaled, part of a group responsible for the TWA Flight 840 hijacking.[32]

At a WOL demonstration on 20 April during the 2022 Al-Aqsa clashes in Jerusalem, organizer Saadah Masoud attacked Matt Greenman, a Jewish man wearing an Israeli flag as a cape. Masoud was one of three WOL activists arrested or imprisoned for attacking Jews as of November 2023.[33][18]

In May 2022, Kiswani delived an anti-Zionist commencement speech at CUNY.[15]

In November, WOL joined with a coalition of Palestinian advocacy groups, including Samidoun (an advocacy organization for Palestinian prisoners), in an effort to secure a prison release of defendants in the Holy Land Foundation case.[34]

2023

May 2023 marked the second consecutive year that a WOL organizer delivered an anti-Zionist commencement speech at CUNY, with the speaker this time being Fatima Mohammed.[15]

Israel-Hamas war

2023

Since the start of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, WOL has been one of the key organizers of protests in New York City.[12] It expressed support for the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. On the day of the attack, WOL announced a rally in Times Square for October 8 and at the Israeli consulate in New York for October 9 "to defend the heroic Palestinian resistance."[14] At the end of October, WOL's website "called the Hamas attack an inspiration to the world." It was later replaced by a denunciation of Israel's military operations in Gaza.[35] The day after the beginning of the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip on October 27, 2023, WOL organized a demonstration that marched from the Brooklyn Museum to the Brooklyn Bridge calling for an end to U.S. aid to Israel.[13]

On 10 November, WOL protestors burned an Israeli flag at Columbus Circle, vandalized the New York Times building, tore down American flags, and later attempted to force their way into Grand Central Terminal, smashing windows and clashing with the NYPD.[36][37] On 17 November, The Times of Israel reported that the group posted maps on its social media accounts that detailed the locations of organizations that supported Israel in New York City, including Israel's consulate, the Central Fund of Israel, the Jewish Communal Fund, Blackrock, the New York Times, and Penn Station, saying they had "blood on their hands." The post ended with the phrase "From the river to the sea". The posts were condemned by elected officials and Jewish leaders, who claimed that the maps were antisemitic. Several other CUNY groups also shared the maps before they were deleted by WOL.[18] WOL stated that "the locations were chosen for their complicity in the genocide of Palestinians and have nothing to do with Judaism or Jewish people in general."[38] On 30 November, WOL organized an interfaith[39] protest, "Flood the Tree Lighting for Gaza", to disrupt the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree lighting.[40]

On 18 December, the group protested at Grand Central Terminal and Port Authority Bus Terminal, and stormed Penn Station despite attempts by the NYPD to block them.[41] At one point while marching they crossed paths with actor Alec Baldwin; a heated verbal confrontation erupted between Baldwin and the protestors, with the NYPD eventually escorting him away.[42][43] WOL organized a protest on 25 December, Christmas Day, which began outside News Corp headquarters. Protesters held signs that read "Enough is Enough," "Support Palestinian Resistance", and "What Would Jesus Do?", and clashed with the NYPD.[44]

2024

WOL organized a "Flood JFK for Gaza" protest at the JFK International Airport on 1 January 2024,[45] and a "Flood the Bronx for Gaza" march in the Bronx on 7 January.[46] During a rally on 15 January 2024 called "Flood Manhattan for Gaza: MLK Day March for Healthcare," WOL protestors demonstrated outside the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, accusing the hospital of abetting genocide.[47] This was on account of the hospital accepting millions of dollars from pro-Israel billionaires such as Kenneth C. Griffin and David Geffen.[3]

On 2 February, WOL organized a protest outside Columbia University in response to a previous incident where pro-Palestinian demonstrators were attacked with skunk, a foul-smelling chemical spray.[48] On 9 February, Meta deleted WOL's Instagram page, as well as that of Kiswani's.[49] The group released a report on 17 February declaring that the NYPD was intensifying its repression of the protests and alleging, among other things, that the NYPD was intensifying surveillance of Arab and Muslim communities in New York City.[38] In response to the Flour massacre in Gaza, WOL organized a protest at Union Square on 29 February, and then rallied outside a Wall Street restaurant where New York governor Kathy Hochul was scheduled to appear.[50]

On 8 March, WOL reported that they organized a protest to commemorate International Women's Day, during which protestors clashed with the NYPD and stormed the Oculus, the main station house at the World Trade Center station of PATH.[51] The group published another report on 21 March covering their protest against an Iftar dinner hosted by Mayor Eric Adams.[17] On 28 March, WOL and other groups organized protests outside a Democratic Party fundraiser for President Joe Biden at Radio City Hall. Biden was joined by former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton at the event. Later that evening, after the fundraiser ended, WOL continued protests outside the InterContinental New York Barclay Hotel where Biden was staying overnight.[52][53] At a WOL rally on 30 March to commemorate Land Day, Abdullah Akl led the crowd of protestors in chants praising Hamas and the Hamas spokesperson Abu Obaida.[4]

On 15 April, WOL protestors clashed with pro-Israeli protestors at Wall Street and then attempted to occupy the Brooklyn Bridge until being dispersed by the NYPD,[54] later marching through Brooklyn and at one point burning an American flag.[24] On 17 April, WOL protestors arrived outside of Columbia University to support the ongoing campus occupation by pro-Palestinian student demonstrators demanding the university cut all financial ties with Israel.[55][56][57]

Criticism

The Times of Israel has pointed to various instances of criticism of Within Our Lifetime for its anti-Israel sentiments.[14]

The Anti-Defamation League has stated that WOL is "a radical New York-based anti-Israel organization that routinely expresses support for violence against Israel."[58] It has been described by New York Jewish Week as "hardline" for "echo[ing] Hamas talking points and routinely call[ing] for Israel's destruction."[47]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "Palestinian Women Leading Protests: Lessons from Organizers in Exile". Institute for Palestine Studies. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
  2. ^ Glueck, Katie; Benner, Katie; Frenkel, Sheera (12 April 2024). "How the War in Gaza Mobilized the American Left". The New York Times.
  3. ^ a b c d Barkan, Ross (February 7, 2024). "How the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Drove a Wedge Into the Democratic Party". The New York Times Magazine.
  4. ^ a b "NYC Land Day protesters to Hamas: 'Strike, strike Tel Aviv!'". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. 2024-04-01. Retrieved 2024-04-16.
  5. ^ a b c d GUERGUERIAN, AMBA (February 19, 2024). "Censored! Meta Deletes Popular Pro-Palestine Accounts in New York City". Retrieved 2024-03-29.
  6. ^ Guerguerian, Amba; Guerra, Elias; Constantine, Neil (2023-11-21). "Palestine Protests Footage from Over the Weekend". The Indypendent. Retrieved 2024-03-27.
  7. ^ Ibrahim, Ismail (2023-11-02). "Prayer and Protest in Bay Ridge's Little Palestine". Curbed. Retrieved 2024-03-29.
  8. ^ a b "Points of Unity - Within Our Lifetime". 2021-03-16. Retrieved 2024-03-27.
  9. ^ Nolan, Erin; Fawcett, Eliza; Schweber, Nate (October 28, 2023). "Protesters fill the streets in New York to support Palestinians in Gaza". The New York Times.
  10. ^ a b "The NYPD's Escalating Crackdown on Pro-Palestine Protests Falls 'Outside the Bounds of the Constitution' - Hell Gate". hellgatenyc.com. 2024-02-13. Retrieved 2024-03-27.
  11. ^ a b "Palestine Unbound". Journal of Palestine Studies. 48 (4): 147. Summer 2019. JSTOR 26873249.
  12. ^ a b c Rosen, Ehud (2023). "The War in Gaza and the Domestic Threat in the West". Institute for National Security Studies. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
  13. ^ a b Nolan, Erin (2023-10-28). "Protesters fill the streets in New York to support Palestinians in Gaza". New York Times. Archived from the original on 2023-11-01. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
  14. ^ a b c Tress, Luke (2023-10-08). "US pro-Palestinian groups applaud Hamas terror onslaught, plan support rallies". Times of Israel. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
  15. ^ a b c d Tress, Luke (2023-05-07). "NYC's public law school releases video of 'antisemitic' commencement speech". Times of Israel. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
  16. ^ "Palestinian supporters march over Manhattan Bridge into Brooklyn". ny1.com. Retrieved 2024-04-12.
  17. ^ a b c "Our Communities Will Not Break Fast with You: The NYPD Attacks Muslims Protesting for Gaza Outside of Eric Adams' PR Iftar but Fails to Suppress People Power - Within Our Lifetime". 2024-03-21. Retrieved 2024-04-12.
  18. ^ a b c Tress, Luke. "US pro-Palestinian group blasted for map of Jewish groups with 'blood on their hands'". New York Jewish Week. Retrieved 27 November 2023.
  19. ^ "Within Our Lifetime Rally Toolkit - Within Our Lifetime". 2021-03-17. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
  20. ^ Maltz, Judy (2023-10-29). "'By Any Means Necessary': Thousands in Brooklyn stand behind sign legitimizing Hamas terror". Haaretz. Retrieved 2024-04-18.
  21. ^ Shapiro, Dmitriy (21 April 2022). "Anti-Israel demonstrators call for resistance 'by any means necessary' outside Israeli consulate in New York". Jewish News Syndicate.
  22. ^ "Pro-Palestinian Protest Fills Bay Ridge Streets". New York City News Service. 2023-10-26. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
  23. ^ Harris, Andy; Johnson, Miles (2023-10-20). "Passion Turns to Hostility in Clashing Protests at Washington Square Park - Pavement Pieces". Pavement Pieces. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
  24. ^ a b "US flag set afire, call for death to US, Hezbollah flag at NYC protest". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. 2024-04-16. Retrieved 2024-04-16.
  25. ^ Knox, Brady (2023-12-19). "Pro-Palestinian protesters descend on New York City transportation hubs - Washington Examiner". Retrieved 2024-04-16.
  26. ^ "Pro-Palestinian Protest Fills Bay Ridge Streets". New York City News Service. 2023-10-26. Retrieved 2024-04-16.
  27. ^ Grimm, Remy (2024-02-17). "Hundreds of protesters take over midtown New York City in response to Israel's siege on Rafah". The New School Free Press. Retrieved 2024-04-16.
  28. ^ Knox, Brady (2023-10-14). "Israel War: Left-wing and Islamic groups converge on New York City for pro-Palestinian protest - Washington Examiner". Retrieved 2024-04-16.
  29. ^ "Who's behind the pro-Palestinian protests that are disrupting Biden's campaign events and blocking city streets?". NBC News. 2024-03-20. Retrieved 2024-04-12.
  30. ^ "Gaza protesters dim the glitz and glamour of Biden's Obama-Clinton fundraiser in NYC". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2024-04-12.
  31. ^ "Pro-Palestine protesters tell New York City Mayor Eric Adams: 'Shame on you'". Middle East Eye. Retrieved 2024-04-12.
  32. ^ Isaac, David (14 March 2022). "Instagram bans anti-Israel group after it posts collage featuring terrorists". Jewish News Syndicate. Retrieved 7 December 2023.
  33. ^ Starr, Michael (2022-07-01). "Anti-Israel activist charged with hate crime for assault of NYC Jewish man". Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 27 November 2023.
  34. ^ Arria, Michael (2022-11-29). "Palestine advocates launch campaign to free Holy Land Five members". Mondoweiss. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
  35. ^ Silverstein, Andrew (2023-11-10). "'Do you condemn Hamas?' — why a seemingly legitimate question has become controversial". The Forward. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
  36. ^ "'You Zionist Pig': Pro-Palestinian Protesters Vandalize New York Times Building, Grand Central Station". National Review. 2023-11-11. Retrieved 2024-04-16.
  37. ^ Reporter, James Bickerton US News (2023-11-11). "Videos show NY chaos as anti-Israel protester tears down US flags". Newsweek. Retrieved 2024-04-16.
  38. ^ a b "The Crackdown on Palestine: Unveiling NYPD's Repression Tactics - Within Our Lifetime". 2024-01-25. Retrieved 2024-03-30.
  39. ^ Heinrichs, Audra (2023-11-30). "'We stand against genocide': Gaza peace protesters target New York Christmas tree lighting". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
  40. ^ Stallone, Michael (2023-11-28). "Pro-Palestinian protests erupt in Midtown Manhattan during tree lighting". FOX 5 NY. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
  41. ^ Knox, Brady (2023-12-19). "Pro-Palestinian protesters descend on New York City transportation hubs - Washington Examiner". Retrieved 2024-03-11.
  42. ^ "NYPD cops escort Alec Baldwin away after confrontation with pro-Palestinian demonstrators". Newsday. 2023-12-20. Retrieved 2024-04-01.
  43. ^ "Alec Baldwin clashes with pro-Palestinian protesters". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. 2023-12-20. Retrieved 2024-04-01.
  44. ^ Reporter, Kaitlin Lewis Night (2023-12-25). "Videos show chaotic NYC pro-Palestinian protest: "Christmas is cancelled!"". Newsweek. Retrieved 2024-03-13.
  45. ^ Birle, Jack (2024-01-01). "Pro-Palestinian protesters disrupt JFK Airport in New York - Washington Examiner". Retrieved 2024-03-11.
  46. ^ "Photos: New Yorkers march for Palestine in the Bronx as snow falls". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 8 January 2024.
  47. ^ a b Tress, Luke (2023-01-16). "Pro-Palestinian protesters target Memorial Sloan Kettering cancer center, accusing it of 'genocide'". New York Jewish Week. Retrieved 16 January 2024.
  48. ^ Tress, Luke (2024-02-02). "Thousands of activists gather outside Columbia U to protest treatment of campus pro-Palestinian groups". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
  49. ^ Tress, Luke (14 February 2024). "Instagram removes accounts for leading NYC pro-Palestinian group Within Our Lifetime". Times of Israel. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
  50. ^ Fawcett, Eliza (2024-03-01). "Pro-Palestinian Rally Becomes Mass Subway Ride to Confront Kathy Hochul". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
  51. ^ "No Feminist Struggle without Gaza: NYPD Beats and Arrests Protestors on International Women's Day - Within Our Lifetime". 2024-03-09. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
  52. ^ "Gaza protesters dim the glitz and glamour of Biden's Obama-Clinton fundraiser in NYC". North Jersey Media Group. Retrieved 2024-03-30.
  53. ^ "'Down with the USA:' Anti-Israel activists protest Biden NYC fundraiser". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. 2024-03-29. Retrieved 2024-03-30.
  54. ^ "Pro-Palestinian demonstrators snarl traffic on Brooklyn Bridge, leading to arrests". ABC7 New York. 2024-04-15. Retrieved 2024-04-16.
  55. ^ "Columbia University Closes Campus as Hundreds of Anti-Israel Student Protesters Occupy Quad". National Review. 2024-04-17. Retrieved 2024-04-18.
  56. ^ Banerjee, Isha. "Protests outside Columbia gates in solidarity with arrested students draw hundreds". Columbia Daily Spectator. Retrieved 2024-04-22.
  57. ^ Chakravarthy, Apurva. "NYPD arrests pro-Palestinian protester, detains at least two more at 'Flood Columbia for Gaza' demonstration on 116th Street and Broadway". Columbia Daily Spectator. Retrieved 2024-04-18.
  58. ^ "Nerdeen Kiswani and Within Our Lifetime-United for Palestine: What You Need to Know | ADL". www.adl.org. Retrieved 2023-12-07.
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