Within Our Lifetime

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

Within Our Lifetime – United For Palestine (WOL) is an American pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist activist organization primarily active in New York City. The organization was founded and is currently led by Nerdeen Kiswani, a Palestinian-American Muslim.[1] They are based out of Bay Ridge, a neighborhood in Brooklyn that is home to the majority of Palestinians in New York City.[2][3] The Jerusalem Post has described them as the region's leading pro-Palestinian activist group.[4]

WOL organizes around four principles: the Palestinian right of return, anti-Zionism, the Palestinian right to resist, and internationalism.[5] While the organization is centered around Palestinian liberation, they are also generally anti-imperialist.[5] WOL has praised Hamas and engaged in confrontational protest tactics,[4] attracting criticism from politicians such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.[6][7] A protester at a pro-Palestine march organised by WOL attacked a Jewish counterprotestor, Matt Greenman, in 2022.

Origin and description

Nerdeen Kiswani in 2017

WOL was founded in 2015 as NYC Students for Justice in Palestine.[8] It took on its current name in 2018.[8] The name "Within Our Lifetime" was chosen as a reflection of Nerdeen Kiswani's confidence in an imminent Palestinian liberation,[1] as reflected in one of the group's protest chants, "We will free Palestine, within our lifetime!"[9] Kiswani is the child of Palestinian refugees from Beit Iksa.[8] She was born in Jordan but grew up in Brooklyn, where her parents owned a restaurant.[8] She was formerly president of the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at CUNY School of Law.[10][11] Besides Kiswani, other prominent organizers include Abdullah Akl and Fatima Mohammed.[8] WOL is active on university campuses, primarily in the New York City area.[12] Jews from the anti-Zionist Haredi sect Neturei Karta have often participated in WOL's protests.[13][14][15] Within Our Lifetime is not legally registered as a nonprofit and has no paid staff.[8] It has a few dozen members, and its demonstrations typically attract a few hundred participants.[8]

Gaza war protests

Support for Palestinian political violence

WOL has expressed support for Hamas and Palestinian political violence against Israel in general.[16][17][18] After the October 7 attacks, WOL helped organize anti-Israel rallies in New York, releasing a statement supporting Palestinian violence against Israel: "Supporting Palestinian liberation is supporting whatever means necessary it takes to get there. Freedom has only ever been achieved through resistance."[10] At the end of October, WOL's website praised the Hamas attack. It was later replaced by a denunciation of Israel's military operations in the Gaza Strip.[19]

On June 10, 2024, WOL organized a protest at an exhibition commemorating the Nova music festival massacre on October 7. Protesters set off flares, waved flags of Hamas and Hezbollah, and displayed banners with messages such as "Long live October 7" and "The Zionists are not Jews and not humans." The protesters were recorded chanting pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel slogans.[6][20] This protest was condemned by government officials including White House spokesman Andrew Bates, New York Mayor Eric Adams, and Representative Ritchie Torres.[7] Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman also accused WOL of antisemitism.[21]

Conflict with the Democratic Party

WOL expressed hostility to American president Joe Biden and New York City mayor Eric Adams on account of their pro-Israel stances,[22][23][24][25] and the group diverges from other pro-Palestinian groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace and Democratic Socialists of America in that they do not wish to work with the Democratic Party.[26]

On March 28, 2024, WOL and other groups organized protests outside a Democratic Party fundraiser for President Joe Biden at Radio City Music 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.[27][28]

On June 22, 2024, WOL held a protest against a joint rally held by legislators Jamaal Bowman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Bernie Sanders. WOL said the legislators should refuse to endorse Biden as the Democratic candidate in the 2024 presidential election and stop equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism. Bowman and Ocasio-Cortez had previously condemned the WOL protest at the Nova Festival massacre exhibition as antisemitic.[29][30]

Campus occupation at Columbia University

On April 17, 2024, WOL protestors arrived outside of Columbia University to support the campus occupation by pro-Palestinian student demonstrators, demanding the university cut all financial ties with Israel. WOL organized protests around the campus perimeter in support of the encampment, clashing with the NYPD.[31][32][33] Protestors were ultimately suppressed by the NYPD, which raided campus on April 30.[34]

Response by the New York City Police Department

WOL has routinely clashed with the NYPD, and accuses them of intensifying repression on pro-Palestinian demonstrations.[35] The NYPD has deployed its Strategic Response Group and flown helicopters and drones at WOL protests since the start of the Gaza war on October 7, 2023[36] and banned the group's use of megaphones and air horns entirely.[37][38] Local publication Hell Gate has referred to this as an "escalating crackdown on pro-Palestine protests".[37] During a protest on November 10, 2023, WOL protestors clashed with the NYPD after vandalizing the New York Times building, tearing down American flags, and attempting to force their way into Grand Central Terminal.[39][40]

After a WOL Nakba Day protest on May 18, 2024, videos circulated showing some demonstrators being pushed to the ground and struck repeatedly by officers. Mayor Adams defended the NYPD's response, praising it and calling WOL protestors an "unruly group of people". Kaz Daughtry, the NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations, argued that the demonstration was not peaceful and that protestors spit on and threw water at officers, lit "incendiary devices", and rode on the roof of an MTA bus.[41]

Accusations of antisemitism

The Times of Israel has pointed to various instances of criticism of Within Our Lifetime for its anti-Israel sentiments.[10] 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."[42]

At a 2022 pro-Palestine march organised by WOL, a protester, Saadah Masoud, attacked Matt Greenman, a Jewish man wearing an Israeli flag as a cape. Masoud subsequently pled guilty to a federal hate crime, related to the Matt Greenman attack and two prior events where Masoud assaulted Jewish people.[43][44] Masoud was one of three protesters at WOL marches arrested or imprisoned for attacking Jews as of November 2023.[45][46]

WOL's protest outside the NOVA exhibition was condemned by local and national politicians, including White House spokesperson Andrew Bates and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.[7]

The Times of Israel reported in November 2023 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.[47] 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."[35]

Kiswani states that WOL opposes Zionism as an ideology, not Jews as a people, noting that the group chants "Judaism, yes, Zionism no". The anti-Zionist Jewish organization Jewish Voice for Peace has expressed its support for WOL: Playwright Sarah Schulman, a member of its advisory board, believes that Kiswani's positions stem from her experience as the daughter of Palestinian refugees whom Israel denied access to the West Bank.[48]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Palestinian Women Leading Protests: Lessons from Organizers in Exile". Institute for Palestine Studies. Archived from the original on March 11, 2023. Retrieved March 11, 2024.
  2. ↑ Guerguerian, Amba; Guerra, Elias; Constantine, Neil (November 21, 2023). "Palestine Protests Footage from Over the Weekend". The Indypendent. Archived from the original on December 16, 2024. Retrieved March 27, 2024.
  3. ↑ Ibrahim, Ismail (November 2, 2023). "Prayer and Protest in Bay Ridge's Little Palestine". Curbed. Archived from the original on March 20, 2025. Retrieved March 29, 2024.
  4. 1 2 Tress, Luke (June 20, 2024). "What is Within Our Lifetime, the anti-Israel group behind the protests at the Nova exhibit?". The Jerusalem Post. Archived from the original on March 31, 2025. Retrieved June 20, 2024.
  5. 1 2 "Points of Unity - Within Our Lifetime". March 16, 2021. Archived from the original on May 13, 2025. Retrieved March 27, 2024.
  6. 1 2 "NYC protesters wave terror group flags, call for intifada outside Nova massacre exhibit". Times of Israel. June 11, 2024. Archived from the original on March 31, 2025. Retrieved June 11, 2024.
  7. 1 2 3 Moshtaghian, Artemis; Sylla, Zenebou (June 12, 2024). "NY governor calls vandalism at the homes of Jewish board members of the Brooklyn Museum 'an abhorrent act of antisemitism'". CNN. Archived from the original on January 5, 2025. Retrieved June 12, 2024.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Otterman, Sharon (October 5, 2024). "Pro-Palestinian Group Is Relentless in Its Criticism of Israel, and It Isn't Backing Down". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 6, 2024. Retrieved October 6, 2024.
  9. ↑ "Within Our Lifetime Rally Toolkit - Within Our Lifetime". March 17, 2021. Archived from the original on April 19, 2025. Retrieved March 11, 2024.
  10. 1 2 3 Tress, Luke (October 8, 2023). "US pro-Palestinian groups applaud Hamas terror onslaught, plan support rallies". Times of Israel. Archived from the original on October 8, 2023. Retrieved December 1, 2023.
  11. ↑ Tress, Luke (May 7, 2023). "NYC's public law school releases video of 'antisemitic' commencement speech". Times of Israel. Archived from the original on February 18, 2025. Retrieved December 1, 2023.
  12. ↑ Nolan, Erin (October 28, 2023). "Protesters fill the streets in New York to support Palestinians in Gaza". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 1, 2023. Retrieved December 1, 2023.
  13. ↑ Shapiro, Dmitriy (April 21, 2022). "Anti-Israel demonstrators call for resistance 'by any means necessary' outside Israeli consulate in New York". Jewish News Syndicate. Archived from the original on February 14, 2025. Retrieved March 11, 2024.
  14. ↑ "Pro-Palestinian Protest Fills Bay Ridge Streets". New York City News Service. October 26, 2023. Archived from the original on March 16, 2025. Retrieved March 11, 2024.
  15. ↑ Harris, Andy; Johnson, Miles (October 20, 2023). "Passion Turns to Hostility in Clashing Protests at Washington Square Park - Pavement Pieces". Pavement Pieces. Archived from the original on March 28, 2025. Retrieved March 11, 2024.
  16. ↑ Silverstein, Andrew (November 10, 2023). "'Do you condemn Hamas?' — why a seemingly legitimate question has become controversial". The Forward. Archived from the original on April 1, 2025. Retrieved December 1, 2023.. "Within Our Lifetime, the group that organized the Brooklyn march and other New York rallies, has walked back its most militant messaging. At the end of October, the group’s website called the Hamas attack an inspiration to the world. Since then, the praise of the massacre has been replaced with a denunciation of Israel’s attack of Gaza."
  17. ↑ "Why We Protested Nova: Confronting Zionist Propaganda and the Manufacturing of Consent for Genocide - Within Our Lifetime". June 11, 2024. Archived from the original on April 16, 2025. Retrieved June 13, 2024.. "We will not condemn October 7th. We will not condemn our people’s resistance forces."
  18. ↑ Otterman, Sharon (October 5, 2024). "Pro-Palestinian Group Is Relentless in Its Criticism of Israel, and It Isn't Backing Down". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 6, 2024. Retrieved October 6, 2024.. "Ms. Kiswani says that she supports the liberation of the Palestinian people 'by any means necessary,' including armed resistance."
  19. ↑ Silverstein, Andrew (November 10, 2023). "'Do you condemn Hamas?' — why a seemingly legitimate question has become controversial". The Forward. Archived from the original on April 1, 2025. Retrieved December 1, 2023.
  20. ↑ "Hamas, Hezbollah flags flown at rally outside Nova massacre NYC exhibit". The Jerusalem Post. June 11, 2024. Archived from the original on January 10, 2025. Retrieved June 11, 2024.
  21. ↑ "White House slams 'heartbreaking' anti-Israel protest of Nova massacre exhibit in NYC". Archived from the original on November 4, 2024. Retrieved June 12, 2024.
  22. ↑ "Who's behind the pro-Palestinian protests that are disrupting Biden's campaign events and blocking city streets?". NBC News. March 20, 2024. Archived from the original on May 10, 2025. Retrieved April 12, 2024.
  23. ↑ "Gaza protesters dim the glitz and glamour of Biden's Obama-Clinton fundraiser in NYC". USA Today. Archived from the original on March 30, 2024. Retrieved April 12, 2024.
  24. ↑ "Pro-Palestine protesters tell New York City Mayor Eric Adams: 'Shame on you'". Middle East Eye. Archived from the original on February 13, 2025. Retrieved April 12, 2024.
  25. ↑ "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". March 21, 2024. Archived from the original on March 23, 2025. Retrieved April 12, 2024.
  26. ↑ Barkan, Ross (February 7, 2024). "How the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Drove a Wedge Into the Democratic Party". The New York Times Magazine. Archived from the original on February 7, 2024. Retrieved March 29, 2024.
  27. ↑ "Gaza protesters dim the glitz and glamour of Biden's Obama-Clinton fundraiser in NYC". North Jersey Media Group. Archived from the original on April 4, 2024. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
  28. ↑ "'Down with the USA:' Anti-Israel activists protest Biden NYC fundraiser". The Jerusalem Post. March 29, 2024. Archived from the original on December 16, 2024. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
  29. ↑ "Pro-Israel money and flip-flops on Palestine: How Jamaal Bowman lost his primary election". Middle East Eye. Archived from the original on February 12, 2025. Retrieved September 3, 2024.
  30. ↑ Teshome, Eden (June 22, 2024). "Pro-Palestinian protests disrupt AOC, Sanders, Bowman rally". The Hill. Archived from the original on February 9, 2025. Retrieved September 3, 2024.
  31. ↑ "Columbia University Closes Campus as Hundreds of Anti-Israel Student Protesters Occupy Quad". National Review. April 17, 2024. Archived from the original on April 18, 2024. Retrieved April 18, 2024.
  32. ↑ Banerjee, Isha. "Protests outside Columbia gates in solidarity with arrested students draw hundreds". Columbia Daily Spectator. Archived from the original on April 19, 2024. Retrieved April 22, 2024.
  33. ↑ 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. Archived from the original on April 18, 2024. Retrieved April 18, 2024.
  34. ↑ "Campus protests live updates: NYPD officers with barricades amassing outside Columbia". nbcnews.com. NBC News. Archived from the original on April 30, 2024. Retrieved May 1, 2024.
  35. 1 2 "The Crackdown on Palestine: Unveiling NYPD's Repression Tactics - Within Our Lifetime". January 25, 2024. Archived from the original on April 23, 2025. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
  36. ↑ 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. Archived from the original on November 1, 2023. Retrieved December 1, 2023.
  37. 1 2 "The NYPD's Escalating Crackdown on Pro-Palestine Protests Falls 'Outside the Bounds of the Constitution' - Hell Gate". hellgatenyc.com. February 13, 2024. Archived from the original on April 21, 2025. Retrieved March 27, 2024.
  38. ↑ GUERGUERIAN, AMBA (February 19, 2024). "Censored! Meta Deletes Popular Pro-Palestine Accounts in New York City". Archived from the original on July 9, 2025. Retrieved March 29, 2024.
  39. ↑ "'You Zionist Pig': Pro-Palestinian Protesters Vandalize New York Times Building, Grand Central Station". National Review. November 11, 2023. Archived from the original on February 5, 2025. Retrieved April 16, 2024.
  40. ↑ James Bickerton (November 11, 2023). "Videos show NY chaos as anti-Israel protester tears down US flags". Newsweek. Archived from the original on January 29, 2024. Retrieved April 16, 2024.
  41. ↑ "Adams defends NYPD's handling of Brooklyn pro-Palestinian protest". ny1.com. Archived from the original on December 10, 2024. Retrieved June 13, 2024.
  42. ↑ Tress, Luke (January 16, 2023). "Pro-Palestinian protesters target Memorial Sloan Kettering cancer center, accusing it of 'genocide'". New York Jewish Week. Archived from the original on March 30, 2025. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
  43. ↑ "Southern District of New York | Staten Island Man Sentenced to 18 Months in Prison for Conspiracy to Commit Antisemitic Hate Crimes | United States Department of Justice". March 3, 2023. Archived from the original on April 15, 2025. Retrieved February 17, 2025.
  44. ↑ Moynihan, Colin (March 3, 2023). "Staten Island Man Sentenced to 18 Months in Prison for Attacks on Jews". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 6, 2024. Retrieved February 17, 2025.
  45. ↑ Starr, Michael (July 1, 2022). "Anti-Israel activist charged with hate crime for assault of NYC Jewish man". The Jerusalem Post. Archived from the original on January 16, 2025. Retrieved November 27, 2023.
  46. ↑ Tress, Luke. "US pro-Palestinian group blasted for map of Jewish groups with 'blood on their hands'". New York Jewish Week. Archived from the original on January 18, 2025. Retrieved November 27, 2023.
  47. ↑ Tress, Luke. "US pro-Palestinian group blasted for map of Jewish groups with 'blood on their hands'". New York Jewish Week. Archived from the original on January 18, 2025. Retrieved November 27, 2023.
  48. ↑ Golding, Bruce (October 5, 2024). "Pro-Palestinian Group Is Relentless in Its Criticism of Israel, and It Isn't Backing Down". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 9, 2025. Retrieved April 17, 2026.
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