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Within Our Lifetime

Within Our Lifetime - United For Palestine (WOL), is a pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist activist organization primarily active in New York City. The group, which notably expresses support for Hamas and the Palestinian resistance against Israel, has been one of the key organizers in the city's ongoing Israel-Hamas war protests.

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

WOL has been condemned for antisemitism as well as supporting and glorifying the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, including the Nova Music Festival Massacre, which started the ongoing war.

Description and political positions

WOL organizes around four principles: the Palestinian right of return, anti-Zionism, the Palestinian right to resist, and internationalism. While the organization is centered around Palestinian liberation, they are also generally anti-imperialist.

WOL is Palestinian-led and active among youth and on university campuses, primarily in the New York City area. 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. Besides Kiswani, other prominent organizers include Abdullah Akl and Fatima Mohammed.

The name "Within Our Lifetime" was chosen as a reflection of Kiswani's confidence in a imminent Palestinian liberation, as reflected in one of the group's protest chants, "We will free Palestine, within our lifetime!". 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).

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."

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

The group has expressed hostility to American president Joe Biden and New York City mayor Eric Adams on account of their pro-Israel stances, and 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.

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).

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.

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.

In May 2022, Kiswani delivered an anti-Zionist commencement speech at CUNY.

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.

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.

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. 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." 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. 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.

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 New York City Police Department. 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. 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." On 30 November, WOL organized an interfaith protest, "Flood the Tree Lighting for Gaza", to disrupt the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree lighting.

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. 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. 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.

2024

WOL organized a "Flood JFK for Gaza" protest at the JFK International Airport on 1 January 2024, and a "Flood the Bronx for Gaza" march in the Bronx on 7 January. 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. This was on account of the hospital accepting millions of dollars from pro-Israel billionaires such as Kenneth C. Griffin and David Geffen.

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. On 9 February, Meta deleted WOL's Instagram page, as well as that of Kiswani's. 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. 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.

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. The group published another report on 21 March covering their protest against an Iftar dinner hosted by Mayor Eric Adams. 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. 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.

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, later marching through Brooklyn and at one point burning an American flag. On 17 April, 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. Protestors were ultimately suppressed by the NYPD, which raided campus on 30 April.

WOL organized a march on 6 May, the day of the 2024 Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the start of Israel's Rafah offensive. Protestors marched towards the museum, circling around it repeatedly, and a "drone of chanting" was reportedly audible in the background as celebrity attendees at the Gala were interviewed on the red carpet. The group organized two protests to commemorate Nakba Day: one in Astoria, Queens on 15 May, and one in Bay Ridge on 18 May during which the NYPD cleared protestors in a manner that New York City Council member Justin Brannan condemned as overly aggressive.

On 10 June, a protest organized by WOL, called "A Day of Rage for Gaza," started in Union Square. Upon arriving at the "Nova Music Festival exhibition" in Wall Street, an exhibition commemorating the victims of Hamas' massacre at the Nova Festival on October 7, the 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. One person at the protest was recorded making an antisemitic statement. Congressman Ritchie Torres and Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine condemned the crowd on social media, with Levine describing their actions as "vile" and "repulsive."

Relationship with the New York City Police Department

WOL has routinely clashed with the NYPD, and accuses them of intensifying repression on pro-Palestinian demonstrations. The NYPD has deployed its Strategic Response Group and flown helicopters and drones at WOL protests since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on 7 October 2023 and banned their use of megaphones and air horns entirely. Local publication Hell Gate has referred to this as an "escalating crackdown on pro-Palestine protests".

In one example, after WOL's second Nakba Day protest on 18 May 2024, videos circulated showing some demonstrators being pushed to the ground and struck repeatedly by officers. Mayor Adams defended criticism of 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.

Criticism

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

Following an assualt on a Chabad Hasidic Jew at a WOL event, the group has been described by the Chabad community of Crown Heights, Brooklyn as an antisemitic group and cautioned community to avoid all public areas where WOL protests take place.

WOL came under intense condemnation for antisemitism, its support and praise of massacres of Israeli civilians as well as the usage of Hezbollah and Hamas flags. White House spokesman Andrew Bates condemned antisemitism in WOL protests and New York Mayor Eric Adams accused the organization of “pure anti-Semitism" and the condemnation was joined by Ritchie Torres and Mark Levine who called the demonstration “repulsive and vile.” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman, politicians critical of Israel, also accused WOL of antisemitism.