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Pro-Hamas Group Planning Oct. 7 Celebration in New York City
Nerdeen Kiswani, founder of WithinOurLifetime (WOL), leading a pro-Hamas demonstration in New York City on August 14, 2024. Photo: Michael Nigro via Reuters Connect
Within Our Lifetime (WOL), one of the most outspoken anti-Israel organizations in the US, is planning to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel with a mass demonstration in New York City, The Algemeiner has learned.
“Flood New York City for Palestine,” says a poster advertising the event. “No work. No school. All out for Gaza.”
WOL is calling on pro-Hamas agitators to storm several areas across Manhattan, including Wall Street, City Hall, Washington Square Park, Union Square, Grand Central, Times Square, and Columbus Circle.
“As we approach the one year mark of the monstrous kidnappings and massacres of Oct. 7, it is astounding to see people rally in support of Iran and its proxies,” Roz Rothstein of StandWithUs, a Jewish civil rights group, told The Algemeiner on Wednesday in response to the news. “Israel will continue to defend its citizens against the heinous terrorism coming from Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and it will do so with courage, strategy, and integrity.”
This is not WOL’s first pro-Hamas promotion of Islamist terrorism.
Just last week, its followers amassed in the hundreds for a demonstration held outside the Loews Regency New York Hotel where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was staying before addressing the United Nations the following morning.
“Netanyahu, we’re gonna get you,” the protesters, led by WOL and its founder and leader Nerdeen Kiswani chanted, appearing to threaten the prime minister’s life. Flanked on all sides by dozens of New York City Police Department (NYPD) Bike Unit officers assigned to contain the demonstration, they waved Palestinian flags and signs calling for the destruction of Israel.
Later in the night, the protesters defied law enforcement officers’ orders to stay within the space they allowed, resulting in several arrests and additional charges for resisting arrest and obstructing justice. During the detainments, they screamed expletives at officers, calling them “fascists,” “p—ssies,” and “pieces of sh—t.” Others, jamming their cell phone cameras into the thick of the confrontations, demanded to know the officers’ names, presumably to report them for misconduct.
Within Our Lifetime has been one of the principal agents of mass demonstrations in New York City, the aim of which is the disruption of the local economy and sabotaging of public services, as happened in April when it led the local operation of the “Coordinated Economic Blockade to Free Palestine.” Seeking to block the “arteries of capitalism,” Kiswani led WOL to Wall Street, where it attempted to bring trading on the New York Stock Exchange to a halt.
In July, Kiswani indiscriminately targeted individual Jews, defending a man who had entered subway cars asking Zionists to identify themselves and deboard.
“We don’t want zionists in Palestine, NYC, our schools, on the train, ANYWHERE [sic],” she later tweeted. “This is free speech, it is saying we don’t want racists here.”
During the summer, WOL participated in demonstrations designed to disrupt Fourth of July celebrations marking US Independence Day. A crush of anti-Zionists poured into the streets of New York City and Philadelphia, chanting anti-American slogans and others — such as “long live the intifada” — calling for terrorism. For its contribution, WOL set hundreds of people for a march through Washington Square Park, where they burned the American flag.
Earlier in the year, the group conducted a siege on the Brooklyn Museum.
“Some of the most heinous antisemitic rhetoric and incidents seen in New York City since Oct. 7 have been perpetrated by WOL supporters and members, including vociferously demanding the expulsion of Zionists from New York City,” the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Center on Extremism has said about the group. “Since Oct. 7, WOL has hosted or co-sponsored some 100 anti-Israel rallies many of which included explicit support for violence against Israeli civilians by US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Hezbollah, the Houthis, and affiliated individuals such as Leila Khaled and Hamas’ military wing spokesperson Abu Obaida. WOL also expressed enthusiastic support for Iran’s unprecedented April 13 drone-and-missile attack on Israel.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Pro-Hamas Group Planning Oct. 7 Celebration in New York City first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.