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Within Our Lifetime
Within Our Lifetime – United For Palestine (WOL),[1] is a pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist activist organization primarily active in New York City. 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.[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,[4] attracting criticism from politicians such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.[6][7] One member of WOL attacked a Jewish counterprotestor, Matt Greenman, in 2022. Origin and descriptionWOL 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 among youth,[12] and on university campuses, primarily in the New York City area.[13] Jews from the anti-Zionist sect Neturei Karta have often participated in WOL's protests.[14][15][16] 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] Israel-Hamas war protestsSupport for Palestinian political violenceWOL has expressed support for Hamas and Palestinian political violence against Israel in general.[17][18][19] 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 Gaza.[20] On 10 June 2024, WOL protestors disrupted the "Nova Music Festival exhibition" at Wall Street, an exhibition commemorating the victims of Hamas' massacre at the Nova Festival 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][21] This protest was condemned by White House spokesman Andrew Bates (who called it "“outrageous and heartbreaking") and New York Mayor Eric Adams, as well as Ritchie Torres.[7] Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman, politicians critical of Israel, also accused WOL of antisemitism.[22] Conflict with the Democratic PartyWOL has expressed hostility to American president Joe Biden and New York City mayor Eric Adams on account of their pro-Israel stances,[23][24][25][26] 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.[27] On 28 March 2024, 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.[28][29] On 22 June 2024, WOL held a rally to disrupt a joint rally held by legislators Jamaal Bowman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Bernie Sanders, who are progressives critical of Israel. Bowman and Ocasio-Cortez had previously condemned the WOL protest at the Nova Festival massacre exhibition as antisemitic.[30][31] On 15 August 2024, WOL disrupted an event for presidential candidate Kamala Harris, with protestors throwing smoke bombs.[32] Campus occupation at Columbia UniversityOn 17 April 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.[33][34][35] Protestors were ultimately suppressed by the NYPD, which raided campus on 30 April.[36] Response by the New York City Police DepartmentWOL has routinely clashed with the NYPD, and accuses them of intensifying repression on pro-Palestinian demonstrations.[37] 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[38] and banned their use of megaphones and air horns entirely.[39][40] Local publication Hell Gate has referred to this as an "escalating crackdown on pro-Palestine protests".[39] In one instance of violence, 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.[41][42] After a WOL 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.[43] CriticismThe 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."[44] Accusations of antisemitismAt a WOL demonstration 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.[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."[37]
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