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Year: 2026

Hamas, Hezbollah flags fly at anti-Israel protest minutes after Mamdani condemns terror plot against Jews

Hamas, Hezbollah flags fly at anti-Israel protest minutes after Mamdani condemns terror plot against Jews

Several masked demonstrators carried Hamas flags at an anti-Israel protest in Manhattan on Friday, while a Hezbollah flag waved above the crowd, hours after federal authorities charged an alleged Kataib Hezbollah operative of plotting attacks on Jewish community centers and a Manhattan synagogue. The protest drew about 500 demonstrators carrying Palestinian flags to Washington Square Park, where chants of “globalize the intifada” rang out as one speaker declared Israel has no right to exist and said Palestinians would take over Israel “by any means necessary.” Just as the protest was kicking off at around 4:30 p.m., New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani condemned the alleged terror plot by Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, a commander in the Kataeb Hezbollah terrorist operation in Iraq. “Let me be clear: antisemitism, violent extremism, and terrorism have no place in our city. This kind of hate is despicable,” Mamdani said. ISRAEL, JEWS TARGETED WORLDWIDE AS WELL-FUNDED LEFTIST, ISLAMIST GROUPS JOIN FOR ‘NAKBA 78’ PROTESTS Two minutes later, a starkly different scene unfolded in Lower Manhattan off W. 4th Street. The activists descended on the busy Washington Square Park with Palestinian flags, pre-printed signs and banners, transforming a corner of the park into a rally staging ground to protest the existence of the state of Israel and demand its dismantling and replacement with a state called Palestine. Among them, a young anti-Israel demonstrator arrived, draped in the flag of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades — Hamas’s military wing — wearing it like a cape. The flag depicted a masked armed fighter beside the Dome of the Rock beneath green script in Arabic, declaring the shahada, or Muslim proclamation of faith. He also carried a flag featuring an image of Abu Obaida, the spokesman for Hamas’ military wing, who became one of the terror group’s most recognizable figures after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Israeli forces killed him in 2025. Others followed wearing the green headbands of Hamas and carrying similar flags. Nearby, a protester carried Hezbollah’s bright yellow flag, featuring the organization’s recognizable green insignia of a stylized assault rifle incorporated into Arabic calligraphy. The demonstration was organized by anti-Israel groups including the Muslim American Society — a powerful nonprofit whose leaders supported Mamdani’s election — and Within Our Lifetime, another local group. Protesters arrived carrying pre-made banners over their shoulders, stacks of professionally printed signs and a North Face bag filled with protest gear.  These same groups led protests at a Jewish synagogue and community center in New York City this past week, resulting in viral clashes with Jewish community members. Based in Brooklyn, N.Y., next to an NYPD precinct, Muslim American Society of New York is a 501(c)(3) sister nonprofit of Muslim American Society. It had $782,644 in revenue in 2024, according to its last tax filing. Within Our Lifetime isn’t a nonprofit but accepts donations. FIRST ON FOX: NEW STUDY REVEALS ‘PRO-PALESTINIAN’ GROUPS PROMOTE VIOLENCE AND ANTI-AMERICANISM ANTI-ISRAEL AGITATORS CLASH WITH NYPD OFFICERS NEAR SYNAGOGUE By about 5:06 p.m., Within Our Lifetime’s polarizing co-founder, Nerdeen Kiswani, emerged from the crowd at the Washington Square Arch and led chants of “Globalize the intifada! From New York to Gaza! Globalize the intifada!” “We do not mince words here,” Kiswani told the crowd. “Yes, that also means necessarily that the state of Israel and Zionism must be abolished. I do not and will never recognize Israel’s so-called right to exist. It has no right to exist.”  Minutes later, at about 5:14 p.m., Abdullah Akl, a leader at the Muslim American Society Youth Center in Brooklyn, stood in front of a large black banner that read “GLOBALIZE THE INTIFADA” in white and gold letters. “From the river to the sea,” Akl shouted, invoking a slogan widely interpreted as calling for the elimination of Israel between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. “Palestine will be free.” As demonstrators readied to march north through Manhattan, several participants openly waved Hamas flags above the crowd. When asked about the displays, Kiswani told Fox News Digital: “We only bring Palestinian flags.” But the Hamas flags remained visible throughout the march, including directly behind Kiswani and Akl as demonstrators moved uptown in a tightly coordinated procession. Kiswani told Fox News Digital, “We only bring Palestinian flags.” The Manhattan protest was one of about 736 “Nakba Day” events that 425 organizations with about $1 billion in collective revenue held across 39 cities in recent days, according to a Fox News Digital investigation. “Nakba,” the Arabic word for “catastrophe,” refers to the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. Chants throughout the evening rejected the idea of a two-state solution. “We don’t want your two states,” demonstrators shouted, following Kiswani’s cue, as organizers moved the march route through Manhattan, past Sephora, the makeup store, on E. 14th Street. Protesters beat drums decorated with stickers reading, “By Any Means Necessary,” while marchers carried a banner declaring, “From Gaza to Jenin. Revolution Until Victory.” In the crowd, activists from Islamist and communist groups marched together, including Al-Awda, which advocates for the so-called “right of return” of diaspora Palestinians to Israel, the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, a self-declared Marxist group, and the Workers World Party, which describes itself as a “revolutionary Marxist-Leninist party inside the belly of the imperialist beast.” A group of Orthodox Jewish demonstrators also marched beside pro-Palestinian activists carrying signs reading “Judaism condemns the state of Israel” and “Torah demands all Palestine.” Rabbi David Feldman told Fox News Digital he believed “the state of Israel may not exist at all” under Jewish law and said Palestinians should regain “every inch” of land taken from them. About Hamas, he said, “They don’t target against Jewish people, so I don’t think that they are a terrorist group. They’re just fighting for the land, what people stole from them, that’s all. So that’s what I believe, so I don’t say anything in politics, that is all.” But the Hamas supporters went undisturbed as they flew a flag of the terrorist group