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.

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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.

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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 over Kiswani and Akl, clapping, just before they set out to lead the group through Manhattan in a carefully choreographed street theater that stretched into the night. This past week, another flag raised another controversy: a purple flag with the swastika symbol of Nazis, the five-point star that is a symbol of Judaism and the "NYU" acronym for New York University. The university apologized for its use.

As the demonstration snaked over Sixth Avenue, one protester, Anas Shuayb, 27, defended the Hamas imagery as "free speech" and described Hamas as a "form of resistance" to Israeli military activity in Gaza and the West Bank.

Shuayb said he voted for Trump and attended the protest partly because he opposes the U.S. war in Iran.

"I’m Palestinian and a Palestinian who voted for Trump," Shuaib, who attended Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally in 2024, told Fox News Digital.

Shuaib said he was disappointed Trump had "fallen in the trap of Netanyahu" after campaigning against new foreign wars. "America should fight no war for Israel," he added. "America first, not Israel first."

The demonstration resembled a carefully staged political production more than a spontaneous protest. Organizers distributed professionally printed signs reading, "We Will Return," a slogan referencing Palestinian demands for a mass movement to modern-day Israel.

Outside Grand Central Station on 42nd Street, Kiswani grabbed the mic and led the group in a proclamation of aggression. On Park Avenue, protesters defiantly unfurled a massive Palestinian flag stretching across much of the streets while crowds beneath it repeatedly chanted, "Globalize the intifada," 

"Palestine has the right to exist and to resist and to reclaim land and freedom by any means necessary," Kiswani told the crowd.

As the crowd marched uptown to Time Square, Hamas and Hezbollah imagery remained visible without any effort by organizers to remove or discourage the displays.

Activists appeared highly conscious of their visual presentation. Some demonstrators marched in designer sunglasses, luxury handbags and carefully styled outfits while protest marshals coordinated crowd movement and legal observers from the ACLU monitored the route.

Akl, the leader at the Muslim American Society, wore a parody designer-style shirt reading, "The Anti-Zionist Social Club," mimicking the aesthetic of luxury streetwear brands popular among younger activists.

Members of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization distributed flyers reading, "Victory to the Palestinian Resistance!" On the reverse side were advertisements for LGBTQ organizing meetings featuring imagery from the "Gay Liberation Front."

The route itself appeared strategically staged for maximum visibility and dramatic effect.

Demonstrators gathered beneath the overpass outside Grand Central Terminal, where chants of "Free Palestine" and "Globalize the Intifada" echoed through the station, in one of the loudest moments of the evening. Protesters appeared at moments to push toward the terminal entrance, though they ultimately didn’t enter the station.

Later, on Park Avenue, marchers briefly surrounded vehicles in traffic while chanting "Shut it down," creating the appearance of a street takeover as NYPD officers quietly redirected cars around the demonstration.

At several points, protesters shouted at bystanders and critics to "get off the street" while police officers continued escorting the march route through Manhattan.

Professionally printed banners reading "Revolution Until Victory" and "Resisting the Nakba Since 1948" stretched across the front lines of the march as drummers, megaphones and coordinated flag displays transformed intersections into temporary stages for chants and political theater.

Many of the demonstrators wore masks or face coverings and keffiyehs, while some acted as informal security detail, repeatedly stepping between cameras and protest leaders, blowing whistles and thrusting Palestinian flags into camera lenses to disrupt filming by journalists and bystanders.

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By the time the final marchers arrived at Times Square for a carefully choreographed public prayer, photographed extensively by the organizers’ social media team, the evening had showcased what experts describe as a durable and politically normalized protest ecosystem in New York City, blending nonprofit institutions, socialist organizations, anti-Israel activism, legal support networks, social-media aesthetics and militant symbolism into a single coordinated street operation.

The young man with the Hamas cape joined the second row of the congregational prayer at Time Square, the iconography for the terrorist group’s Qassam Brigade prominent as he prostrated in prayer.