Anti-Israel groups rally across US on October 7 anniversary, chanting 'long live the intifada'
NEW YORK — On the third anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, nonprofits and a number of anti-Israel organizations mobilized and rallied for demonstrations across the country, with some waving Palestinian flags, chanting "long live the intifada" and lauding the Hamas-planned ambush that killed more than a thousand civilians.
A number of demonstrations took place in New York, California and other states – with nonprofits in the Singham network organizing and staging larger rallies set for this weekend, intentionally scheduled on and around the anniversary of the Hamas terrorist attack.
At 12:30 p.m., organizers from the NYU Students for Justice in Palestine staged a walkout in Washington Square Park as part of their "NYU WEEK OF RAGE," where they said in a social media post they remain "steadfast in our commitment to Palestinian liberation."
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Separately, anti-Israel demonstrators arrived at the gates of Columbia University at 2 p.m., where encampments and riots embattled the campus for years after Oct. 7, 2023. As students filtered in and out of the gates, now guarded by heavy security, demonstrators from The Columbia Intifada and others chanted "globalize the intifada" through a megaphone.
Columbia University has previously told Fox News Digital that the Columbia Intifada is not officially associated with the Ivy League school.
At 4 p.m., some of the same groups who were protesting at Columbia traveled to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s office at City Hall, with Palestinian flags flying and chants echoing throughout the Financial District of Manhattan.
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Mamdani weighed in on the anniversary earlier on Wednesday morning, saying "we grieve alongside our many friends and neighbors" who are dealing with the loss experienced on Oct. 7, 2023, before blasting Israel for an "ongoing genocide in Gaza."
"The suffering did not begin nor end that day," Mamdani posted to X. "It instead continued through the Israeli government’s devastating, ongoing genocide in Gaza, in which it has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians — including more than 21,000 children."
On Mamdani’s schedule for the anniversary of Oct. 7, he is set to meet with "Palestinian New Yorkers" following a vigil for the Israeli victims of the Hamas attack.
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In California, Students for Justice in Palestine UCLA mobilized at Bruin Plaza on the Los Angeles campus, echoing similar messages to separate groups across the country. Agitators at UC Davis celebrated the terrorist attack, calling for "glory to the resistance" and referring to Oct. 7 as the "anniversary of the al-Aqsa Flood."
Operation Al-Aqsa Flood is the military code name given by Hamas for the attack three years ago.
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led terrorists stormed into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, converging on a music festival in a surprise ambush that killed roughly 1,200 people. The attackers abducted more than 250 people and took them into Gaza as hostages, triggering a conflict that remains ongoing.
The coordinated, organized events held Wednesday shed light on the protest infrastructure that has fueled many of the anti-Israel protests since October 2023, with Singham-backed groups like the People’s Forum and CodePink consistently in attendance.
On Tuesday, the People’s Forum collaborated with Shut it Down 4 Palestine to prepare for a separate protest that will take place on Saturday in Washington Square Park "to stand against three years of continued genocide in Gaza," according to their social media post.
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A Fox News Digital investigation revealed Singham has donated $22.44 million to the People's Forum Inc.
Last month, CodePink, which was founded by Singham’s wife, Jodie Evans, marched alongside communist and Marxist groups in protest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speaking at the United Nations General Assembly.
Singham, a 72-year-old American who sold his tech company for $785 million in 2017 and now lives in Shanghai, has funneled $278 million into the broad network of nonprofits since 2017, according to a Fox News Digital investigation. These groups regularly organize and participate in anti-ICE, anti-Israel and pro-Iran demonstrations.
The Southern District of New York, one of the country's most powerful districts for federal prosecutions, opened a grand jury probe into Singham’s finances in June. He has yet to be charged with any crime.
Trauma psychologist Dr. Orli Peter, who founded the Israel Healing Initiative, a nonprofit that has been providing high-tech trauma treatment for people impacted by the Oct. 7 attack, told Fox News Digital that the demonstrations across the country "manipulate the public," weaponize the anniversary, and detract from the mourning of Jewish people.
"Demonstrating while Jews are mourning on Oct. 7 weaponizes the anniversary," Peter explained. "It serves two purposes for the activists: One is to manipulate the public by interrupting the mourning before empathy settles on Jewish suffering and responsibility points to Hamas."
"The other is to show power over the mourners, telling them, 'Even in your grief, in your memory, in your most vulnerable day, we can invade," she added.