AOC, other officials sought to speak at pro-Hamas group’s rallies

New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other politicians had allegedly sought to speak at the rallies of an organization that has displayed terrorist group flags. Within Our Lifetime leader Nerdeen Kiswani claimed on Tuesday in a public spat with progressive US politicians over their condemnation of the organization’s protests against the Nova Massacre exhibit on Monday.

In response to Ocasio-Cortez taking to social media to condemn the Monday protest as antisemitic, callous, and dehumanizing, Kiswani responded “You are a genocide apologist. This is why when your staff asked WOL if you can speak at our Queens rally in 2021 we said no.”

“Many politicians and city officials including AOC have requested to speak at WOL rallies and meet with our members. We routinely refuse because we know they will always sell our people out. How can you justify being part of the system murdering  people around the world?” Kiswani said on X.

“This is why electoral politics are a dead end. We will not integrating into the same fascist empire we are fighting against. Even your ‘3rd party’ candidates are just funneling our people back into the sham idea that the system works. Stop exploiting our communities for votes.”

Supporting terrorism at the protests

Flags and chants supporting terrorist organizations have become fixtures of WOL-led protests in NYC. At an April 15 rally in which US flags were burned and calls for “Death to America” were made, Kiswani led chants for Intifada to the backdrop of a Hezbollah flag.

At a March 30 rally in which at least one banner a banner extolled Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine secretary general Ahmad Sa'adat, WOL organizer Abdullah Akl led chants of “[Hamas spokesman] Abu Ubaida, our beloved, Strike, Strike Tel Aviv."

At the Monday protest that drew the condemnation of Ocasio-Cortez, Hezbollah, Hamas, and PFLP flags were displayed prominently, and one banner declared “Long live October 7.”

Kiswani was also angered by New York Congressman Jamaal Bowman, who condemned “those celebrating the innocents killed on October 7. This dark day was the largest attack on the Jewish community since the Holocaust. Celebrating it is antisemitic and unacceptable. Peace cannot be achieved by weaponizing our tragedies against each other.”

The WOL leader called him and Ocasio-Cortez “trash” and anti-Israel activists demanded that anti-zionist Jewish groups like Jewish Voice for Peace withdraw endorsements from Bowman. 

Kiswani reiterated calls to protest against the Nova Massacre exhibit and claimed that the backlash against the demonstrations and claims that the exhibit was propaganda to promote a genocide was a fake campaign against the anti-Israel movement.