Within Our Lifetime, a group formed by New York students, has galvanized pro-Palestinian activists who are calling for the end of Israel — and facing accusations of antisemitism.
Without even entering Grand Central Terminal’s soaring main hall on one Thursday evening in July, Nerdeen Kiswani and her pro-Palestinian protest group, Within Our Lifetime, managed to shut it down.
All it took was a flier, posted online, calling on her followers to meet by the iconic clock in the New York train station at 5:30 p.m. The police got there first, barricading the entire space to commuters and tourists. Three helicopters and a drone circled in the sky.
Ms. Kiswani, a 30-year-old Palestinian American with a law degree, moved the protest outside. Wearing a tan hijab partly secured with a pair of oversize sunglasses, she stood on a bench and surveyed the disruption she and the other demonstrators had sparked — honking traffic, rows of police officers in riot gear, a group of pro-Israel counterprotesters setting off air horns to interrupt her.
“I guess they accomplished our goal for us,” she shouted to the protesters, who echoed back her words to amplify them. “Because our goal was to raise awareness about the U.S.-funded Israeli genocide in Gaza.”
After her speech, the crowd began chanting along with her: “Judaism, yes, Zionism no! The state of Israel has got to go!”
New Yorkers have become familiar with the tactics of Ms. Kiswani and Within Our Lifetime, the group she co-founded in 2015, even if they don’t know her by name. Their marches have shut down the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges and snarled Midtown traffic. Their chants of “Long live the Intifada!” outside an exhibition memorializing victims of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, drew condemnation from as high as the White House. Protesters in her orbit sometimes burn Israeli flags and fly the flags of Hamas and Hezbollah.
