American anti-Israel groups held Nakba Day protests over the weekend, and while they were mostly peaceful, violent extremism and support for terrorist organizations were present at rallies across the country.
Within Our Lifetime's march through Manhattan saw a Hezbollah flag, a flag bearing the face of deceased Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida, and an Irish flag with the silhouette of a gunman waved alongside banners calling for resistance and revolution, according to videos published by the organization.
“The Nakba lives in every bombing campaign, every demolished home, every checkpoint, every prison cell, every refugee camp, every child buried beneath the rubble, funded by the United States, carried out by Israel, supported by the Gulf countries and every other disgusting complicit actor in the international community," WOL leader Nerdeen Kiswani said at a speech in Washington Square Park. "But the struggle also continues to live with every resistance fighter, with every Palestinian mother who continues to bear children."
Activists from a campaign to free Tarek Bazrouk, a self-described "Jew hater" who was sentenced to 17 months in prison for three separate hate crime assaults of Jewish pro-Israel activists, said that on Nakba Day, they wished to uplift those imprisoned for championing their cause. They called for the release of Bazrouk and the Holy Land Five, a group of former Islamic charity organization officers convicted in the US of financing Hamas.
Palestinian Youth Movement, New York City, and Palestinian Assembly for Liberation Al-Awda in New York City and New Jersey (PAL-Awda) organized another protest in Brooklyn on Saturday, with the latter on social media calling the event a demonstration to "dismantle the genocidal Zionist entity."
Activists praise Oct. 7 massacre
With an Abu Obeida flag waving in the background, a PYM NYC activist related in an Instagram video that while the day marked 78 years of "ongoing genocide" and "ethnic cleansing," it also marked "78 years of the promise of return, the promise that every single Palestinian will return to every single inch of Palestinian land."
"From Gaza to Jenin, from Nablus to Tulkarem, from al Quds, to Haifa, to Akko, the Palestinian people will never give up this promise, and us here in the diaspora will continue to organize our people until all our prisoners are free, and until every single inch of our land is free, and we return to a free Palestine from the river to the sea," said the PYM activist.
In Seattle, Tariq El-Tahrir Youth and Student Network, Nidal Seattle, Students United for Palestinian Equality and Return at the University of Washington, and Seattle Students for Justice in Palestine hosted a Sunday rally.
"Long live Operation Al Aqsa Flood," read a banner belonging to the Seattle Revolutionary Youth, referencing the Hamas operational name for the October 7 Massacre.
Activists with a Hezbollah flag and a flag featuring Abu Obeida marched alongside the banner praising the October 7 Massacre, which also featured the face of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine airplane hijacker Leila Khaled.
SJP: UCLA 'complicit in ongoing Nakba'
In Los Angeles, the SJP chapter at UCLA staged a Friday "die in" and marched through the campus, chanting "Resistance is glorious, we will be victorious."
"The blood of the martyrs is the seed from which resistance blooms," read the caption accompanying one of the SJP UCLA Instagram videos.
A spokesperson for the group said on Monday that the University of California was complicit in an ongoing Nakba, and demanded that the university system divest all funds from companies and institutions connected to Israel.
"Gaza is our compass, and Al-Aqsa is the north star. Join our fight, and may we see a liberated Palestine within our lifetimes!" said the Keffiyeh-clad student activist.
At a protest organized by PYM LA, a banner called to "crush Zionism" and "break the empire."
Activists in Washington DC carried Iranian and Palestinian flags, according to a video uploaded by the Party for Socialism and Liberation, chanting that there would be no peace on "stolen land."
One activist performed the Hamas inverted triangle, denoting the targeting of an enemy, over the Capitol building, according to a social media post shared by Jewish Voice for Peace DC Metro.