Anti-Israel protesters demonstrate in Los Angeles, CA, on October 5, 2024, in celebration of the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. (source: Instagram)
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Support for Hamas Terror at Anti-Israel Rallies Across the U.S.
October 08, 2023
Updated: October 14, 2023
On Saturday, October 5, 2024, anti-Israel protesters around the world held an “International Day of Action” to kick off a multi-day celebration of the anniversary of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Across more than 80 U.S. cities, protesters gathered for demonstrations that were largely characterized by explicit support for terror, including the October 7 attack itself. The weekend’s protest activity reflected the larger trends that emerged in the anti-Israel movement over the past year.
The October 5 “International Day of Action” was just the start of a scheduled week of anti-Israel events centered around the one-year commemoration of the October attacks. Protests continued Sunday, October 6 in a number of additional cities. Beginning on Monday, October 7, National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) is organizing a “Week of Rage” related to the anniversary, with dozens of chapters nationwide slated to participate with walkouts and other events on college campuses.
“International Day of Action” organizers included the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP), U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) and ANSWER Coalition, among others.
Anti-Israel protesters in New York, NY, on October 5, 2024, display signs featuring imagery from Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel alongside the slogan “Gaza: One Year of Genocide, One Year of Resistance.” (source: Instagram)
Organizers shared an online announcement of the protests on August 24, with the slogan, “One Year of Genocide, One Year of Resistance” and a photograph of a Palestinian man standing atop an Israeli military vehicle, taken after Hamas broke through the border fence on October 7. Similar messaging, much of which included imagery celebrating theOctober 7 attacks and phrases like “Gaza Resists; Gaza Remains,” featured prominently on banners and signs carried by protesters nationwide during the day of action.
At the October 5 and 6 protests, praise for terrorists and terrorism was front and center — on the materials displayed by protesters and in spoken remarks. Speakers and attendees lauded Hamas and other U.S.-designated terrorist groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis (Ansar Allah) in Yemen for their attacks against Israel over the past year.
New York City hosted one of the largest protests of the day, where Manolo De Los Santos —Executive Director of the NY-based People’s Forum, one of the “International Day of Action” co-sponsors — praised the so-called “Resistance,” apparently alluding to Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and other terror groups in the region by referring to the “resistance,” which has been a frequent rhetorical stand-in for terror groups among post-October 7 activists. He said, “We salute the glorious Resistance — of the people of Yemen, of the people of Iraq, of the people of Iran, of the people of Lebanon, of the people of Gaza. All the people of the Arab world are teaching us a lesson. The only way to live with dignity is to fight, is to resist, is to never give up.”
Santos further reflected on the anti-Israel protests that his group and others organized in the days immediately after Hamas’s October 7 attack in 2023, doubling down nearly a year later by again characterizing Hamas’s October 7 attack as an admirable act of liberation rather than a violent act of terrorism.
The flags of U.S.-designated terror groups Hezbollah and Hamas are flown during an anti-Israel protest in Seattle, WA, on October 5, 2024. (source: Instagram)
Santos told the crowd: “Despite all these corrupt politicians trying to scare us, trying to demonize us, we came out into the streets. One year ago, we were right here doing the impossible, doing what no one thought was the right thing. But history has proven us right. On October 7, the Palestinian people broke out of a concentration camp. But they broke out not only for their own freedom, they broke out to wake up the world. They delivered a burning message to all our hearts and all our minds: The world has to rise up to fight back against U.S. imperialism.”
Speakers nationwide shared similar rhetoric. In Gainesville, FL, a protest leader with the local Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) chapter praised Hamas and Hezbollah, drawing cheers of support from the crowd. He said, “The Resistance is stronger than it’s ever been. And we have seen that this week…[The] resilience of the Iranian forces. We have seen the strength of Hezbollah and the Lebanese Resistance…The strength, the power, the sumud [steadfastness] of the Palestinian Resistance in Gaza and the West Bank… ‘Until victory’ — that is the motto. Until victory!”
In Detroit, MI, Yemeni Liberation Movement (YLM) representative Monica Isaac spoke of “the Al-Aqsa Flood,” using Hamas’s name for the October 7 attack, and the “Axis of Resistance,” a term which refers to Iran and its proxies of terrorist organizations in the Middle East. Isaac said, “Revolution is not an aesthetic, it is an ugly, arduous and dedicated process.” She praised “the determination of steel the Yemini Resistance embodies” and how “they are unmoved by the Zionist entity.”
In Chicago, IL, a speaker said, “This year has been defined in the teachings of the Resistance, who broke through the wall, confirming for us that liberation by any means necessary is entirely inevitable. Who confirmed for us that Zionism in its most robust and dominant form will always be…easily devastated.” The speaker concluded by expressing her desire for the “destruction of the Zionist state and those who support it.”
Protesters also joined in celebrating terrorist groups; rally-goers in at least ten states displayed signs, flags, headbands or other paraphernalia that featured either the logos of U.S.-designated terrorist groups — including Hamas and Hezbollah as well as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) — or pictures of individuals affiliated with those terrorist groups.
Protesters at anti-Israel protests in San Diego, CA (left), and Washington, DC (right), on October 5, 2024, carry signs expressing support for terror. (source: Instagram)
In Washington, D.C., for example, one protester carried a Hamas flag while another held a sign with the caption, “Killing our leaders only makes us stronger,” alongside photographs of the recently killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and the recently killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. In San Diego, CA, a protester carried a sign that read, “October 7 was a prison break from Gaza concentration camp” alongside inverted red triangle imagery.
At the protests in New York, Los Angeles, and other cities, Writers Against the War on Gaza (WAWOG) members distributed the latest edition of their “New York War Crimes” publication, which they launched a year ago to mock the New York Times and to convey their own anti-Israel, pro-terror slant. This newest edition featured the headline “ONE YEAR SINCE AL-AQSA FLOOD: REVOLUTION UNTIL VICTORY!” Protest organizers including NSJP and PYM promoted the publication on social media.
October 5 protesters carried signs celebrating Abu Obaida, spokesperson for Hamas’s military wing, and Leila Khaled, a longtime PFLP leader known for hijacking of two civilian airliners, both of whom have been regularly glorified by anti-Israel protesters over the past year.
Now-familiar chants also celebrated terrorism, including the refrains “Yemen, Yemen, make us proud; Turn another ship around” and “Gaza called, Yemen answered, all Israeli ships are canceled,” alluding to Houthi attacks on Israeli ships.
Placard worn by a protester in Washington, DC, on October 5, 2024, reads: “The Irony of Becoming What You Once Hated,” with a bloodied Jewish start overlapping a Nazi swastika. (source: X)
Some protesters elevated antisemitic tropes, including equating Israel and Zionism with Nazism and the idea that Israel is somehow to blame for American domestic issues, demonstrated as support for the disproved conspiracy theory that U.S. financial support for Israel has led to slow relief response in U.S. regions devastated by Hurricane Helene.