Pro-Hamas Chant at Queens Synagogue Protest Signals Further Normalization of Terror Rhetoric

The explicit celebration of Hamas at a protest targeting a Queens synagogue last week serves as a stark reminder of a disturbing new reality: Pro-terror expressions are becoming openly normalized within the U.S. anti-Israel movement.

The January 8 demonstration outside of Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills in Queens, New York, was ostensibly a protest of an Israeli real estate event taking place inside the synagogue. It quickly devolved into calls to “Globalize the Intifada,” shouts of “Long live October 7th,” and most notably, a chant declaring, “Say it loud, say it clear, we support Hamas here!”

These types of displays, once relegated to the fringes of the anti-Israel movement, are not legitimate political criticism of Israel. They constitute an openly antisemitic celebration of terror and violence against Jews.

Though jarring, this full-throated support for a terror organization, in the heart of a largely Jewish neighborhood, is not an isolated incident.

Monitoring and analysis by the ADL Center on Extremism since October 7, 2023, demonstrate that the pro-terror expressions, and support for Hamas specifically, at the Queens protest and the direct targeting of the Jewish community are entirely in line with broader trends in the U.S. anti-Israel movement over the past few years.

Targeting Synagogues and Jewish Communities Under the Guise of Anti-Israel Protest

Since October 7, 2023, the ADL has recorded at least 30 anti-Israel protests targeting synagogues across the U.S, many of them in and around New York City.

While a number of these protests have been framed by organizers as opposition to the “sale” of “stolen” Palestinian land at Israeli real estate and related events, this narrative obfuscates the reality on the ground: These protests have repeatedly served as avenues for the open expression of antisemitism and support for terror.

For example:

• Protesters shouted, “Go back to Auschwitz” and “Go back to Europe,” and chanted “Khaybar, Khaybar, ya yahud [oh Jews], the army of Mohammed will return” (an antisemitic Arabic-language phrase) and “Strike, strike, Tel Aviv,” at a protest outside Young Israel of Fort Lee in Fort Lee, New Jersey, on November 5, 2023, during a protest against an Israel solidarity event.
   
• Hundreds of anti-Israel protesters gathered outside Teaneck, New Jersey’s Keter Torah synagogue on March 10, 2024, to protest an informational Israeli real estate event. They chanted, “Say it loud, say it clear: we don’t want no Zionists here” and displayed a photograph of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) leader and notorious airplane hijacker Leila Khaled.

Anti-Israel protesters march through Teaneck, NJ, on their way to Keter Torah synagogue on March 10, 2024. (Facebook)

• Outside a March 28, 2024, Israeli real estate event at Brooklyn’s Young Israel of Avenue K, anti-Israel protesters organized by PAL-Awda and the New York City Jewish Labor Bund chanted slogans like, “Say it loud and say it clear; we don’t want no Zionists here” and shouted at congregants, “Go away Zionists!” Protesters also displayed signs depicting the PFLP’s Leila Khaled.
   
• On April 1, 2024, anti-Israel protesters gathered outside Congregation Bnai Yeshurun in Teaneck, New Jersey, where an event honoring ZAKA was taking place. (ZAKA is an Israeli organization of volunteer emergency rescue workers who were involved in recovering and identifying the bodies of those killed in the October 7 Hamas massacre). The protesters repeatedly chanted, “Go back to Europe!” at Jewish individuals; held signs with messages like, “Zionist: are the prophet killers; Zionist: are the (real) terrorists in this world; Zionist: should be destroy [sic]!”; and displayed imagery depicting PFLP leader Ahmad Sa'adat. Within Our Lifetime (WOL) leader Nerdeen Kiswani wore a pin depicting Hamas’s Abu Obaida.

Anti-Zionist activist and organizer Nerdeen Kiswani wears a pin depicting (now-deceased) Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades spokesperson Abu Obaida at a protest outside Congregation Bnai Yeshurun in Teaneck, NJ, on April 1, 2024. (Screenshot/YouTube)

• Outside an Israeli real estate event at Congregation Charm Circle in Kew Gardens, Queens, on July 14, 2024, protesters organized by PAL-Awda waved a Hezbollah flag and chanted slogans that included, “The Zionist state must go,” “Say it loud and say it clear we don’t want no Zionists here” and “There is only one solution; Intifada, revolution.”
   
• At an anti-Israel protest organized by PAL-Awda, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), and others outside of Young Israel of Staten Island in New York on November 4, 2024, protesters shouted at pro-Israel Jewish demonstrators to “Go back to Europe” and “Go to Germany” and called them “Devil worshippers” and “Zionazis.” Protesters chanted, “Abu Obaida, love: Strike, strike, Tel Aviv” (in Arabic), “Say it loud and say it clear; We don’t want no Zionists here,” “We don’t want no two states; We want ‘48,” and “Brick by brick, wall by wall; Zionism will fall.”
   
• Protesters from PAL-Awda, Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), Westchester for Palestine, and other groups targeted Young Israel of New Rochelle in New York during an Israeli real estate event on September 14, 2025, chanting, “Genocidal Zionists steal homes & land from Palestinians & elders in NYC,” “Zionism no more,” and “Smash the settler Zionist state.”
   
• On November 19, 2025, PAL-Awda, JVP NYC, Writers Against the War on Gaza (WAWOG), and others led a protest outside of Park East Synagogue in Manhattan during an event hosted by the organization Nefesh B'Nefesh. Protesters harassed Jewish people who were entering and exiting the synagogue, calling them "Zionazis," "Hitler," and other derogatory, antisemitic names. They also chanted, “Globalize the Intifada, “There is only one solution; Intifada, revolution,” and “Death, death to the IDF.”

An image of a sign reading: “Zionism is a death cult,” outside the November 19, 2025, Park East Synagogue protest in Manhattan. (Screenshot/Instagram)

Details on the Protest Organizers

The January 8 Kew Gardens Hills protest was led by PAL-Awda, one of the leading anti-Zionist organizations in the region (a merger of Palestinian Assembly for Liberation (PAL) and Al-Awda). The group’s two local chapters, PAL-Awda New York/New Jersey (NY/NJ) and PAL-Awda Long Island (LI), serve as a conduit between the most extreme fringes of the anti-Israel movement and those elements of the movement that often try to present themselves as more moderate or palatable.

Both chapters have sponsored or co-sponsored at least 180 anti-Israel protests in the region since October 7, 2023. More than two-thirds of these protests have featured rhetoric that crosses the line into antisemitism.

PAL-Awda regularly collaborates with a wide range of organizations, including American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), the ANSWER Coalition, CODEPINK, the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), CUNY for Palestine, Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), Desis Rising Up & Moving (DRUM), Healthcare Workers for Palestine (HCW4P), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ), Mamas 4 A Free Palestine, Muslim American Society (MAS), Neturei Karta (NK), New Jersey 4 Palestine, Palestinian Feminist Collective (PFC), Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), The People’s Forum (TPF), Within Our Lifetime (WOL), Workers World Party (WWP), Writers Against the War on Gaza (WAWOG), and more.

The group’s two New York area chapters have organized at least 25 events with JVP and/or DSA since October 7, 2023.

Expressions of Support for Terror Commonplace Since October 7

Hundreds of antisemitic vandalism, assault, and harassment incidents documented by ADL since October 2023 have featured explicit support for Hamas.

In the first weeks after October 7, these incidents included the following:

• An individual shouting, “Long live Hamas,” at congregants exiting a synagogue in Clifton, New Jersey, during Simchat Torah celebrations, hours after Hamas’s devastating attack in Israel on October 7, 2023.
   
• A protester yelling, “All of us [are] Hamas,” at an anti-Israel rally at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, on October 12, 2023.
   
• A synagogue in Norfolk, Virginia, received an email reading, “Praise Allah! Praise Hamas! Death to Israel! Burn the Jews!” on October 13, 2023.
   
• An individual posting a sign stating, “I [heart] Hamas,” at a subway station in Manhattan, New York, on October 25, 2023.
   
• A group of anti-Israel students approaching pro-Israel students on the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and yelling, “October 7 never happened,” “Hamas are freedom fighters” and “we love and support Hamas” on November 1, 2023.

Posters displayed at Columbia University in New York, NY, on October 7, 2024, feature images of Hamas's Abu Obaida alongside paraglider imagery, inverted red triangle imagery, and slogans that celebrate Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel one year earlier. (Screenshot/X)

Anti-Israel activists also regularly express their support for other terror groups, including Hezbollah, the PFLP, and the Houthis (Ansar Allah), as ADL has thoroughly documented since October 7. In numerous cities and towns across the country, references to these terrorist groups and their violent actions have been met by raucous cheers from protest attendees and amplification by protest organizers.

Dozens of the leading organizations driving the anti-Israel movement nationwide, including on college campuses, openly glorify terrorist groups and individuals or otherwise affiliate with those who do. Terror flags and headbands are regularly displayed at protests.

A Hamas flag is flown at a protest in Brooklyn, NY, on May 31, 2024. (Screenshot/Instagram)

Chants like “Al-Qassam [referencing the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing] you make us proud, kill another soldier now” and “Abu Obaida [the now-deceased former spokesperson for the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades], love: Strike, strike Tel Aviv” (in Arabic) are frequently heard. Prominent terror leaders like Hamas’s Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh, and Abu Obaida; Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah; PFLP’s Ahmad Sa'adat and Leila Khaled; and others are often glorified on signs at protests and in posts on social media.

A May 2025 event organized by the Bronx Anti-War Coalition in Manhattan where participants carried a banner with logos and flags or terror groups, and with images depicting terror leaders. (Telegram)

Conferences, webinars, and other activities expose how support for terror is at the core of the agenda that anti-Israel groups and organizers seek to promote nationwide.