Hundreds of protesters gathered at Union Square on Monday, Feb. 12, in response to Israel’s Sunday night attack on Rafah, a small Palestinian city on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip. Strikes targeted three mosques and 14 houses, killing more than 100 people, 42 of them children, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society.

The protest was organized by Within Our Lifetime Palestine (WOL) and led by student activists Abdullah Akl and Neerden Kiswani. WOL has been under relentless attack from the Anti-Defamation League, NYPD, and Instagram, who permanently deleted their account prior to a protest at the Brooklyn Museum on Saturday, where several protesters were forcibly detained. The ADL interprets many of the group’s chants and slogans, like “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” “Globalize the intifada,” and “No peace on stolen land” as anti-Semitic and has labeled WOL an “anti-Israel organization that routinely expresses support for violence against Israel. 

Kiswani was also arrested at a protest targeting the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. However, this has not deterred her or her followers from continuing to demand justice and total liberation for Palestine.

The crowd began building in Union Square at 3:40 p.m., and the march started at 5:20. The march traveled uptown, passing through the Park Avenue tunnel to Grand Central Station before concluding around 7:30 with speeches and salah (prayer) in front of the News Corp Headquarters, home of Fox and the New York Post. Both publications have labeled WOL, along with their supporters, as “radical” and “anti-Semitic.” In Kiswanis’s concluding address to the demonstrators, she accused both Murdoch-owned media companies of “manufacturing consent for the genocide in Gaza.”

Aside from an estimated five protesters being detained for “blocking vehicular travel,” the demonstration was peaceful. The NYPD made arrests early on during the march to stunt momentum, divide the group, and prevent traffic from being frozen; however, they could not establish control as the crowd flowed uptown. 

“They think a couple of arrests are going to scare us from coming out; you can’t arrest all of us, and even if you do, we’ll still be back on the streets the very next day. The more you try to repress us, the louder we will be. We will make sure New York hears us, that New York shakes, that New York echoes with the sound of our chants every single time they attack our people,” Kiswani said. 

Union Square. Time: 3:40 – 5:20 p.m.

Park Ave E 18th St. Time: 5:30 p.m.

Park Avenue Tunnel Time: 5: 50 p.m.

E 40 St. Park Ave Time: 6:00 p.m.

NewsCorp HQ Time: 6:20 – 7:00 p.m. 

Rafah has seen its population rise exponentially from 280,000 to 1,400,000 as a result of forced displacement. Despite being labeled a safe zone, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sunday that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would be storming the area as part of their proclaimed mission to eliminate Hamas, which the Israeli leader has vowed not to abandon until “total victory” is achieved. Harrowing images from the strike have circulated online, including that of Sidra Hassouna, a seven-year-old Palestinian girl whose dead body was found hanging from a wall. 

Amidst the unfolding tragedy in Rafah,  U.S. President Joe Biden’s official account on both Instagram and X posted an ill-timed joke about the Super Bowl being rigged. The now-viral meme features Biden, edited with glowing red eyes, captioned “just like we drew it up.” The image has garnered over one million likes on Instagram and 225 million views on X. 

Many activists and online supporters of Palestine reposted the image side by side with horrific photos from Rafah, accusing the American leader of displaying ignorance, complicity, and support of genocide. Others claimed the post was intended as a “distraction” from reality. 

On Oct. 7, 2023, the Islamic militant resistance group, Hamas, bypassed border security and killed 1,200 people, taking around 250 people captive in what they say was retaliation for more than 75 years of Zionist occupation of Palestinian land. Since then, Palestinian health officials have told news outlets that more than 28,000 Palestinians have been killed, approximately 70% of whom are women and children, causing mass protests to erupt around the globe. 

In the U.S., protests have particularly dialed in on America’s financial support of Israel, which protestors say enabled the Israeli government to commit what the International Court of Justice has ruled as “plausible” genocide. Protesters who gathered in Union Square carried on the call for a complete end to U.S. tax dollar aid for the IDF; however, on Tuesday, the Senate passed an emergency spending package of $14.1 billion in support of the Israeli military. 

Protesters repeated Kiswani’s words before dispersing, some going to One Police Plaza to support those detained.