Within Our Lifetime (WOL)

Within Our Lifetime (WOL) was formed in early 2018 by Nerdeen Mohsen Kiswani as an offshoot of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), the signature campus group promoting anti-Zionism. A radical outfit dedicated to the complete eradication of Israel, WOL supports anti-Zionism, BDS, explicitly rejects a two-state solution, and instead advocates for a Palestinian-Arab governed state that replaces the Jewish state.

WOL has been accused of promoting Jew hatred and bias against Jews, believing in resistance against Israelis “by any means necessary” to avenge the “nakba,” a pejorative term meaning “catastrophe,” in reference to Israel’s establishment in 1948. WOL’s Instagram account was temporarily banned for hate speech after it posted a collage of female terrorists in celebration of International Women’s Day. The group launches campaigns about anti-Zionism and holds marches and violent protests throughout New York City, where calls of “death to Israel,” “we don’t want two states. We want ’48,” “there is only one solution, Intifada revolution,” and “globalize the Intifada,” are frequently heard.

Activists at these rallies have physically attacked Jewish counter-protestors and frequently engage in unabashed Jew hatred by targeted Jewish groups, businesses, and individual philanthropists. Founder and leader Nerdeen Kiswani is typically front at the center, leading the chants at these rallies. At one protest, she allegedly told the crowd, “I hope that a pop-pop is the last noise that some Zionists hear in their lifetime.”

Nerdeen Kiswani was named StopAntisemitism.org’s “Antisemite of the Year” for 2020 due to her Jew-hatred and extreme anti-Zionism. She is the former President and Vice President of SJP at Hunter College and the City of New York University (CUNY), where she was a law student, and was also the co-founder of New York City SJP, which was eventually re-named “Within Our Lifetime.”

At CUNY, Kiswani was allegedly involved in an incident of bias against Jews, in which a student experienced anti-Zionism and Jew hatred in the form of harassment and bullying and, as a result, left the college. Kiswani and WOL frequently glorify convicted Palestinian terrorists and jihadist organizations such as Rasmieh Odeh, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and Leila Khaled. Kiswani once posted a video on her social media flicking a lighter and threatening to light a Black man on fire who was wearing an IDF shirt. Kiswani was also named in a Department of Education Title IV complaint alleging Jew-hatred.

Saadah Masoud, another WOL leader, is a violent antisemite who has engaged in Holocaust denial and has been arrested numerous times for assaulting Jews, armed robbery, and altercations with the NYPD. He was charged with a federal hate crime in 2022 after chasing down and attacking Matt Greenman, a Jewish counter-protestor on crutches. Video footage shows him calling Greenman a terrorist and baby killer, throwing him to the ground, and punching and kicking him in the face and head. Greenman filed a police report after being rushed to the hospital and diagnosed with a concussion. Masour has reportedly sent threatening messages to Jewish Instagram accounts and has defended the Holy Land 5 Foundation, a group of five men who were convicted and sentenced to federal prison in 2009 for laundering funds to Hamas. He called them “fu*king soldiers” and said, “We should have statues in their honor for what they did. For what they went through."

Waseem Awawdeh, another member of WOL, similarly has a frightening past of assault and bias against Jews and has been charged with hate crimes and assault. WOL often partners with other groups who embrace anti-Zionism and Jew hatred, such as SJP, Palestinian Youth Movement, Samidoun, and Palestine Legal.