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July 14, 2025 - Conspirituality
05:26
Bonus Sample: Globalize The Intifada?

Protest slogans are designed to pack a punch. They communicate potent emotions and persuasive ideas to the public while galvanizing activist allies. At 5 '11, wearing an elegant hijab over jet-black hair, Nerdeen Kiswani cuts an elegant figure. “From the river to the sea,” she cries, and the loyal group around her repeats it back, loudly. “Palestine will be free!” Again the repeated phrase comes back. “You are my amplifier,” she tells them.  Even while delivering her speech, the crowd loudly shouts each phrase after she says it. “We need allies who are gonna help us to reach a victory, not allies who are gonna tell us to be non-violent!” Those at the front are holding up a long banner spread out in front of them that reads, “Globalize the Intifada.” Kiswani is the founder and chair of a Brooklyn-based group called Within Our Lifetime—which split off from other anti-Zionist groups she felt were not radical enough. “We don't want no two-state, we want '48!”  She's performed this activist role many times on New York streets: in front of a memorial installation for the Nova music festival; at the campus protests in 2024, where she told the students, “we must escalate!” She's taken credit for popularizing the slogan “globalize the intifada” since 2021. When NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani was asked how he felt about it, he first struggled to answer, then said “it's not language I use.” His fellow candidate and ally, Brad Lerner, said it was hard not to hear it as meaning “open season on Jews.” Mamdani has been pictured on social media alongside Kiswani and her inner circle.  At least six men affiliated with Within Our Lifetime have ended up with jail sentences for hospitalizing Jews after planning and then bragging about violence in exposed private chats—even in public posts. The group was booted from Instagram (180k+ followers) when they posted New York City maps showing the locations of specific corporate, government, and Jewish organizations. The phrases, "Blood on their Hands," "Know your Enemy" and "Globalize the Intifada" were emblazoned above and below the maps. "Intifada, intifada! Long live the intifada," Kiswani chanted close to Wall Street, outside the Nova music festival memorial, dedicated to the 378 civilians killed and 40 abducted. Dancing and drumming, protestors in the crowd chanted back, set off flares, and unfurled Hamas and Hezbollah flags. Julian takes a deep dive into this controversial group in the context of an unfolding genocide in Gaza, and the long history of conflict, conquest, and religious extremism in the region. He asks fervent supporters of Israel, "How much do you know about the Nakba?" and pro-Palestine loyalists, "How much do you know about Hamas?" Show Notes NYT Profile on Nerdeen Kiswani Kiswani Tweets About Using "globalize the intifada" since 2021 Kiswani Speaks At Columbia Encampment on Wedding Day Columbia Group Influenced by WOL To Support Armed Resistance Kiswani Wears Button Showing Hamas Spokesman Hamas and Hezbollah Flags At NYC Nova Memorial Protest  Within Our Lifetime Posts Maps To IG 6 Charged in Antisemitic Mob Beating In Times Square Sadaah Masoud Sentenced to 18 Months for 3 Antisemitic Assaults Hamas Leaders Live in Luxury Hamas Financial Network Hamas Gunmen Hunt Down Fatah Rivals Zohran Mamdani with WOL Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Today, I'll be taking a deep dive into a controversial pro-Palestine group headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, called Within Our Lifetime.
And in discussing their ideas and methods, I'll ask questions like: what's the relationship between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism?
And how do you make sense of differing interpretations of slogans like Globalize the Intifada and From the River to the Sea?
On our recent episode about the success of New York City mayoral candidate Zoran Mamdani in June's Democratic primary, I praised his handling of one of the most electrified third rails in today's discourse, pro-Palestine protest slogans.
Now, given that he's a Democratic socialist and a Muslim whose background includes exactly that kind of protest, and given that he wants to be mayor of the city that is home to more Jews than anywhere else outside of Israel, these kinds of questions are actually inevitable.
The adjustments he made and how he handled them in the weeks before that election showed an ability to do something as a political communicator that is rare, especially on this topic.
His stance on the slogan, globalize the intifada, became a central focus, and by his third or fourth time facing this question on the public stage, he ended up eventually answering that it is not language that he himself uses.
And he also expressed empathy for Jewish New Yorkers who may find it scary while acknowledging the rise of anti-Semitic attacks.
This is brilliant, because he pulled off something very difficult by resisting the kind of whataboutism that could have been used against him.
And look, the truth is that the absolutely hellish collective punishment that Israel has unleashed on Gaza is an atrocity in the eyes of reasonable people with any conscience or empathy.
Doubly so then for someone involved in the pro-Palestine movement.
But Mamdani understood in those moments, he was being asked to put himself in the shoes of the Jewish New Yorkers he might serve and effectively address their fears.
This approach is an example of what I believe needs to happen if we're to build a coalition that can defeat MAGA.
And no, that doesn't mean ignoring or whitewashing the genocide in Gaza.
Not at all.
Now, given that I'm already wading into the most loaded and intractable topic of our time, the Israel-Palestine conflict, here's my thumbnail on what I think goes wrong in that debate.
Americans who emphasize only the Palestinian people and Israeli aggression tend to leave out the significant complicating factor of Hamas.
But Americans who emphasize only Israeli civilians and hostages and the actions of Hamas militants tend to deny or overlook the reality of Palestinian oppression and seemingly justify the inexcusable carnage rained on the people of Gaza over the last almost two years.
For the first group, criticizing Hamas or American protest groups who seem to support Hamas betrays an unacceptably presumptuous privilege, like, who are we to say how oppressed people should fight for their freedom?
For the second group, criticizing Israel or American organizations that support Israel denies the atrocities of October 7th and the suicide bombings of the Second Intifada and betrays an anti-Semitic openness to the annihilation of the Jewish state.
I'm not doing any fallacious version of both sides in here, but I want to ask you, honestly, if you identified strongly with either of those positions, how much do you actually know about Hamas?
Or how familiar are you with the word nakba?
So wherever you're starting from, stick around and think this through with me.
I can't promise I'll solve the Middle East or satisfy any hardline activists, but if you join our Patreon to hear the whole bonus episode, I can promise there'll be a heated and potentially very interesting conversation in the comments.
I'm Julian Walker, and this is Conspirituality Podcast.
As I said, my main focus today will be the New York-based group within our lifetime, which is small and getting smaller each time another member goes to jail, but more on that later.
But they're very active.
They're influential and vocal, and by their own account, more radically revolutionary in their focus than any of the other pro-Palestine groups they criticize.
In a tweet from last week, the group's leader, Nardine Kiswani, proudly claims to have popularized the phrase, globalize the intifada, as far back as 2021.
The group's social media post in the immediate aftermath of October 7th read, We must support Palestinian resistance in all its forms by any means necessary, with no exceptions and no fine print.
And weeks later, as reported by Newsweek, ABC, New York Post, and Times of Israel, they posted at least two strategic maps on Instagram, one showing the locations of Jewish organizations in New York and one showing corporate and governmental organizations.
And emblazoned above and below the maps were phrases like, know your enemy, blood on their hands, and globalize the intifada.
The account has since been banned, so those posts are gone.
But the question remains, what did they mean, and do their actions and statements understandably induce fear?com slash conspirituality, where you can access all of our main feed episodes ad-free, as well as four years of bonus content that we've been producing.
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