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Protesters chanting “Death to America, death to Israel” gathered on Friday night in New York City’s Washington Square Park to honor late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an Israeli air strike the previous weekend.
The demonstration sparked confrontations with counter-demonstrators and led to at least two arrests.
Participants also shouted “Death to the IDF” and praised Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades. They chanted, “Al Qassam you make us proud, kill another soldier now.” One demonstrator waved a Hezbollah flag. The United States designates both Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations.
Police intervened as tensions escalated between the opposing groups.
Organizers described the event as a memorial for Khamenei and for what they called victims of “Amerikan [sic] imperialism,” a spelling often used in radical anti-imperialist rhetoric to criticize the United States.
Demonstrators placed photographs of the deceased Iranian leader on tables alongside candles and flowers.
Footage from the event circulated online. In the video, a speaker dressed in black and wearing a hat and mask that concealed his face addressed the crowd through a megaphone, with a red and white keffiyeh draped around his neck. He framed the gathering as part of what he called “resistance to Zionism” and “resistance to colonial domination.”
Speakers and participants voiced support for Iran’s ruling regime. In chants and speeches, some declared, “We stand with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” “We stand in full solidarity with the IRGC,” and “We stand in full solidarity with the Islamic revolution.”
Some speakers also described themselves as “internally colonized people living inside the empire” and declared, “From CIA and Mossad-sponsored terrorism, we defend the right to resist by any means necessary.” Another speaker referred to the United States as “imperialist number one terrorist.”
Additional chants included “US drones in the sky, Iran’s missiles will reply,” “Tehran, Beirut, give Americans the boot,” “hands off every nation,” and “From the belly of the beast, we will honor Khamenei.”
BREAKING: Just blocks away from Ground Zero in NYC, fully masked Islamists hold a vigil for Khameini.
“We mourn Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. We have the right to resist – by Any Means Necessary.”
Get these people OUT of our country.
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) March 7, 2026
Addressing the crowd, one speaker declared: “We must live like the ayatollah did, with his heart for his people, and we must die like he did.”
The vigil drew backing from several activist groups, including the Bronx Anti-War Coalition, the Workers World Party, and Crown Heights Bites Back.
Pro-Khamenei Demonstration Draws Counter-Protests
Across a police barricade, counter-protesters gathered to condemn the tribute to the longtime Iranian leader.
Many waved American, Israeli, and pre-1979 Iranian flags bearing the lion-and-sun emblem associated with Iran before the Islamic Revolution. Some celebrated Khamenei’s death and expressed support for Israel and the United States.
One demonstrator said, “We were waiting for this for 47 years. Finally, we did it. USA did it. Israel did it. They took out the terrorist. Finally, they’re going to be free.”
Tensions escalated when American-Israeli rapper Rami Even-Esh, known by the stage name Kosha Dillz, removed a portrait of Khamenei displayed at the vigil.
“Take this down,” Even-Esh said before several demonstrators confronted him. Police quickly separated those involved.
Even-Esh later wrote on social media that police had arrested him after the incident. “I attended a ‘vigil’ for the butcher of Iran who is responsible for murders of tens of thousands of Iranians,” he said while sharing video of the confrontation.
Authorities also detained at least one participant from the vigil.
Khamenei served as Iran’s supreme leader from 1989 until his death. He was killed in Tehran during the opening phase of a joint U.S.–Israeli military campaign targeting Iran’s leadership and military infrastructure.
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