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This article is part of the Combat Antisemitism Movement’s series on “Globalize the Intifada.” For the full analysis of the slogan’s origins, ideology, and real-world consequences, see the pillar page.
By 2025, intifada rhetoric moved beyond campuses and protests and appeared directly at synagogue doors. What had already intimidated Jews in academic spaces now targeted Jewish houses of worship and communal events. Protest organizers no longer confronted universities or public plazas alone. They targeted synagogues — and aliyah events — treating Jewish worship and Jewish immigration to Israel as illegitimate acts.
Park East Synagogue Surrounded in Manhattan
In November 2025, roughly two hundred protesters surrounded Park East Synagogue in Manhattan during a Nefesh B’Nefesh aliyah event. The New York and New Jersey branch of Al-Awda led the demonstration. The group has documented ties to Samidoun. The confrontation marked one of the clearest and most threatening uses of intifada rhetoric in the United States.
Demonstrators chanted:
- “From New York to Gaza, globalize the intifada”
- “Globalize the Intifada”
- “There is only one solution, intifada revolution”
- “Death, death to the IDF”
- “Say it loud, say it clear, we don’t want no Zionists here”
- “Resistance is justified”
- “Resistance, you make us proud, take another settler out”
- “We don’t want no two states, we want ’48”
- “No peace on stolen land”
- “Settlers, settlers, go back home, Palestine is ours alone”
‘We Need to Make Them Scared’
The most chilling moment followed. One protester shouted repeatedly, “We need to make them scared!” The crowd echoed the call in unison—not through a megaphone, but as a chant the group carried together.
Several protesters hurled explicit antisemitic abuse at Jews entering and leaving the synagogue. One woman screamed, “F***ing Jewish pricks,” at passersby. Another yelled, “You’re part of a death cult,” at a man wearing a kippah. A different protester carried a sign claiming, “Pedophiles and rapists are running our government to serve ‘Israel.’” Video captured another shouting, “You f***ing rapist c***s. You f***ing pedophiles. You f***ing Epstein pieces of s***.” The accusations echo centuries-old antisemitic libels — the same tropes that preceded pogroms, mass expulsions, and the Holocaust.
Protesters positioned themselves at the synagogue entrance, forcing guests to walk through a corridor of threats. Activist videos labeled synagogue-goers as “settlers,” collapsing Jewish religious identity and Jewish immigration to Israel into a category the ideology treats as a legitimate target.
🚨🚨🚨 HAPPENING NOW OUTSIDE PARK EAST SYNAGOGUE
Antisemites have showed up outside Park East synagogue and are chanting for intifada.
The Rabbi of the synagogue is a holocaust survivor who remembers vividly the horrors of Kristallnacht.
Now, he gets to see the same human… pic.twitter.com/fFDtt8nOhV
— Rabbi Poupko (@RabbiPoupko) November 20, 2025
London Synagogue Targeted the Same Weekend
That same weekend, protesters in London surrounded a synagogue during an aliyah event and blocked Jewish attendees from leaving. Demonstrators shouted:
- “We don’t want no two states — Palestine ’48”
- “From the river to the sea”
- “Zionism is f***ing treif”
- “Go away, Zio”
Videos captured protesters yelling that Jews “kill children” and calling attendees “baby killers.” Others accused people leaving the synagogue of supporting the murder of civilians.
The demonstration was an organized attempt to frighten Jews at a synagogue and delegitimize a core expression of Jewish identity — the decision to move to Israel.
Queens Yeshiva, January 2026: ‘We Support Hamas Here’
One week after Zohran Mamdani took office, Al-Awda returned to the streets. On January 8, 2026, the group organized a protest outside Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills, a Modern Orthodox synagogue in a heavily-Jewish residential neighborhood in Queens, targeting another Israeli real estate event.
Demonstrators chanted:
- “Say it loud, say it clear, we support Hamas here”
- “Globalize the intifada”
- “There is only one solution, intifada revolution”
- “Death to the IDF”
The protest forced the early closure of a daycare, two elementary schools, and a religious institution in the surrounding neighborhood. This was an open declaration of support for a designated terrorist organization, chanted outside a synagogue in a residential neighborhood populated by Jewish families.
SCANDAL: Pro-Palestine protesters gathered in a Jewish neighborhood in Queens and protested outside a yeshiva, chanting: “Say it loud, say it clear, we support Hamas here.”
Hamas is a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, responsible for mass murder, rape, and the slaughter of… pic.twitter.com/mkDyH6Zs2M
— Combat Antisemitism Movement (@CombatASemitism) January 9, 2026
Park East Synagogue, Again: May 2026
Six months later, Al-Awda organized a second protest, again targeting a Jewish event promoting life in Israel. A Hezbollah flag was visible in the crowd. NYPD deployed dozens of officers to keep protesters from the entrance. One protester beat her fist against an image of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, affixed to a crossing signal outside the synagogue. An NYPD officer was hospitalized after protesters attempted to remove barriers.
🇺🇸 New York City, May 6, 2026: During the antisemitic riots outside Park East Synagogue, Hamas supporters were seen beating a photo of the Lubavitcher Rebbe while waving Hezbollah flags.
Not about Palestine.
About hating Jews and glorifying terrorism. pic.twitter.com/RwWvkhidP4
— Combat Antisemitism Movement (@CombatASemitism) May 7, 2026
That same week, Al-Awda organized a parallel protest at the Young Israel of Midwood in Brooklyn. Demonstrators waved a Hezbollah flag, displayed a banner bearing the red inverted triangle used by Hamas to designate targets, and chanted “Brick by brick, wall by wall, Zionism will fall” and “There is only one solution, intifada revolution.” A young Jewish girl was physically attacked outside the synagogue entrance. At least three demonstrators were arrested after attacking counter-protesters. Following the Park East protest, Al-Awda threatened: “We will continue to show up whenever and wherever these sales occur.”
🇺🇸 Brooklyn, New York, May 11, 2026: Days after another anti-Israel protest targeted a Manhattan synagogue, protesters attacked a young Jewish girl outside Young Israel of Midwood, waved a Hezbollah flag, displayed a Hamas-linked red triangle, and chanted “Zionism will fall.” pic.twitter.com/rEIimwGgsZ
— Combat Antisemitism Movement (@CombatASemitism) May 12, 2026
From Protest Slogans to Synagogue Sieges
Understanding how “Globalize the Intifada” arrived at synagogue doors requires understanding the trajectory that preceded it.
In 2021, Within Our Lifetime (WOL) launched “Globalize the Intifada” and published a manifesto designating U.S. cities as “theaters of operations.” Two years later, the group published maps labeling New York Jewish organizations as enemies with “blood on their hands.” By 2024, “Globalize the Intifada” had become a fixture of campus demonstrations targeting Jewish students. The following year, protesters surrounded synagogues.
Each step followed logically from the last. A campaign that framed Jewish institutions as legitimate targets, that published maps of those institutions as enemies, that chanted at Jewish students in campus corridors, had reached its natural extension — the direct physical surrounding of Jewish houses of worship with explicit intent to terrify the people inside.
Political Legitimization in New York City
In November 2025, Zohran Mamdani had been elected mayor of New York City but had not yet taken office. When asked to respond to the Park East Synagogue confrontation, Mayor-elect Mamdani did not address the intimidation directed at Jews entering and leaving the building. Instead, he described the aliyah event itself as “a violation of international law.”
On January 1, 2026, his first day in office, Mamdani revoked a slew of executive orders issued by his predecessor, including several used to confront antisemitism, regulate protest activity, and protect Jewish communities from intimidation. Among the revoked measures was New York City’s adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism. Adams had implemented the definition to guide law enforcement, education, and community relations in identifying anti-Jewish hate, including certain forms of anti-Zionist rhetoric. Mamdani eliminated that standard immediately.
One week later, when protesters chanted “We support Hamas here” outside a Queens synagogue, Mamdani was initially silent — slower to respond than even Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a close political ally and vocal critic of Israel who had campaigned for him.
When a second protest surrounded Park East Synagogue in May 2026, Mamdani was by then mayor. Again, he did not condemn the protesters. He condemned the event inside.
A slogan used to surround synagogues and threaten Jews at worship was being legitimized by the mayor of the largest Jewish city outside Israel.
Return to the pillar page: ‘Globalize the Intifada’: Meaning, Origins, and Why It Is a Call for Violence Against Jews
Continue reading:
- The Intifadas: The Terror Campaigns Behind ‘Globalize the Intifada’
- The Organizations Behind ‘Globalize the Intifada’ and the Campaign to Target Israel and America
- The Terror Network Behind ‘Globalize the Intifada’
- ‘Globalize the Intifada’ on Campus: How the Slogan Became a Weapon Against Jewish Students
- Zohran Mamdani: When ‘Globalize the Intifada’ Reaches Elected Office
- The Bondi Beach Hanukkah Massacre: When ‘Globalize the Intifada’ Became Reality
- Cultural Incitement: How ‘Globalize the Intifada’ Entered Music, Fashion, and Art
