425 Anti-Israel Groups Launch Nakba 78 Protests in 39 Countries

A global network of anti-Israel activist groups launched coordinated Nakba 78 protests across the United States and other countries today. Organizers marked the 78th anniversary of Israel's founding on May 14, 1948, to challenge the Jewish state's right to exist.

A Fox News Digital investigation identified about 425 organizations, including communist groups, Muslim advocacy organizations and anti-Israel coalitions, working together in a transnational protest network. The groups report combined annual revenues of about $1 billion.

The network organized an estimated 736 events across 39 countries this weekend. Locations include New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London and Sydney, based on an analysis of protests listed on a website organizing actions against Israel. Organizers describe the demonstrations as marking the Nakba, an Arabic word for catastrophe that Palestinians use for Israel's founding, the displacement of Palestinians and their historical grievance.

The Nakba 78 protests reflect a sinful marriage between the radical left and radical Islamism, the groups that hate Western liberal democracies and desire to destroy them, said Dalia Ziada, a Middle East scholar and Washington, D.C.-based coordinator at the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy.

Critics say the coordinated mass protests reveal a global antisemitic movement that presents itself as humanitarian while mainstreaming rhetoric that denies Jewish self-determination and Israel's right to exist as a state.

In New York City yesterday, the People's Forum, a pro-communist activist hub and 501(c)(3) nonprofit funded by Marxist tech mogul Neville Roy Singham, made signs at an art build for a protest today against the ongoing Nakba. Members of the Party for Socialism and Liberation plan events across the country to rail against Israel's existence.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., a member of the Senate Judiciary and Finance Committees, expressed concern about the Chinese Communist Party and its sympathizers using the U.S. nonprofit industry to undermine the United States. One of the things we know about the Singham group and about the Chinese Communist Party is they are going to look for a fellow bad actor and they're going to try to partner with them in causing chaos in our cities, she said. There is no limit to what the Chinese Communist Party will do to create chaos in the United States, Blackburn added.

Over almost a decade, Singham has funneled $278 million into a network of nonprofits, including the People's Forum, CodePink and BreakThrough BT Media. These groups have organized anti-Israel protests in the United States, particularly after the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of Israelis by Hamas militants, and now support this year's Nakba 78 protests.

U.S. Treasury, Justice and State Department officials are investigating the funding structures and operations of nonprofits receiving Singham's money, which promotes Chinese Communist Party propaganda. Lawmakers in the House Judiciary, Oversight and Ways and Means committees are probing the Singham network for possible violations of laws requiring agents of foreign interests to register with the Justice Department.

A Fox News Digital investigation of mobilization materials, social media posts, event graphics, coalition lists and public announcements found that the Nakba 78 campaign seeks the dismantling of Israel itself, not a ceasefire or two-state solution.

The U.S. hosts the most events with 187, followed by the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Canada, Spain, France, Ireland and Australia. Organizers stand against genocide, apartheid and U.S. imperialism.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, University of California, Berkeley lecturer Hatem Bazian will speak at a three-day Islam, Memory and the Nakba conference in Burlingame, Oakland and Los Gatos. In Brooklyn, activists with the Palestinian Youth Movement, Al-Awda and Within Our Lifetime continue a Nakba Week of Action that included violent protests at Manhattan's Park East Synagogue and Brooklyn's Young Israel of Midwood earlier this week.

In London, police prepare for a major Nakba 78 march amid warnings of hate speech and public disorder. In Sydney, activists call demonstrators to town hall for a protest declaring Stop the Genocide! Free Palestine!

Fox News Digital used a large-language model to analyze Nakba 78 protest literature. It found that 85% parrots language of U.S. adversaries, framing the United States as fascist and imperialist and Israel as a genocidal settler state, Zionist entity or part of a grand settler-colonial design. The other 15% frames the protests as solidarity with Palestine.

Organizers call for Unity, Liberation, Return, an arms embargo, end to U.S. aid to Israel and right of return for millions of Palestinians in the diaspora. Social media chants include from the river to the sea, which critics say denies Israel's existence.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism states that denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, including by claiming Israel's existence is racist, may constitute antisemitism. Nakba 78 protesters reject that charge and frame their activism as anti-Zionist, anti-colonial and anti-imperialist.

The Palestinian Youth Movement works closely with the People's Forum and appears as a central organizer across North American events with socialist, Muslim, student and local activist partners. The Party for Socialism and Liberation, Freedom Road Socialist Organization and Democratic Socialists of America chapters provide anti-imperialist infrastructure, while American Muslims for Palestine, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Muslim American Society and Students for Justice in Palestine broaden the campaign.

The campaign runs on street protest, ideological education and agitprop, a Soviet-era tactic for agitation propaganda to foment discord.

In New York City, organizers structured demonstrations as a Nakba Week of Action after clashes outside synagogues involving the Palestinian Youth Movement New York City, Al-Awda New York/New Jersey and Within Our Lifetime. They plan to gather today at 4:30 p.m. in Washington Square Park with the rallying cry RESISTANCE SINCE 1948, and another protest Saturday at 2 p.m. at 72nd Street and 5th Avenue in Bay Ridge.

Within Our Lifetime, co-founded by activist Nerdeen Kiswani, promotes extreme anti-Zionist rhetoric including calls to exclude Zionists from community spaces, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

Brooke Goldstein, executive director of The Lawfare Project, said authorities should monitor conduct at demonstrations, particularly near Jewish institutions. When there is assault, vandalism, trespass, obstruction, targeted harassment, discriminatory denial of access, or coordinated conduct that creates a hostile environment in schools, workplaces, or federally-funded institutions, this is action. Not protected speech, she said. Jewish communal spaces are increasingly treated as proxies for the Israeli government, and authorities should watch for obstruction, intimidation and violence targeting Jewish communities.

In Los Angeles, a May 16 protest is set for 2 p.m. at the Israeli Consulate on Wilshire Boulevard, called the Zionist Consulate by organizers. Partners include the Party for Socialism and Liberation, ANSWER Coalition and Nodutdol.

In Boston, the Palestinian Youth Movement Boston and Party for Socialism and Liberation teamed with the National Iranian American Council for a teach-in on Arab Gulf States and U.S. Imperialism, followed by an action today at 4 p.m. at the Zionist consulate on Washington Mall.

In Detroit and Dearborn, Michigan, organizers fuse foreign policy with economic grievances, accusing the U.S. and Israel of genocidal attacks from Palestine to Iran and Lebanon while blaming illegal wars for high fuel prices.

In Chicago, local Students for Justice in Palestine and American Muslims for Palestine chapters, founded by Bazian, rally in support of Iran's Axis of Resistance against Israel and the U.S. What we are seeing is the spread of jihadist radical Islamist racist ideologies married to extreme-left Marxism, Goldstein said. These groups don't agree on anything other than destroying America and killing Jews.

Internationally, London police said the Nakba Day protest will form on Exhibition Road in Kensington before marching to Waterloo Place. In Sydney, a nationwide Nakba Day protest is set for 6 p.m. at Town Hall.

The Nakba 78 label links 1948 to the present, presenting Israel's founding, U.S. support, the Gaza war and regional conflicts as one struggle. Materials use ongoing Nakba, 78 years of genocide, apartheid, settler-colonialism, U.S. imperialism and resistance.

Ziada said the far-left and Islamist alliance intensified after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, creating a moral umbrella and legitimacy to accelerate destroying the West. They all agree on one thing, which is destroying the United States or weakening the western world.