Ivy League grads protest in NYC, call for ‘stronger’ action than Hamas’ Oct 7 massacre

Akl told protesters “we did not act enough” to “liberate” Gaza during the terror attack on October 7, 2023. He encouraged the demonstrators to repeat his call for more violence.

Hundreds of protesters gathered in Manhattan on Tuesday to celebrate the second anniversary of Hamas’s attack on Israel and protest Israel. Protesters were seen waving Palestinian flags and chanting slogans such as “It is right to resist, Israel does not exist," while others waved signs being reading “Long Live the Intifada,” “As the UN is meeting, Gaza is bleeding,” and “From New York to Palestine, Starving People is a Crime.”

A demonstration was held outside the News Corp building in Midtown, where Fox News, the New York Post, and the Wall Street Journal are based. There, Harvard graduate and activist Akl urged activists to take stronger action as he defended Hamas’ massacre of 1,200.

“We did not act enough,” Akl said in footage posted on X by Freedom News TV. “If we acted enough, the headline behind me would read ‘Gaza has been liberated.’ So our work is not done, we will show up stronger than we did the first October 7, louder than we did the first October 7, to make it clear that we are not going anywhere. That we will keep fighting until Palestine is free, from the river to the sea, within our lifetime.”

Similar remarks were made at another protest the same day outside Columbia University, where activist and Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil condemned Zionism and described Israel as illegitimate.

“Our struggle did not start last year or the year before. It started by the inception of the Zionist ideology, back in the 19th century,” Khalil said, “On the racist idea that a land without a people for people without a land. This is a very racist idea that we see today.”

He added that Israel is “stolen land” and that he “will not be silenced.” Instead of calling for the release of Hamas' hostages, stolen from Israel on Oct. 7, he condemned Israel's justice system and Columbia University.