How Within Our Lifetime Has Made Pro-Palestinian Activism More Extreme

In 2015, Ms. Kiswani said, she was blocked by Israel from visiting her relatives in the West Bank, though she had visited before. The security officers, holding her for 16 hours at the border, cited her work organizing in college.

“I felt like I had nothing to lose anymore,” she said.

Not long after, she and other activists formed NYC Students for Justice in Palestine, a coalition across CUNY schools. In 2018, they renamed the group Within Our Lifetime, to better reflect the urgency of their push to “revitalize the revolutionary spirit of Palestinians living in exile.” Their marches, featuring incendiary chants, sparked intense criticism from pro-Israel groups.

After she enrolled at CUNY Law School, Ms. Kiswani was named “Antisemite of the Year” in 2020 by a group called Stopantisemitism.org. Despite that, she was elected as class graduation speaker in 2022. Her fiery speech, critical of both Israel and what she described as American imperialism, got national attention.

Ms. Kiswani said she runs Within Our Lifetime as a volunteer while studying for the bar exam. The group is not registered as a nonprofit, and has no paid staff. It was fund-raising through the WESPAC Foundation, a nonprofit based in White Plains, N.Y., that helps pro-Palestinian groups. But the arrangement was disrupted by litigation, including a lawsuit accusing Within Our Lifetime of creating a hostile environment for Jewish students, Ms. Kiswani said. Nada Khader, the foundation’s executive director, declined to comment.

Within Our Lifetime does not release a formal membership list because of the dangers of harassment and doxxing. But individuals who have identified themselves as organizers include Fatima Mohammed, who called for a revolution against “capitalism, racism, imperialism and Zionism” in her 2023 CUNY Law graduation speech, and Abdullah Akl, who in March led a chant in Arabic calling for strikes on Tel Aviv.