PITTSBURGH — Pro-Palestinian demonstrations reverberated across the globe and in the United States on Friday, after a former Hamas leader called for a worldwide “day of rage” in the wake of a Hamas attack in Israel that sparked the worst conflict in the region in 50 years.

Hundreds of protesters marched in Times Square, Pittsburgh, Portland and Washington on Friday, with other rallies planned in Los Angeles and elsewhere through the weekend. Law enforcement agencies across the nation said they were stepping up their security presence around synagogues, other places of worship and Israeli diplomatic posts, and some Jewish private schools closed as a cautionary measure.

As Palestinian supporters around the world gathered, chanted and waved the red, white, black and green flag for the region, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled by car, foot and even donkey cart from the northern Gaza Strip on Friday after Israel ordered an evacuation of more than 1 million people. The United Nations described the evacuation as a potentially “calamitous” human rights crisis amid the deteriorating situation.

Advertisement

The Israeli military is preparing for a ground war after days of retaliatory strikes in Gaza, following the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel last weekend that left at least 1,300 dead. More than 1,500 people in Gaza have already been killed in the bombing campaign, a third of them children, and 6,600 more have been wounded, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

In Pittsburgh, about 100 people gathered near the University of Pittsburgh waving Palestinian flags and holding signs with slogans such as “Free Gaza” and “the world stands with Palestine.” They held a moment of silence both for the recent victims and for the 11 people who were killed here in the 2018 attack on the Tree of Life synagogue, the worst terrorist attack on the Jewish community in American history.

But the speakers quickly pivoted to decry the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Some speakers said they have family members in Gaza. Others directed their ire at President Biden. Amman Al, who is from Jordan, showed up to the rally holding a sign that read “Stop Killing Gazans.” “I fear they are going to kill everybody in Gaza, and we have to stop this,” Al said, adding that the United States and Biden “can help to stop this. But instead of this side, of that side, he has to stay in the middle.” Later, a man charged into the crowd and pushed and punched his way toward the speakers. The man, who was shouting epithets about Palestinians, was escorted away by campus police.

Advertisement

In New York, hundreds marched at a rally in Times Square, chanting, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” Maria Izidoro, a college student in New York, said she had come out to protest Israeli actions in Gaza but had mixed feelings about the larger situation. “The only reason our government and the Europeans are supporting what is happening in Israel is because they do not want to really take accountability for what they did to Jews,” she said, referring to the period before World War II, “so I think both sides are victims of the same emperor mentality.” Aside from a few small scuffles, the gathering was peaceful. At one point protesters unfurled their mats to pray in the street.

The outpouring of support for Palestinians on college campuses and elsewhere in the week after the devastating attack on Israel exacerbated deep wounds and reinvigorated age-old debates across the United States. Jews said they feared mounting antisemitism, and Palestinians worried that the human rights of ordinary citizens in Gaza are being lost amid the world outcry against the terrorist attack by Hamas.

Maya Berry, executive director of the Arab American Institute, said she is hearing from Arab American parents of college students who are worried about the safety of their children and are discouraging them from attending rallies in support of Palestinians. Some rallies, she said, have been canceled because of safety concerns.

Advertisement

Berry also said she worries the events of the past week could lead to what happened in the period after the Persian Gulf War in the early 1990s, with FBI agents showing up at community centers or mosques, or interviewing individual Arab Americans. “First they said: ‘Are you okay? How are you doing?’ Then it is: ‘Are you hearing anything we need to know about?’ The question is, will law enforcement again view our advocacy for the Palestinians through a securitized framework?”

Her voice shook as she explained how these problems, in her view, are linked to the focus of American leaders on Israeli victims at a time when hundreds of Gazans are killed and hundreds of thousands displaced. “What we are talking about is the complete inability to acknowledge Palestinian suffering in the way we have, compassionately and appropriately, the massacre innocent Israelis faced,” she said, adding, “Why we cannot do that right now, from the highest levels, is extraordinary. It is absolutely putting my community at risk.”

Those representing the Jewish community said they had their own fears. “This past week we have, ironically and sadly, seen greater marginalization, harassment and isolation of Jewish students,” Adam Lehman, the president of Hillel International, said Friday. He cited promotional materials for rallies that appeared to celebrate Hamas militants using paragliders in the attack on Israeli civilians. He called on universities to protect Jewish students from antisemitic threats and intimidation. “We are simply looking for the same kind of support they would give to any minoritized community,” he said.

Advertisement

Oren Segal, vice president of the Center on Extremism at the Anti-Defamation League, said the group has tracked at least 140 protests around the United States since the attack in Israel last Saturday. So far the they have been peaceful, he said. Online threats against Jewish people have increased 400 percent since the attack, he said, after a year when the group recorded the highest number of antisemitic incidents in 40 years. “This is coming at a time when the Jewish community is already feeling vulnerable,” he said. “The way the community has been rattled by what they see in Israel just adds to that.”

In New York, Mayor Eric Adams (D) said at a briefing Thursday that there were no credible threats to the city, but he urged people to “remain vigilant” during planned demonstrations in Times Square and elsewhere. The New York Police Department canceled training for officers Thursday and ordered the force to be in uniform and on patrol, NBC News reported.

In Washington, police were on alert. On Friday evening, a coalition of organizations massed for an “All Out for Gaza” rally at Franklin Park in downtown Washington to “demand an end to the illegal blockade on Gaza, the immediate and uninterrupted delivery of humanitarian aid, and an end to all U.S. military funding to Israel,” its announcement stated.

Advertisement

In Los Angeles and Washington, some Jewish families kept their children home, worried about safety, parents said. Several Jewish day schools and private schools closed their doors, with some moving to remote learning, in an abundance of caution. In suburban Maryland, the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School on Thursday evening took what it called “the unprecedented step” of closing campuses and canceling classes, although it had not identified a specific threat.

In Texas, the Dallas Palestine Coalition has organized several downtown protests since the attacks, with the latest set for Sunday, said Faizan Syed, a nonprofit consultant who belongs to the group. Syed, 35, said his group contacted police ahead of its protests and was “taking internal security precautions just to make sure there is no altercation that occurs.”

Syed said the protest last Sunday was “very peaceful,” with police patrolling between pro-Palestinian demonstrators and a half-dozen pro-Israel counterprotesters “hurling insults” and trying to cut off their speeches. “There is a lot of tension,” he said. Syed opposed a Dallas City Council resolution this week backing the Israeli war on Hamas, speaking out at the council meeting Wednesday with several others. Nonetheless, the council passed the resolution unanimously.

Advertisement

Those on both sides have reported an increasing number of threats, online or otherwise. An alarming phone call on Friday had Shaimaa Zayan, the Austin community relations coordinator for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, on edge.

“He is saying all Muslims deserve to die, and ‘I have no pity toward any Muslims,’” Zayan said Friday morning soon after receiving the call, from a man she did not know. “He was so calm. He was not angry or anything. I said, ‘Thank you so much,’ and he hung up.” Zayan said others had called her, concerned about attacks and whether it was safe to send their children to school Friday. “There is fear,” she said.

Felton reported from New York, Gowen from Lawrence, Kan., and Hennessy-Fiske from Houston. Lori Rozsa in West Palm Beach, Fla., Reis Thebault in Los Angeles, Casey Parks in Portland, and Michelle Boorstein, Nick Anderson, Danny Nguyen and Donna St. George in Washington contributed to this report.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZLuiwMiopWhqYGeAcH2PaGhsZ5SWxm6%2BwKCcZqCRoq60ec%2Bao56rpJ67pnnPq6atnaOpwG6tzJ6popuRZA%3D%3D