| Nerdeen Kiswani | |
| Native Name: | نردين كسواني |
| Native Name Lang: | ar |
| Alma Mater: | CUNY School of Law |
| Organization: | Within Our Lifetime |
Nerdeen Kiswani ([1]) is a Palestinian-American activist and organizer.[2] [3] [4] She is a co-founder and chair of Within Our Lifetime, a pro-Palestinian activist group in New York City.[5]
She is the child of Palestinian refugees from Beit Iksa and was raised in Brooklyn.[6] She has stated that growing up in a post-9/11 United States in which Muslims "were used to being called terrorists at school" was freeing in that her generation is no longer affected by that kind of propaganda.
As a student at the School of Law of the City University of New York (CUNY), she helped pass two resolutions in favor of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS).
Along with other students, she was involved in the establishment of NYC Students for Justice in Palestine, representing a coalition from across the various CUNY schools.
She has studied revolutionary movements and stated armed resistance has always been a part of them. She has described her use of the phrase "by any means necessary" as echoing Malcolm X.
She was elected to be the graduation speaker for the class of 2022. Her speech was widely shared and discussed. It addressed the Israeli assassination of the Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.
She stated that she was subject to harassment and death threats from Zionists attempting to suppress pro-Palestinian speech since she enrolled at the school. She has faced intense slander, intimidation, and smear campaigns coming from rightwing media, Zionist organizations, city politicians, and Hollywood actors.[7] Palestine Legal reported that Kiswani, as a "vocal and visibly Muslim advocate for Palestinian liberation," was subject to character assassination and vilification campaigns, including cyberbullying. A social media app affiliated with the Israeli government "rewarded hundreds of users if they sent pre-scripted emails to the CUNY administration that falsely claimed Nerdeen had threatened a Zionist 'fellow student' and called for her to be punished." The app, called Act.IL, gamified Israeli hasbara and Israeli military communications strategy, transforming its advocacy into a "massive multiplayer online game."[8] According to Kiswani, Zionists inundated the school administration with emails claiming she was antisemitic. CUNY School of Law released statements in condemnation of her, which exacerbated the "racist and violent vitriol" to which she was exposed.
Zionist organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League,[9] Canary Mission,[10] and StopAntisemitism[11] have targeted her and claimed she is antisemitic. Nerdeen Kiswani has stated that she is not antisemitic.
In June of 2021, in response to student pressure, the school's administration released a statement in support of her. She was ultimately absolved of any wrongdoing.[12]
The day after Kiswani spoke at a protest outside a Nova Music Festival commemorative exhibition in June 2024, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez described the protest as "atrocious antisemitism - plain and simple".
See main article: Within Our Lifetime. In 2015, she co-founded Within Our Lifetime, a pro-Palestinian activist group in New York City. The organization has organized marches that have shut down the Brooklyn Bridge, the Manhattan Bridge, and the flow of Midtown motor vehicle traffic. Meta shut down its Instagram account in February 2024 for violating the prohibition against promoting "dangerous organizations or individuals". The group has mourned Hassan Nasrallah and called him and others like him 'martyrs'.
She does not believe in a two-state solution, stating in 2024 that it has "been dead on arrival for years now." She points to the fact that it's already a one-state reality "that’s controlled by Israel in every sense."
She believes Palestine has a right to defend itself and supports armed resistance, stating that "people need to be able to defend themselves."
She wrote on X that her group does not want Zionists "in Palestine, NYC, our schools, on the train, ANYWHERE", after a member shouted for Zionists on a subway train to raise their hand and leave.