On January 13, 2024, during Israel's war against Hamas terrorists, Kawas posted on Instagram: "South Africa to Palestine ✊🏼✊🏼✊🏼✊🏼." Kawas's post included a video of anti-Israel protesters chanting [00:00:01]: "Long live the intifada! Long live the resistance! There is only one option, intifada revolution!"
On October 7, 2023, Hamas murdered approximately 1,200 Israelis, kidnapped 251 and wounded thousands. War crimes included various systematic sexual crimes like gang rape and genital mutilation. Men and women were violated, even after being murdered. Victims who survived that day, including hostages, endured forms of humiliation and torture.
Gazans working in the targeted Israeli villages provided intelligence to Hamas on which families to kill and torture, including long-time employers. Many Palestinian civilians joined in and celebrated the attacks. Hamas livestreamed their crimes on social media, including to victims’ accounts for families to see. To learn more, see the Canary Mission page on Hamas.
Anti-Israel activists use the term “resistance” to refer to violence and terror perpetrated against Israeli civilians and their allies. It is used to glorify and encourage anti-Israel and anti-Semitic violence. Anti-Israel activists chant slogans such as: “Resistance by any means necessary!” and “Resistance is justified when people are occupied!” in response to terror attacks.
In the same video, protesters also chanted [00:01:19]: "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!"
“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free!” is a chant used [00:02:47] to call for the elimination of the State of Israel. It has also been employed by Hamas leader Khaled Mashal to call for the replacement of Israel with an Islamic state. In April 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution condemning the chant as antisemitic.
On October 9, 2023, two days after Hamas terrorists attacked Israel, DSA posted on Instagram a statement that said [slide 1]: "DSA is steadfast in expressing our solidarity with Palestine. / Today’s events are a direct result of Israel’s apartheid regime—a regime that receives billions in funding from the United States. / End the violence. End the Occupation. Free Palestine."
“Free Palestine!” is a chant used to call for Israel's destruction, acting as a shorter version of "From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free!" It was shouted during multiple deadly attacks on pro-Israel activists in 2025 in America. It has been used to vandalize synagogues and other Jewish buildings, and has been described as a "battle cry for the death of Jews.”
The statement further read [slide 2], referring to Hamas' October 7, 2023 terror attack: "...This was not unprovoked. / For over 60 years, Palestinians have faced ethnic cleansing, torture, bombings, and housing demolitions. Gaza is still under a blockade."
Israel and Egypt implemented a UN-approved [pp. 39–41] joint blockade of the Gaza Strip in 2011 to stop Hamas from acquiring more sophisticated rockets. Hamas went around the blockade by smuggling weaponry through tunnels under the Philadelphi corridor separating Gaza from Egypt.
On July 2, 2016, Kawas was featured in a YouTube video leading an Al-Quds Day rally in New York City.
In the video, Kawas co-led the crowd in chanting [00:00:34]: "When Palestine is under attack, what do we do: stand up, fight back."
The International Quds Day rally was founded in 1979 by the Islamic Republic of Iran “to oppose Zionism and Israel and express support for the Palestinians.” The rally has historically been a platform for anti-Semitism. During the 2009 rally, former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed “the Holocaust was a ‘lie’” and a pretext to create a Jewish state that Iranians had “a religious duty to confront.”