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Rudy Martinez
Rudy Martinez was arrested during an anti-Israel encampment protest in 2024. Martinez also participated in multiple pro-Hamas and anti-Semitic disruptions and expressed support for terrorists in late 2023 and early 2024.
Martinez’s anti-Israel activism took place during Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists. Israel launched the war, called called “Swords of Iron,” after a series of Hamas terror attacks and war crimes against Israeli civilians, including mass murder, torture, rape, beheadings and kidnappings. The atrocities were executed on October 7, 2023, and left approximately 1,200 Israelis dead, hundreds kidnapped and thousands wounded.
As of February 2025, Martinez was a member [00:00:09] of the “CUNY 8.”
The CUNY 8 refers to a group of eight individuals arrested during an unlawful protest on April 30, 2024, for their involvement in the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at the City College of New York (CCNY). CCNY is part of the City University of New York (CUNY) system. Law enforcement officers also sustained injuries during the protest.
None of the CUNY 8 were CCNY students. They, along with other protestors, were charged with burglary in the third degree, criminal trespass, tampering with physical evidence and possession of burglar’s tools. In addition, the arrestees were charged with criminal mischief in the fourth degree for causing upward of $3 million in both damage to CCNY property and additional security measures the school was forced to put into place after the protest.
The other arrestees from the protest accepted plea bargains, while the CUNY 8 pleaded not guilty and decided to take their case to trial. The defendants face up to seven years in prison.
The CCNY encampment was one of about 140 anti-Israel college encampments set up in North America in the spring of 2024. The first began on April 17, 2024, at Columbia University. Protesters harassed Jewish students, blocked Jews from campus facilities and used anti-Semitic language in their activism.
For more information, check Canary Mission’s campaign "Outside Agitators Arrested at CCNY Encampment."
Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S., Canada, European Union, Israel and other countries. Founded in 1987, it has killed thousands of Israeli civilians through mass shootings and suicide bombings. Hamas has also kidnapped children, families and the elderly and held them hostage in Gaza. It has desecrated [slide 7] dead bodies and launched numerous rocket attacks against Israeli civilians.
On April 30, 2024, Martinez was arrested for participating in CUNY’s anti-Israel encampment, “following a clash between protesters and police.”
The New York Post (NYP) reported that Martinez was “charged with burglary in the third degree and other related charges.”
NYP published a photo in which Martinez appeared between the other defendants and anti-Israel agitators Jonathan Isla Rampagoa and Luis Alberto Cadena “together in Manhattan criminal court.”
In a video posted on Instagram on February 10, 2024, Martinez appeared [00:00:33] alongside other CUNY 8 members, giving an interview about Martinez’s participation in the CUNY encampment.
In the interview, Martinez said [00:00:32], expressing support for Hamas: “The Palestinian resistance wanted to put more pressure on the Zionist entity [Israel] and its American ally. Every public and private college in the U.S. has money in Israel.”
For more information on the anti-Israel movement’s war on America, check Canary Mission’s campaign “Bringing the War Home.”
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.
Later, when asked [00:01:02] if Martinez regretted being involved in the CUNY encampment, Martinez answered [00:01:10]: “I have zero regrets. I would do everything the same with the same people.”
On January 1, 2024, Martinez participated in an anti-Israel disruption titled: “Global Strike New Year’s Day…Flood JFK for Gaza,” at the John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in New York City. The disruption was organized by the pro-terror activist group Within Our Lifetime (WOL).
Dozens of vehicles filled with protesters waving [00:00:56] Palestinian and Hamas flags and honking car horns reportedly blocked traffic to JFK and impeded access to the airport’s entrance. Many vehicles had anti-Israel and anti-Semitic slogans written on them, including: “ISRAEL IS THE NEW NAZI GERMANY” and [00:01:44]: “INTIFADA.”
The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) highlights as one possible contemporary example of anti-Semitism: “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.” The U.S. State Department adopted the IHRA’s working definition of anti-Semitism in 2016. Over 40 countries have adopted the definition as well.
The term “intifada,” which translates from Arabic as “uprising” or “insurrection,” carries the connotation of violence. Palestinian intifadas waged against Israel have been marked since 1987 by hundreds of hijackings, shootings, stabbings, bombings and suicide missions.
Martinez was filmed [00:01:47] riding in one of the cars, which had text written on the back of it that read [00:01:51]: “F**K ISRAEL” and “LONG LIVE THE RESISTANCE.”
Martinez joined other anti-Israel protesters in shouting [00:02:14]: “NYPD, KKK, IDF [Israel Defense Forces]; you’re all the same!”
Later, Martinez hung out of the car window and waved [00:03:10] a red keffiyeh.
The keffiyeh is a Palestinian headdress traditionally worn by men, which has become a symbol of Palestinian nationalism.
As the rally unfolded, the protest organizers tweeted: “We are calling on everyone w/o a car to meet us at the offices of El-Al, the zionist entity’s largest airline, for a protest at 100 Wall Street in Manhattan. For the Car Caravan, head to LaGuardia Airport Terminal C to shut it down, and then head to Wall St. to join us after. 
.”
The police reportedly arrested at least 26 protesters. 60 flights were reportedly delayed at JFK that day due to the protesters who “impeded traffic into the airport for two hours.”
On January 8, 2024, Martinez participated in an anti-Israel disruption titled: “Shut it Down for Palestine,” where protesters across New York City blocked three bridges and one tunnel.
Martinez was one of about 40 protesters who shut down traffic on the Manhattan side of the Williamsburg bridge for over an hour. The bridge connects Manhattan and Brooklyn. Protesters reportedly chanted: “NYPD, KKK, IDF; they’re all the same!” They also demanded “an immediate end to US ‘aid’ to Israel and a lifting of the siege on Gaza.”
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.
When a man tried to drive his car over to the Williamsburg Bridge, Martinez had already joined other protesters in blocking the vehicle with their bodies. The driver shouted [00:00:12] at demonstrators: “You’re disrupting traffic, you idiots! You can’t do that! That’s against the law!”
The man then stepped out [00:00:22] of the car and shouted [00:00:26]: “Get away from my car, bro!” He pushed [00:00:27] Martinez and two other protesters away from his vehicle.
The man yelled [00:00:35] at protesters: “Get away from my car! Bro, get away from my car! I have a daughter in Brooklyn! Get the f**k out of the way!” He then managed to drive slowly past the protesters who had broken their human chain after he had pushed Martinez and others.
NYPD reportedly arrested a total of more than 330 protesters that day, including 28 at the Williamsburg Bridge location. The disruption was organized by multiple anti-Israel activist groups, including Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), as well as Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM).
On December 23, 2023, Martinez was filmed at an anti-Israel protest in New York City praising the Hamas terror attacks of October 7, 2023, as “one of the greatest days of my life.” Martinez also wore a pin with the logo of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror group and an earring of an assault rifle
The PFLP is dedicated to the violent destruction of Israel. It is designated as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) by the United States. The EU, Canada, the Gulf Cooperation Council, Australia and Israel also list it as a terror group due to its history of carrying out assassinations, suicide bombings, hijackings and multiple murders.
In the video, Martinez said [00:00:01]: “Zionism is anti-Semitic.”
Martinez also said [00:00:04]: “Hamas and long live the resistance! Yes. Long live the resistance!”
When asked what Martinez thought about the October 7, 2023, terror attacks, Martinez responded [00:00:09]: “One of the greatest days of my life.”
Martinez then said [00:00:12], referring to the pro-Israel woman recording Martinez on camera: “Yeah, someone stomp on your flag.”
Martinez later added [00:00:19] that October 7, 2023, was “one of the greatest days in the history of decolonization.”
On Saturday, October 7, 2023, approximately 2,900 heavily armed Hamas terrorists breached Israel’s border with Gaza. They executed numerous war crimes on civilians, including mass murder, beheadings of children, rape of men and women, torture, kidnappings and mutilation. Hamas broadcast videos of their butchery on social media, often to victims’s accounts for families to see. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.
As of November 10, 2023, approximately 1,200 Israelis, the vast majority of them civilians, were murdered during the attacks. Hamas kidnapped 242 Israelis, including at least 30 children. At least 3,500 people were wounded, many severely.
As of December 25, 2023, Hamas had fired over 10,600 missiles from Gaza at Israeli communities, with Hamas claiming 5,000 the day it launched the attack. While Hamas was the main group involved, members of other terror groups also joined in the atrocities.
Many Palestinian civilians, including women and children, also participated in the attack. In several instances, Gazans who worked in the targeted Israeli communities gave intelligence to Hamas on where to strike.
In a December 2023 poll, 57% of Gazans and 82% of Palestinians in the West Bank supported the terror attacks. 42% of Gazans were supportive of Hamas rule, up from 38% before the attacks, and 44% in the West Bank supported Hamas, up from 12%.
Hamas began by launching thousands of rockets at Israel and using motorized paragliders “to infiltrate Israeli territory and secure terrain.” Terrorist ground forces destroyed parts of the border fence with Gaza, murdering and kidnapping soldiers.
Terrorists then turned their attention to 22 communities around Gaza, where they went house to house to savagely murder, mutilate and kidnap anyone they found. They executed children in front of their parents and parents in front of their children.
Terrorists beheaded children and babies, and massacred entire families, burning some alive who hid in their homes. Hamas terrorists kicked around the heads of beheaded victims like soccer balls. Israelis as young as an infant of nine months and as old as 85 were kidnapped and taken forcibly to Gaza. Hamas has not allowed the Red Cross access to the hostages.
Over 360 unarmed young men and women were surrounded and slaughtered at one music festival alone. Bodies were publicly desecrated, with some dragged through the streets of Gaza, then beheaded.
Women were raped next to the bodies of dead friends. Some were raped and then shot in the head. Others, including young girls, were raped and murdered or mutilated in other ways. Israeli officials opened an unprecedented investigation into the widespread sexual assault. Forensic analysis of corpses showed evidence of torture and rape. Hamas terrorists said they were given explicit orders to carry out the atrocities, including chopping off legs and raping the corpses of murdered victims.
A terrorist detained by Israel admitted he raped an Israeli woman when he broke into a kibbutz house during the October 7, 2023 attack. In March 2024, a former hostage of Hamas publicly stated she was sexually abused and tortured while in captivity.
Hamas intentionally targeted youth centers and elementary schools to execute and kidnap children. They also took stimulant drugs to give added energy to murder and maim. Nazis also took drugs during World War II to fuel their anti-Semitic massacres.
The atrocities were acknowledged as the worst single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, including by U.S. President Joe Biden, who also compared Hamas to ISIS. Hamas attacked on the annual holiday of Simchat Torah, which that year was on Shabbat, the weekly Jewish Sabbath.
The Hamas atrocities against Israeli civilians are crimes against humanity according to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
The mass murder generated great sympathy for Israel from many countries but led to countless celebrations among Palestinians and anti-Israel organizations in America that back the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Hamas called the October 7, 2023 terror attacks “Al-Aqsa Flood,” a reference to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. The allegation that Jews “threaten” to destroy the mosque has been a pretext for Arab attacks on Jews long before Israel was founded in 1948. Such propaganda has led to multiple periods of violence against Israeli civilians.
On September 5, 2024, NYP reported that Martinez worked as a “staff member” at Guttman Community College (Guttman), which is part of CUNY and is located in New York, New York.
As of December 25, 2023, Martinez’s LinkedIn profile bio said Martinez was a “Freelance Essayist.” One day earlier, the profile photo had the hashtag “#OPENTOWORK.” Martinez’s About section on LinkedIn said Martinez was a “Graduate student with a background in political organizing, writing and editing, and customer service.” Martinez went by “Rosa Martinez” on LinkedIn.
As of December 24, 2023, Martinez was listed on the Culinary Agents website as a “Recent graduate looking to utilize their interpersonal skills to create a seamless and meaningful customer service experience.” Martinez was listed on the website as “Rudy Ralph Martinez.”
Also as of December 24, 2023, Martinez’s LinkedIn said Martinez graduated from the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York (CUNY Graduate Center) with a master’s degree in “Liberal Arts and Sciences/Liberal Studies” in 2022. CUNY is located in New York, New York.
As of the same date, Martinez was listed online as having a “concentration in Film Studies” at the CUNY Graduate Center.
As of the same date, Martinez’s LinkedIn said Martinez received an advanced certificate in terrorism studies in 2023 from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice (John Jay), which is part of CUNY. Martinez graduated from Texas State University (TXST) with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy in 2018.
As of the same date, Martinez’s LinkedIn said Martinez was the co-founder of Sybil Journal.
Within Our Lifetime (WOL) is a pro-terror activist group in New York City dedicated to Israel’s destruction within the lifetime of its members.
Acts of violence and physical confrontations with police have frequently occurred at WOL protests and marches. WOL uses harassment campaigns to target pro-Israel organizations or companies that do business with Israel, making it a part of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Multiple activists who have either burned Israeli flags or led chants at WOL rallies were later jailed for violent anti-Semitic hate crimes, including Saadah Masoud and Waseem Awawdeh. In Masoud’s case, he received 18 months in jail for an anti-Semitic assault at an April 2022 WOL rally and two other anti-Semitic assaults in 2021.
WOL promotes “resistance” against Israel “by any means necessary,” calls to “Globalize the Intifada,” spreads incitement and idolizes [00:34:06] Palestinian terrorists like Leila Khaled and others at rallies and online events.
WOL was founded by Nerdeen Kiswani and Dan Cione in 2015. Kiswani is a frequent speaker at WOL rallies where she has promoted terrorism against Israelis and called for the death of Zionists. She has also provided support for Masoud and other activists following their arrests.
WOL began as the New York City chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), going by NYC SJP, but changed its name in 2018. The group is not found to be registered in any U.S. state as a nonprofit organization under its official name. Nor is there any listing for WOL under its name on the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) website for tax-exempt organizations.
