NEW YORK — Anti-Zionist protesters in New York City chanted in support of Hamas at a rally near a synagogue and Jewish school on Thursday.

The demonstration was the first significant protest under New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration, and had raised safety concerns in the neighborhood, but police kept the protesters apart from neighborhood residents and away from the synagogue entrance.

The protest, organized by the Pal-Awda activist group, targeted an event marketing real estate in Israel that was held at the Young Israel synagogue in the Kew Gardens Hills neighborhood in Queens.

The protesters chanted, “Say it loud, say it clear, we support Hamas here,” “Shut the fuck up Zionists, Israel does not exist,” “Zionism will fall,” “Death to the IDF,” “Intifada people’s war,” and “Settlers go back home.”

The protesters were confined to a police “pen,” inside a metal barricade, about half a block away from the synagogue entrance. A group of Jewish counter-protesters from the neighborhood was in a separate pen across the street. There were around 200 anti-Zionist demonstrators and slightly fewer Jewish counter-protesters.

The Jewish crowd waved Israeli and American flags and chanted “USA” and “Fuck Mamdani.”

Protesters in Queens chant, “Say it loud, say it clear, we support Hamas here” https://t.co/tGxtEYTEwv pic.twitter.com/RKxD3uY4Ia

— Luke Tress (@luketress) January 9, 2026

“Get your Nazi flags out of my neighborhood,” one woman shouted, referring to the Palestinian flag.

One man carried a flag for the extremist Jewish Defense League.

The Kew Gardens Hills neighborhood is home to a large Orthodox and Bukharan Jewish population.

There was a heavy police presence at the scene and in the surrounding area, which was closed to traffic.

A yeshiva and a public school are located at the intersection where the protest took place, but the schools were closed. The protest began around 6:30 p.m.

The chants for Hamas marked an escalation. While individuals at protests........

© The Times of Israel