The Free Press
On Sunday evening, multiple collegiate chapters for Students for Justice in Palestine held a vigil service for Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah—who was killed in an Israeli air strike on September 27—in New York City’s Washington Square Park. The poster encouraged attendees to bring flags, flowers, and candles, and of course mask-wearing was “highly suggested.” The strangest thing about this vigil was not its lack of ceremony or prayer, but that very few of the 100 or so in attendance knew who Nasrallah was.
Nasrallah was a founding member of Hezbollah, the Shia Islamist terrorist militia formed in 1982 with the aim of eradicating Israel. The following year, the group carried out a devastating bombing attack on the Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 220 Marines and 21 other service personnel. In 2012, Hezbollah targeted a bus carrying young Israeli tourists in Burgas, Bulgaria, resulting in five deaths and 32 injuries. In the days following Hamas’s October 7 attacks, Nasrallah authorized the terrorist group to launch rockets into Northern Israel, forcing nearly 70,000 people to flee their homes.
Under the Washington Square Arch, organizers set up a table with a Hezbollah flag, photos and paintings of Nasrallah, and dozens of small electric candles. But that was where the “vigil” ended. Within minutes, it quickly became a loud protest—people blew air horns and shouted “Free Palestine!”
Beyond the small table with Nasrallah memorabilia, there were college students, families with young children, a few dozen police officers, and one keffiyeh-clad man playing the drums. “From Palestine to Mexico, all these walls have got to go,” protesters chanted to the drumbeat.
One protester who did not share his name told us he knew who Nasrallah was and said he was “a hero,” and made sure to clarify that he was “not a Hezbollah member” himself.
Most of the people The Free Press spoke with said they supported Hamas and Hezbollah, even if they didn’t know who Nasrallah was. Haniya, a college-aged woman with a cheetah-print headscarf, said she showed up to “stand in solidarity with Hezbollah, Hamas, and the entire Resistance Axis in the Middle East.” When asked about the murders of the Bibas children, she said, “I don’t think any person from Palestine would celebrate a dead baby. That’s the difference between people with humanity and people without.”
Another vigil attendee, Julia, a Jewish woman in her late 40s, wore a keffiyeh and a pin with Zionist crossed out attached to her leather crossbody bag. Julia said she had seen the videos showing Gazan civilians cheering around the coffins of the Bibas children, whose corpses were released on February 20 as part of the recent hostage deal.
But she didn’t believe Hamas was responsible for their deaths. “I one hundred percent believe the Hamas version, that they died under Israeli bombing,” she said. “They were killed by Netanyahu.” She added that she found the parade of coffins to be “very dignified.” When we asked what she thought about a culture that cheers for children in caskets, Julia reasoned that “Palestinians care about the dead. Maybe they’re cheering that the family is going back.”
Across police barricades pro-Israel protesters launched a counterdemonstration, where some screamed, “Nasrallah is fertilizer!”
One woman wearing a MAGA hat and Jewish-star scarf, Evette Stark, told us she has been living in Greenwich Village for more than 30 years. She has seen many protests come through the neighborhood’s Washington Square Park, including gay pride and civil rights marches—which she says she proudly took part in. But Stark has become enraged with “woke bullshit” and demonstrators’ open embrace of terrorist organizations since October 7.
“Anybody who’s supporting an organization like that needs to have their head examined,” Stark said.
Back on the other side of the barricades, a protester named Chucky wore a Palestinian flag around his neck like a cape, and a utility vest with a body camera. He was there to “keep the Zionists away,” he said, and was worried that a fight might break out. When asked about Nasrallah and Hezbollah, Chucky said, “I’m not going to speak on Nasrallah’s history. You can do your own research.”
Moments later, he admitted: “I don’t know much about Hezbollah.”
