In Annie Karni’s Feb. 17, 2026 article, “House Republican Faces Backlash to Islamophobic Post” readers are immediately told that Rep. Randy Fine is a racist. But in the article’s subheading, readers are told that virulent racist and leader of a pro-terror organization, Nerdeen Kiswani, is just a “Palestinian organizer.” What should be made of The New York Times’ double standard in its presentation of the two main characters in the story?
Karni describes Kiswani in the article simply as “a Palestinian Muslim New Yorker and organizer” – a gross understatement. In reality, Kiswani is a person who tweeted “Long live October 7th!” a day after the first anniversary of the Hamas massacre. She is the founder of Within Our Lifetime (WOL), a pro-terror, explicitly anti-Zionist group whose goal is to destroy Israel “within [its] lifetime.”
Zionists are people who agree that Jews have a right to self-determination while living in their ancestral homeland. Anti-Zionists are people (or in WOL’s case, organizations) opposed to this very basic concept; they also typically refute or ignore any historical connection the Jews have to the land.
Taking self-determination away from Jews is tantamount to a death wish for the more than seven million Jews (half the world’s Jewish population) that live in Israel, given that Jews have been killed or were forced to flee from almost every place they’ve lived since being exiled from ancient Israel.
WOL explicitly rejects any “two-state solution” and its chants include things like, “We don’t want two states, we want all of it,” meaning they are not interested in a Palestinian state next to Israel; they want a Palestinian Arab state instead of Israel. In furtherance of this goal, WOL’s views include a refusal to speak to Zionists; an explicit belief that a Palestinian state requires the destruction of the State of Israel (because they want a replacement state); and defending the right of Palestinians to resist “by any means necessary,” including terrorism.
Unlike some naïve college protestors, when Kiswani shouts, “From the River to the Sea,” she knows which river (Jordan) and which sea (Mediterranean) – they are the borders of the State of Israel. When she leads the crowd in shouting “We will free Palestine, within our lifetime,” or “Free Palestine” (for short), it has a similar meaning, in that she and her compatriots wish to rid – or “free” – Israel (which WOL calls Palestine) of its Jews.
This, in fact, is a genocidal wish.
After the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre in Israel, Kiswani organized an “Emergency Rally for Gaza” just two days later to glorify the perpetrators of the atrocities. On social media she stated: “All out Monday … as we take to the streets to defend the heroic Palestinian resistance rewriting history before our eyes, uplift our people in Gaza and honor the martyrs of Palestine.” The instantaneous nature of the protests, while Israel was still counting its dead and figuring out who was kidnapped, have resulted in lawsuits.
As a result of her conduct and in conjunction with statements Hamas captors made to former hostages, Kiswani was named as the first defendant in Haggai v. Kiswani. The federal lawsuit, filed by former Israeli hostages and/or surviving relatives of those killed by Hamas, alleges Kiswani and her co-defendants to be “Hamas’ propaganda arm in New York City and on the Columbia University campus.”
Aside from being an obvious Hamas supporter, Kiswani is a rape denier, told followers to “never stop saying ‘Globalize the Intifada,’” and has led countless WOL protests and “days of rage,” including at Columbia University as well as outside of a cancer hospital – accusing it of supporting genocide because it accepted a large donation from a “billionaire Zionist.” Kiswani has also said she does not want Zionists (the vast majority of Jews) in Palestine, NYC, schools, trains or anywhere.
The row Karni wrote about originated from a tweet by Kiswani, followed by United States Representative Randy Fine’s response. Karni did not link to Kiswani’s tweet and described it as Kiswani stating dogs should not have a place in society and are unclean.
Karni omitted mention of the first sentence of the tweet, where Kiswani wrote, “Finally, NYC is coming to Islam.” Given Kiswani’s radical ideology vis-à-vis support for Islamist terror organizations, her reference to New York City coming to Islam is certainly relevant and a seemingly purposeful omission by Karni.
Finally, NYC is coming to Islam. Dogs definitely have a place in society, just not as indoor pets. Like we’ve said all along, they are unclean.
— Nerdeen Kiswani (@NerdeenKiswani) February 12, 2026
Fine replied that if forced to choose between Muslims and dogs, the choice would not be difficult.
If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one.
— Congressman Randy Fine (@RepFine) February 15, 2026
In an email to The Times, Kiswani said her post was misinterpreted and she intended it to be “mild” and “satirical.” She said she viewed Rep. Fine’s response as normalized anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim bigotry. In giving readers context about Rep. Fine, Karni fairly and appropriately shared some of Rep. Fine’s prior bombastic, sharp language about Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar (referring to them as “terrorists”). Why then, was the treatment different for Kiswani?
The sanitization of Kiswani is part of a pattern by The Times which results in readers not understanding who Kiswani is and for what she stands. In a Jan. 21, 2026, piece by Katherine Rosman, Kiswani was described as a “prominent activist” and leader of WOL, “a pro-Palestinian group.” Rosman interviewed Kiswani about Mayor Mamdani’s appointment of NYPD Commissioner Tisch (who is Jewish) while neglecting to mention or ask Kiswani about having referred to Tisch a month prior as a “Zionist billionaire heiress.” The repeated description by The Times of WOL as merely supportive of Palestinian rights, when in fact it is an overt hate group supporting intifada and Hamas, is appalling.
It is inarguable that The Times knows better, but only by virtue of a singular Times journalist, Sharon Otterman, who on Oct. 5, 2024, published an article on Kiswani and WOL entitled “Pro-Palestinian Group Is Relentless in Its Criticism of Israel, and It Isn’t Backing Down.” Despite the misleading headline, the subheading identifies the group’s “activists . . . are calling for the end of Israel.” The article is noteworthy because it does Kiswani – and readers – the honor of actually stating what it is that she believes and wants: “complete and total liberation” through “the replacement of the state of Israel with a state called Palestine, covering all the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.” In a second article by Otterman, written days after the first, she described WOL accurately as a “more extreme protest group . . . that support[s] violent attacks against Israel.” Aside from Otterman’s two articles, the descriptions of Kiswani and WOL by all other journalists at The Times has been abysmally inadequate.
One could describe Rep. Fine’s tweet as obscene or atrocious. But because The Times knows exactly who Kiswani is, the same word should apply to Karni’s wholly misleading description of this hate group leader as merely “a Palestinian Muslim New Yorker and organizer.”