Terror group paraphernalia sold at fundraiser in New York youth center
Pop-up shop held to support Sudan features items in support of Hamas, Hezbollah and the PFLP
Luke Tress is The Times of Israel's New York correspondent.
NEW YORK — Vendors sold paraphernalia for US-designated terrorist groups during a fundraiser held at a New York City youth center on Sunday, according to videos posted online.
The footage showed tables at the event arrayed with keychains, pins and stickers in support of Hamas, Hezbollah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
The US State Department has designated all three groups as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
The fundraiser took place at the Muslim American Society Youth Center in Brooklyn, according to the social media posts. Organizers billed the event, called Thrift4Sudan, as an exhibit and pop-up store, and said the proceeds would “go to Sudan.”
At the event, vendors sold items with the images of the late terrorist leaders Yahya Sinwar of Hamas, and Hassan Nasrallah of Hezbollah, the logos of the PFLP and Hamas, and a masked figure resembling the late Hamas spokesperson Abu Obeida.
Other items said “Death to the IDF” and “Let’s go bomb Tel Aviv,” showed PFLP plane hijacker Leila Khaled, or had inverted red triangles, a Hamas symbol.
Next to the display was a sign showing a masked figure alongside the quote, “Whomever wants to snatch our weapons, we will snatch their soul, God willing,” a rough translation of a statement by the late spokesperson for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group, Abu Hamza.
The videos showing the display were Instagram “stories” that disappear after 24 hours.
A video showing the items was posted by Pal-Awda, a hardline anti-Zionist activist group that caused an uproar by chanting for Hamas outside a Queens synagogue earlier this month. The youth center posted a video showing the display from another angle.
The event organizers advertised that six vendors had participated. One of the vendors sells the pins for terrorist groups and items that call for violence against Israel, and says that the proceeds are donated to families in Gaza.
The activists have previously sold the pro-terror items in city parks.
The center and its parent organization, the Muslim American Society, a nonprofit, did not respond to requests for comment.
Last week, a speaker at the youth center said his “life mission” was to fight against the US government and the US army “to the last breath.”
The Times of Israel Community.