Controversial CUNY Law grad now at helm of radical group gets cuffed at NYC anti-Israel protest — and defiantly grins when freed

A controversial CUNY Law School grad now leading a radical anti-Israel group notorious for wreaking havoc got cuffed by cops during Monday’s hate-filled Manhattan march — then defiantly grinned for the cameras when freed.

Professional rabble-rouser Nerdeen Kiswani, who leads the condemned Within Our Lifetime group, was among dozens of protesters detained when a fired-up mob, including some brandishing terrorist Hezbollah banners, stormed through Manhattan and over into Brooklyn.

Some of the “woke” ralliers screamed, “Death to America!” and burned US flags.

Kiswani and at least 47 others were rounded up by the NYPD as Monday’s chaos spread across the two boroughs, bringing traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge to a standstill, and then later cut loose.

Most if not all of the group were slapped with a criminal court summons for such charges as assault and resisting arrest.

Kiswani — who infamously called for the abolishment of the “illegitimate” state of Israel during her City University of New York Law School commencement speech in 2022 — was surrounded by throngs of cheering supporters beating drums and waving flares as she was freed, footage on social media shows.

“Free Palestine!” she could be heard bellowing as the chanting anti-Israel protestors engulfed her. “Palestine will be free! We will free Palestine! Within our lifetime!”

WOL, which regularly leads such protests in New York City, also boasted of her release, writing on X, “NYPD targeted, brutalized, and arrested 50+ protesters today including WOL Chair @NerdeenKiswani who was released with a smile on her face. Folks were released to a flood of energy, rejoining our community chanting and protesting against the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”

Kiswani, who did not respond to The Post’s request for comment about her involvement in the unrest, was spotted Tuesday strolling calmly through Midtown Manhattan.

The professional protester, who grew up in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn as the daughter of Palestinian refugees, rose to prominence as an apparent agitator during her student days at CUNY Law, when she was a key member of Students for Justice in Palestine.

In 2022, the then-student government speaker and accused “flagrant antisemite” claimed in her speech that she was “facing a campaign of Zionist harassment by well-funded organizations with ties to the Israeli government and military on the basis of my Palestinian identity and organizing.”

Since then, she’s earned a reputation for rallying hundreds of anti-Israel activists citywide — especially in the wake of the Palestinian terror group Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel that murdered more than 1,200 people.

City Council member Inna Vernikov previously claimed to The Post that Kiswani was “a very dangerous person,” given her efforts to paralyze the Big Apple with the anti-Israel protests.

“These rallies taking place in New York, causing things to shut down, she is behind them. She said she is proud of Hamas and she loves them,” Vernikov said in a January interview.

The Anti Defamation League has taken aim at Kiswani in the past as well, accusing her of spreading “antisemitic tropes” and expressing “extreme anti-Zionist rhetoric.”

While many of the Gotham-based protests — including Monday’s unrest — have been organized by Kiswani’s Within Our Lifetime, both pro- and anti-Israel activists estimate there are about 20 to 25 core groups that are key in staging such chaos nationwide.

They include If Not Now, Within Our Lifetime, the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, the Palestinian Youth Movement,  Jewish Voice for Peace, Students for Justice in Palestine and American Muslims for Palestine and the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

Though some pro-Israel activists believe the American protesters are being funded by bad actors overseas, a recent NBC News analysis of the anti-Israel protests and their backers found no evidence financially linking Hamas or any other foreign governments to the US demonstrations.

Instead, the protests appear to be grassroots in nature — with help from a labyrinthine network of big-money leftist philanthropists in the US, including extremist billionaire George Soros’ Open Society.

The lefty billionaire has funneled more than $15 million since 2016 to groups behind recent anti-Israel protests, including one where demonstrators openly cheered Hamas militants’ craven terrorist attacks on Israel, a Post examination of his Open Society Foundation‘s records show.

His grant-making network gave $13.7 million of the money through Tides Center, a deep-pocketed lefty advocacy group that sponsors several nonprofits who’ve justified Hamas’ bloody attacks while claiming Palestinians obsessed with the eradication of the Jewish state are the real victims.

Tides’ beneficiaries include Illinois-based Adalah Justice Project, which on the day of the Oct. 7 massacre posted a photo on Instagram of a bulldozer tearing part of Israel’s border fence down and a caption: “Israeli colonizers believed they could indefinitely trap two million people in an open-air prison… no cage goes unchallenged.”

Jewish Voice for Peace and If Not Now received $650,000 and $400,000, respectively, from Soros’ camp.

“It’s a continuation of tactics used by the anti-Israel movement going back years,” Justin Finkelstein, associate director of the ADL’s Center of Extremism, told The Post.

“It’s gone from just protests in the public square to places they think are complicit with Israel’s alleged actions in Gaza like blocking roads to weapons factories. They block airports just to make a point but they’ve also protested at Starbucks which they think is complicit in the war with Gaza.”

The rhetoric and symbolism used by some of the protesters, including waving the Hezbollah or Iranian flags and wearing headbands with the Hamas logo — such as what was seen during Monday’s unrest — is what concerns the ADL the most, Finkelstein said.

“Some of these are organizations that advocate for the end of Israel’s existence and support terrorism against Israel,” he said.