Map Showing U.S. Targets Sparks Fears of Attacks

The head of a global advocacy organization for Jewish people is warning of a multifaceted antisemitic attack purportedly planned to take in place in New York City. The warning comes amid a rise in antisemitism directly following the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

After Hamas led the deadliest Palestinian militant attack on Israel in history, Israel launched its heaviest-ever airstrikes on Gaza. According to Israeli officials, 1,200 people in Israel were killed in Hamas' attack, the Associated Press reported, while more than 11,200 Palestinians have been killed of as Thursday, according to officials from the health ministry in Gaza, AP reported. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his country is at war and has cut off supplies of food, fuel, electricity and medicine into Gaza.

Calls for a cease-fire have escalated in cities across the region, the U.S. and around the world, as well as from more progressive members of Congress who have introduced resolutions imploring the Biden administration to be more vocal about the intensifying war.

The administration requested humanitarian pauses as part of the conflict, which have been heeded by Israel, while more recent events involving raids of Gaza's largest medical center, the Shifa Hospital, have sparked continued calls for peace because of the number of civilians in and around the site.

Protests have taken place throughout the world in support of Israel or Palestinians, and social media has been flooded with users taking sides.

Since the Hamas attack, there has been a nearly "400 percent increase in preliminary antisemitic incidents reported year over year," according to the ADL, which noted in an October 24 release that there have been at least 109 "anti-Israel rallies" since October 7 of which ADL found "explicit or strong implicit support for Hamas" and or violence against Jewish people in Israel.

On Thursday, Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), posted a map on X, formerly Twitter, titled "Globalize the Intifada: Zone of Operations," that highlights a vast list of Jewish-based institutions across Manhattan. Included are the Rupert Murdoch-owned News Corp., the New York Times, Grand Central, Port Authority, Barclays Center, NBC News, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and Blackrock.

"A reminder: globalizing the intifada is a call to destroy Israel and attack Jews around the world," Deutch wrote. "This is not promoting peace. This is an incitement to violence against Jews and it must be taken seriously."

Alex Bores, an Assembly member for the 73rd District of New York, also took to X on Thursday to note the potential call for violence, saying, "An @instagram account posted a map of locations, many of which are in my district, with the headline "Globalize the Intifada: Zone of Operations." I'm in contact with the surrounding precincts. I've also reported the post. This is antisemitic. It is incitement to violence."

"We are aware of the post," an NYPD spokesperson told Newsweek on Thursday afternoon. "We have been policing the protests effectively and will continue to do the same."

"While we have no comment on the specifics of [the supposed threat], in this heightened threat environment we urge the public to remain vigilant and to promptly report suspicious activities that could represent a threat to public safety," an FBI spokesperson told Newsweek. "The FBI takes all potential threats seriously."

Newsweek reached out to Bores via email for additional comment.

The map Deutch referenced was posted within the same time frame that pro-Palestinian protesters shut down the Bay Bridge on Thursday morning to demand a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. Signs at the bridge connecting San Francisco and Oakland read: "Stop the Genocide" and "No Military Aid to Israel" while protesters chanted "cease-fire now."

The map is believed to have been posted by the pro-Palestinian community organization Within Our Lifetime, which posted a duplicate map on its Instagram page. Newsweek could not independently verify whether the group was the first to post the map.

The map says that each highlighted location "is tied to the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the settler-colonization of Palestine."

"They reflect a network of dispossession, policing, prisons, surveillance, counterinsurgency, war, destruction, imperialism and militarization across the globe, with the mass media complex which manufactures consent for genocide acting as tools of the oppressor," the post reads.

Within Our Lifetime says the map is available "to serve as a call for every struggle to act in their own interest."

Newsweek reached out to the AJC via email for comment.

The group has posted similar maps, with one referencing "tax-exempt Zionist 'charities' funding settler organizations in Palestine."

Other social media posts include one which says that such highlighted locations reflect "an office of an enemy of both the Palestinian people and colonized people all over the world." It also described sites as places "for popular mobilization in defense of our people."

Newsweek reached out to Within Our Lifetime via email for comment.

Update 11/17/23, 8:10 a.m. ET: This story was updated with a comment from the FBI.