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CHICAGO — The first major protest during the Democratic National Convention on Monday was primarily a peaceful one as more than 200 coalitions, according to organizers, gathered at Union Park, blocks away from the United Center where major events for the DNC are taking place this week. The goal, according to those in attendance, was to demonstrate for Palestine, and pressure Kamala Harris, who will accept the Democratic nomination for president on Thursday, to call for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war and a weapons embargo.
From student organizations around the country to a variety of rights groups, protesters joined forces on Monday, numbering into the thousands as the day passed, with a unified goal where what happens to one, happens to all: “No one is free until everyone is free” was one chant repeated as they rallied in Union Park in Chicago, where music festivals like Pitchfork have taken place annually. It felt like a similar gathering — like-minded people finding community but instead of music, there were shared goals, and it included music, too, with Jamila Woods performing. While there were a number of students participating, attendees spanned generations, young and old alike, families with strollers and some walking their dogs. People offered each other water. A first aid station was set up, people chilled in the shade, while different groups met up to take photos and share chants while a variety of speakers took the stage.
The day before, a smaller gathering protested in downtown Chicago. At a press briefing shortly before Monday’s rally and march that was attended by Mayor Brandon Johnson, Superintendent Larry Snelling said there was only one arrest on Sunday, a 23-year-old woman who was charged with defacement of property and resisting and obstructing a police officer. “It was separate from that march, so I’m not going to associate that one individual with the peaceful protest that was put together by that group.”
Eman Abdelhadi, an assistant professor of Comparative Human Development at University of Chicago who spoke during Sunday’s rally and is part of University of Chicago’s Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP) tells Rolling Stone of the importance of the solidarity between the diverse groups. “This is not just like, oh, the pro-Palestine crowd. The left is united around this, and, you know, we are in deep coalition with other Black and brown organizations, pro immigrant groups, anti-incarceration groups,” who were present on Monday, and she notes labor unions who participated on Sunday. “So I think that this is not just a demand made by Palestinians, or even just Palestinians and anti-Zionist Jews.” She added:“People really see how interconnected Palestine is to all of these other movements, and a general anti-militarism and general anti-war sentiment, you know, because it is that, it is that I think there’s a broader dissatisfaction with the fact that we’re not getting our needs met here, and yet we have so much money to spend on the military and other people’s military.”
Abdelhadi, along with University of Chicago students Christopher Iacovitti and Hassan D., was involved in the encampment at the University of Chicago in May. The students, two of the longest members of the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter at the university, encamped to demand that the university “divest from Israel and the Gaza genocide in particular, that it disclose its finances and budget and endowment transparently to the student body, and that it repair harms to which it has already contributed for decades in Palestine and [Chicago’s] South Side and beyond,” Iacovitti explains. He says it was successful in that there have been several pro-Palestine organizations established since, as well as a Jewish anti-Zionist student organization, and more than 200 faculty formed Faculty for Justice in Palestine. Also, a pre-condition of the organization meeting with university officials was met: establishing a Gaza scholars at risk initiative to provide funding to eight scholars and their families affected by the genocide.
Neither Iacovitti nor Hassan plan to vote for the Harris-Walz ticket and are unconvinced there has been a shift in priorities with Harris now the potential candidate. “We already are emphasizing that it’s the Biden-Harris administration that is presiding over the genocide. So, we’re saying we’re going to give Harris a promotion,” Hassan says, “and somehow, by her getting that promotion, she’s going to go from actively having supported genocide throughout the past 11 months, actively having supported Israeli colonialism for her whole political career, to what, based on what evidence, based on a shift in her tone?”
Another student, Mia Kurzer from University of Wisconsin Madison, was involved at the encampment at her school. Originally from Chicago, she says she grew up going to Hebrew school and tells Rolling Stone she was raised very “Zionist is the way to go,” but after Oct. 7, she did a lot of research and became a progressive Jewish activist. For her, there are nuances to the movement she’d like to be better communicated. “Coming from my Jewish background, I think that the main thing that I notice when I’m talking to like Zionists is that antisemitism and anti-Zionism are not the same thing. That’s like something that is kind of ingrained — like anti-Judaism equals anti-Zionism. And that is just not true, and I think that’s something the media doesn’t focus on enough.”
Arielle Rebekah, a spokesperson for Jewish Voice for Peace, says she became involved in the Palestinian liberation movement after she came out as a trans woman and the boarding school she attended outed her to her family, denied her attempts to transition, and misgendered her. Her experiences led her to becoming involved in LGBTQ advocacy, and linking up with Jewish trans people organizing for Palestinian liberation. While protesters are skeptical of Harris meeting their demands, she says they will continue to demonstrate because history has proven that they can and will succeed.
“We know that our movements are a marathon. We know that sustained pressure on the American government, sustained movements of anti-war protesters, is one of the major contributors to the end of the Vietnam War. We know that sustained support for sanctions on the South African apartheid regime was one of the major contributors to the end of South African apartheid, and so we know that today and this movement is one of many steps that we can and must take in order to pressure our political leaders,” she says. “And that if we continue to build people power like we are doing today by bringing together this broad coalition of organizations, 241 member organizations of this coalition, the change that we want to create, the world that we want to build, is not only possible, but inevitable.”
Things remained peaceful for several hours on Monday, from the three-plus hours rally in Union Park to when the thousands wound their way down an approved route, which ended in Park #578 blocks away from the United Center, its perimeters cordoned off by several barriers and a parking lot. At the second park, protesters could see the UC as a backdrop. Police on bikes blocked the route going from Union Park through to Park #578 without incident, until a small group broke down one of the perimeter gates (at least four were arrested). Hours after the majority of the protesters disassembled on Monday, around 7:30 p.m., a few protesters were asked to leave Union Park, with police and press looking to have outnumbered those who remained.
