Thousands of people demonstrated Wednesday in Chicago’s Federal Plaza and in front of the Israeli Consulate in support of Palestinians who are dying in the intensifying clash in the Middle East.
Wednesday’s gathering was the third protest in a week organized by Chicago Coalition for Justice in Palestine in support of the Palestinian cause. The demonstrations have drawn thousands to the Loop to condemn mounting fatalities in the war between Israel and Hamas, a terrorist group, and call for Palestinian sovereignty.
On Tuesday, the Gaza Health Ministry said more than 500 died at a Gaza City hospital in a strike that Israel blamed on Hamas misfiring a rocket while Hamas attributed the blast to the Israelis.
Before the blast, about 2,800 Palestinians had been reported killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza. An additional 1,200 people are believed to be buried under the rubble, alive or dead, health authorities said. An Oct. 7 attack by Hamas left about 1,400 Israelis dead and almost 200 taken hostage.
One million people have been displaced in about 10 days, according to the United Nations.
Tammy Abughnaim, 32, stood near Alexander Calder’s Flamingo sculpture in her work scrubs. Abughnaim, a doctor, attended the rally to condemn Tuesday’s deaths at the hospital. Her sign read “hospitals are not targets.”
“Life is sacred, and as a physician I spend all of my time trying to save lives,” she said. “There has to be a limit to what you’re able to condone.”
Abughnaim said she had been planning to travel to Gaza to assist with medical training through the nonprofit MedGlobal before violence broke out. “We had to scrap that trip,” she said. “So this is intensely personal to me right now.”
Another woman who asked to only be identified by her first name, Raya, attended the rally with her mother and a collection of signs. One of them read “stop murdering children.”
“You have dead children, orphaned children and parents without children anymore (in Gaza),” she said, her voice catching. “I’m here for the children.”
Raya, 30 and her mother Rena, 60, said they have family in Gaza. “Every time we call them they say so far, we are still alive,” Rena said.
Lynn Pollack, 71, and Lynne Kavin, 56, stood together with a sign that said “Jews say stop genocide of Palestinians.” Both organize with the activist organization Jewish Voice for Peace, which identifies itself as anti-Zionist and has called for a cease-fire in the Middle East.
Pollack and Kavin said they felt it was important to attend the rally because of the “huge role” American Jews have in the conflict.
“It’s American Jews who are enabling this to go on,” Pollack said. “We have to show the world that Israel doesn’t represent every Jew; the Israeli government doesn’t speak for us.”
The pair had attended the two previous protests by Chicago Coalition for Justice in Palestine, and they plan to continue attending “until it stops,” Pollack said.
Rally organizers and guest speakers took turns at the microphone to call for an end to U.S. military aid to the Israeli government and mourn the dead before the crowd set off toward the Israeli consulate.
The crowd spanned three blocks and marched north on Dearborn before turning onto Madison, eventually reaching the Israeli Consulate at 500 W. Madison St.
As the crowd screamed in front of the Accenture Tower, three men and four women paused at Madison and Canal streets to pray. Droves of Palestinian flags fluttered behind the prayer groups as diners in a nearby restaurant looked on.
As night fell and the protest continued in front of the consulate, other groups took turns praying on the sidewalk. Their chants mingled with the beating drums, clapping and demonstrators’ shouts of “from the river, to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
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