Protest planned at Israel Independence Day ceremony at Daley Plaza
A crowd gathers in Daley Plaza for Israel Independence Day.
David Struett/Sun-Times
Pro-Palestinian activists planned to protest near an Israel Independence Day flag-raising ceremony Tuesday in Daley Plaza.
Chicago's Jewish community was set to kick off the event at noon to celebrate Israel declaring its independence 76 years ago on May 14, 1948.
The event, hosted by the Consulate General of Israel to the Midwest and the Jewish United Fund, among other groups, also planned to honor the remaining hostages from the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas.
Pro-Palestinian protesters planned to convene on the plaza at the same time to protest Israel's ongoing war in Gaza. More than 35,000 people have been killed in Gaza by Israeli attacks, according to Gazan officials. Hamas attack on Israel left about 1,200 people dead and around 250 people taken hostage.
Israel's Independence Day comes as protests against the war have broken out on college campuses across the country, including in Chicago.
The last standing protest encampment in Chicago is at DePaul University, where school officials over the weekend said they reached an impasse in negotiations with students. Students have been asking the school to end its investments tied to Israel.
In the past weeks, police have cited safety issues when clearing encampments at the University of Chicago and the Art Institute of Chicago, where police arrested 68 people. Northwestern University students disbanded most of its encampment after reaching a deal with school authorities.
More Israel-Hamas War coverage
The flags, along with signs and banners, had been placed on Deering Meadow, where a pro-Palestine encampment stood for five days before organizers reached an agreement with university administration.
Protesters’ demands have focused on divestment — demanding universities cut ties with Israel and businesses supporting the war in Gaza.
The Israel-Hamas war is heightening fears of unrest, but convention leaders say they’re confident in their partnerships with Mayor Brandon Johnson, Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling and the U.S. Secret Service.
In a press conference at the school Thursday morning, students criticized university president Paul Alivisatos and shared their experiences when police began emptying the encampment early Tuesday.
Rafah has become the most recent focus of Israel’s military, which describes it as Hamas’ last holdout. Chicago-based Dr. John Kahler has seen conditions deteriorate as Gazan refugees fled south to the city.
En la madrugada del martes, agentes del campus rodearon el patio principal de la universidad y les impidieron la entrada a los estudiantes, según informaron desde el lugar de los hechos.
One protester said they were hit by an officer and taken to Thorek Memorial Hospital for treatment, according to a complaint filed with the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.
Reality on the ground is different from what policymakers understand in war rooms, far from the constant sound of bombs and drones, a Chicago-area doctor who has volunteered in Gaza writes. Thaer Ahmad, a Palestinian American, walked out of a meeting with President Joe Biden about a month ago and is calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.
After Oct. 7, chairs with the photos of hostages seized in Israel by Hamas were placed outside Am Shalom synagogue in Glencoe, waiting for the hostages’ release. “Our 248 chairs will stay up as long as they have to,” Am Shalom’s senior rabbi writes.
The group the People’s Art Institute accused law enforcement of yanking people’s hair, strangling them, and hitting people with batons and metal fences at the Saturday protest.
Around daybreak Tuesday, campus officers surrounded the university’s main quadrangle and kept students from entering, according to reports from the scene.
Según los informes, en el campus de Lincoln Park de DePaul los contra manifestantes intentaron enfrentarse a los manifestantes, pero los pro palestinos utilizaron tácticas de desescalada para mantener la paz. En todo el país se ha detenido a más de 2,500 manifestantes desde el 18 de abril.
The University of Chicago Faculty for Justice in Palestine on Monday reaffirmed support for the “peaceful, welcoming and educational space” students had created and called on school leadership to return to “good-faith” negotiations.
An official familiar with Israeli thinking says Israeli officials are examining the cease-fire proposal approved by Hamas. But the official warns that the plan “is not the framework Israel proposed.”
Counterprotesters at DePaul’s Lincoln Park campus reportedly tried to clash with pro-Palestinian protesters. Nationwide, more than 2,500 protesters have been arrested since April 18.
Police said the museum asked them to clear the encampment on Saturday, hours after organizers set up tents in the Art Institute’s North Garden which they said were intended to pressure the school regarding the “occupation of Palestine.”
On a mostly peaceful day, tensions briefly bubbled over when counter-protesters confronted the demonstrators at the university’s Edward Levi Hall. An altercation prompted campus police to respond.
Las protestas contra la guerra han invadido los campus universitarios en las últimas semanas. Los estudiantes apoyan a los palestinos en los ataques de Israel contra Gaza, denuncian lo que llaman censura por parte de sus universidades y piden a las instituciones que dejen de invertir en fabricantes de armas y empresas que apoyan a Israel.
Classes disrupted, fellow students threatened, clashes with police, and the yo-yo story has to wait.
Tensions were higher Tuesday when hundreds of New York police officers raided Columbia University and City College of New York while a group of counterprotesters attacked a student encampment at UCLA.
The backlash comes days after the university made an agreement with encampment organizers to take steps toward divesting from Israel.
“I remember coming out of my apartment one day and spotting Chicago cops dragging young protesters out of one section of Lincoln Park and shoving them into trucks, while nearby poet Allen Ginsberg was chanting in a circle of peaceful protesters not far away from the radical Abby Hoffman,” remembers Dan Webb, who later became a U.S. attorney.
El campus se une a las protestas en todo el país para pedir a las universidades que dejen de invertir en empresas que apoyan a Israel.
Anti-war protests have swept college campuses in recent weeks as students support Palestinians in Israel’s attacks on Gaza, decry what they call censorship from their universities and call on institutions to divest from weapons manufacturers and companies supporting Israel.
They are willing to risk the completion of degrees or acquiring police records as allies of suffering civilians in Gaza, a reader from Hyde Park says.
The campus joins protests across the country calling on universities to divest from companies supporting Israel.
The two-part, four-hour film on WTTW comes just in time for the 750th anniversary of a key event in Dante’s life.
Déjà vu is a heck of a thing. Whether it’s 1970 or 2024, war weighs heavily on campuses — and on athletes.
Hundreds of University of Chicago students set up an encampment in the Main Quadrangle on Monday, joining groups on over 100 university campuses nationwide in support of Palestinians.
“Bad actors are using the cover of free speech in this moment of tension to normalize dangerous ideas that cause real harm to Jewish students and communities,” the museum said. But a member of Chicago’s Jewish Voice for Peace said the protesters are saying what Jewish institutions are “afraid to say.”