Mar 9

Mar 9 Home-Court Advantage

Demonstrations, Public Declarations, Protest

I intended to skip today’s pro-Palestinian demonstration, but then I received an email from a friend. The Chicago Coalition for Justice in Palestine selected Bridgeview, a suburban community about an hour’s drive from the Loop, as the location. Take I55 west to Harlem Avenue, and then head south 14 miles.

The Neighborhood. Bridgeview is the locus of the largest Palestinian community in the country, which explains its “Little Palestine” honorific. One might assume that Palestinian immigration to Chicago began in the wake of Israeli Independence in 1948 (or the Nakba, as referred to by the Palestinians), but that is an erroneous assumption. The first wave of Palestinians arrived in the late 1890s, attracted by small business and agrarian opportunities.

I had never been to Bridgeview, but I wanted to see the Palestinian community’s shops, mosques, and homes—the neighborhood. I will need to go back this summer to explore because today’s rally and march unfolded along a busy suburban thoroughfare lined with strip malls, vacant lots, and highway entrances and exits.

The rally was confined to the intersection of Harlem Avenue and 103rd Street. The northwest corner of the intersection hosts parking lots servicing Pete’s Fresh Market and a Wal-Mart; a Shell station occupies the southwest corner; a large pile of dirt rises from an otherwise empty expanse on the southeast corner; and on the northeast corner, sits a Starbucks store, which except for the drive-thru, was closed today, presumably because of the rally.

Pete’s. Before the rally, I stopped into Pete’s Fresh Market, which is best described as Whole Foods catering to Middle Eastern tastes. The food is displayed beautifully. The butcher counter has a sign above the brightly lit cases indicating that the meat is Halal—one of the great ironies being that despite their antipathy toward each other over Gaza and the West Bank, both Jews and Muslims have strict dietary laws bearing similarities. The bakery and surrounding cases offer a variety of delectables, including shelves of sesame-flavored deserts. Many display cases and shelves hold cans and boxes bearing Arabic lettering.

I wondered whether Pete’s might be Palestinian owned, particularly given the green and red colors used for the store’s signage and on the large Pete’s semi-trucks pulling headed to the loading docks. Turns out, Pete’s was founded by Jimmy Dremona, a Greek immigrant, and is now run by members of his family.

By all outward appearances, Pete’s is adept at catering to the neighborhood’s culinary traditions. As I waited to move forward at a pedestrian crosswalk leading to the parking lot, family after family passed by, with haji-clad women pushing shopping carts, children in tow.

Notably, during the afternoon march, one leader called for a boycott of Pete’s because the store sells products imported from Israel. I asked a young female demonstrator about the boycott as we returned to the march’s starting point. She was unaware of it, saying that she would not be participating, with many others in apparent agreement after seeing the many Palestinian shopping and working at the checkout counters.

The Rally. Before the march began, I ran into a photographer who I have gotten to know from the many downtown demonstrations that I have covered. He expressed surprise throughout the afternoon about the relatively small size of the crowd. We both are aware that the crowd grows over the course of the demonstration, but today there were no more than 1,000 demonstrators, and probably closer to 500. Given that the demonstration was taking place in the “neighborhood” rather than the Loop. we both thought the turnout would be much larger. Maybe people were busy getting ready for the month-long commemoration of Ramadan—a month that is regarded as one of the Five Pillars of Islam, marked by fasting (sawm), prayer (salah), reflection, and community to honor Muhammad’s first revelation.

For the most part, the rally followed the tried-and-true formula—a series of chants as people streamed into the area behind the banners, followed by speeches. I once again was deeply affected when one of the speakers described her loss of family members in Palestine.

The suburban police departments took a hands-off approach, directing traffic on Harlem Avenue while the organizers urged the demonstrators to keep out of the intersection. The police clearly had experience from prior demonstrations.

There was one notable, but not surprising difference between today’s demonstrations and prior ones in the Loop. The Revolutionary Communists (the”RevComs”), the Socialists, and non-Palestinian college students were largely absent, or at least their banners were. I did encounter one guy distributing what appeared to be a Socialist newspaper, and there may have been other non-Palestinians in the mix, but not visibly so. Today’s event was largely a community event, with families out in mass.

The March. The marchers moved north along Harlem Avenue, with the now familiar maroon Dodge RAM truck carrying the chant leaders, with the marchers chanting along or participating in a ‘call-response’ pattern. Occasionally, the leaders utter something interesting as the demonstrators march. Today, it came when one of the chanters called out President Biden, arguing that Biden can’t both be the arsonist (supplying the bombs) and the firefighter (ordering the U.S. Navy to build a temporary port off Gaza’s coastline to facilitate the movement of food and other aid to those trapped in Gaza)—’arsonist’ may not be the word the chanter used, but ‘arsonist’ captures his sentiment. Notably, Representative Ro Khanna expressed a similar sentiment yesterday in response to Biden’s State of the Union address, arguing,

You can’t have a policy of giving aid and giving Israel the weapons to bomb the food trucks at the same time There is inherent contradiction in that. And I think the administration needs to match the genuine empathy and moral concern that came out last night for Palestinian civilian lives with real accountability for Netanyahu and the extreme right-wing government there.

Peter Baker, Providing Both Bombs and Food, Biden Puts Himself In the Middle of Gaza’s War, New York Times (March 8, 2024).

The Disturbance. As the marchers approached the overpass over 95th Street, orange municipal dump trucks and police cars were positioned to block access to the southbound ramp. Earlier, my photographer friend and I had discussed whether the marchers might shut down I55, agreeing the distance to i55 made that unlikely.

But as experience teaches, major arterial streets and highways are often irresistible attractions for Palestinian demonstrators. Consequently, when the order to jump the steel barriers was given from the back of the Dodge RAM, women in long dresses, children, men, and even parents pushing baby carriages, did as they were told. For about 20 minutes, the group clogged 95th Street before the organizers directed them to vacate the road, returning to Harlem by walking up one of the exit ramps. I saw no arrests—thankfully because I followed them down the hill onto the road. Let me note for the record, the garbage that accumulates on the side of a highway is disgusting.

When everyone returned to Harlem Avenue, another chanter took the mic, proudly telling the marchers that the organizers do not collaborate with the police when it comes to rallies and marches, meaning that the takeover had not received the police department’s ‘Good Demonstrating Seal of Approval.’

I don’t doubt the veracity of the speaker’s claim, which she repeated at least twice. Yet, I suspect the police had a pretty good idea that the demonstrators would shut down the road. I noticed that police had squad cars pre-positioned to the east on 95th Street, permitting them to quickly close the street to vehicular traffic. Practicalities made arrests highly unlikely. With all those little kids in tow, the police couldn’t afford the bad publicity that would come with zip-tied five-year olds being led off to central booking, or a time-out space.

Once again, I must state that I simply don’t understand the attraction that the Palestinians have with shutting down roadways. When Rosa Parks ignored Jim Crow laws by sitting in a seat reserved for Whites, her civil disobedience illustrated the absurdity of segregation. Using that same reasoning, I could see the logic if the Palestinians blocked trucks from leaving a munitions plant—there is a rational relationship between the act of civil disobedience and the highlighted wrong.

Shutting down a road inconveniences lots of people, as an article in the Los Angeles Times pointed out, putting people in danger. At a minimum, it irritates the drivers who are stuck in traffic, possibly turning them antagonistic toward the demonstrators and their cause. As for gaining the media’s attention: on my ride home, WBBM AM simply referred to protest activity in the vicinity of Harlem Avenue during its traffic report.

Are Palestinians Threatening? Over the last five months, friends have expressed concern for my safety while attending Palestinian rallies and marchers. I was pepper-sprayed at a demonstration back in October, but that was by a fellow Jew. On my birthday, I was pushed and shoved by several ‘dead enders’ outside of a Starbucks and called a Zionist, which says a lot more about their views than mine, which were unknown to them. The police stepped in.

Other than those two incidents, I don’t find the gatherings or the people threatening. The demonstrators are generally pleased that someone is covering their efforts. Some parents even signal that they want me to take their child’s photograph holding a sign, as happened several times today. While walking under an underpass, an older gentleman approached me, effusively telling me how much he appreciated my effort to document the event.

I don’t claim to be on a first-name basis with the organizers, but they happily respond to questions. And we occasionally greet and shake hands, as happened today.

And then there is the occasional conversations. As I was headed back to my car, two young women asked me to use their cellphone to take a photograph of them. After I completed the masterpiece, one of the young women and I spoke for 15 minutes as we both walked back to Pete’s. She told me about her job with a bank; asked whether she should go to law school; recounted paying off her student loans and the difficulty of being young living on a budget; drew a distinction between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism; expressed concern for the children in Gaza; related how some of her family members live in Gaza (or maybe it was the West Bank) and others live in Tel Aviv; and exhibited a favorable attitude toward a two-state solution.

I’ve had equally pleasant and enlightening conversations at other events. Today was a day well spent, except for the miserable drive back and forth on I55.

Finally, I should note that I did not complete the 20-block march. When the marchers returned to Harlem Avenue at 95th Street, they headed to 87th Street, or so I had been told. The crowd was thinning out, so I decided to call it a day, as did many others.

[Click on an Image to Enlarge It. The Images Are Not Necessarily in Exact Chronological Order]