On Monday, the first day of the Democratic National Convention, thousands of generally nonviolent pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched through Chicago in protest of the Biden administration’s backing of Israel in the Gaza conflict.
Numerous demonstrators breached a portion of the perimeter security fence during hours of nonviolent protests, prompting riot police to respond, according to a witness who spoke to Reuters.
The DNC security team acknowledged that demonstrators had climbed some of the outer perimeter fencing close to the convention center, but they insisted that spectators were not in danger because law enforcement responded promptly.
Witnesses for Reuters observed four individuals being held and handcuffed. During a press conference, Chicago police confirmed that arrests had been made, although they did not specify the number.
Before the fence was breached, demonstrators paused to redouble their calls for a truce as they approached a neighborhood park on Chicago’s West Side. The audience became so enraged that they directed their ire toward Vice President Kamala Harris, calling the Democratic nominee “Killer Kamala” above all else.
To keep protestors inside their boundaries, Chicago police established a foot barrier around the park, with some officers riding bikes.
Even so, hours before President Joe Biden was scheduled to speak to the assembly, the umbrella organization “March on the DNC” attracted fewer participants than anticipated to a park outside the conference center.
They began a one-mile march close to the location where Democratic delegates will choose Harris to run against Republican Donald Trump in November.
According to March on the DNC spokesman Hatem Abudayyeh, organizers had anticipated tens of thousands of protestors, enough to fill the park and the march route, early on Monday. However, the park was only half full by afternoon when several thousand protestors had assembled for speeches.
The coalition, which consists of over 200 organizations, supports topics ranging from racial justice to reproductive rights. According to organizers last week, a large number of attendees were from the Arab and Palestinian communities in Illinois and the surrounding states.
Enraged by the US’s backing of Israel’s Gaza offensive, dozens of Muslim delegates and their friends want to modify the Democratic platform and push for a weapons embargo. As a result, the party is prepared for disruptions to prominent speakers during the convention.
One of the youngest delegates from Wisconsin, Roman Fritz, was nineteen years old, and he wore a scarf with the typical Palestinian keffiyeh pattern on it. He declared his support for Harris to defeat Trump as the party’s nominee.
A few demonstrators questioned whether the party would alter its platform.
“It’ll never happen,” declared Mwalimu Sundiata Keita, who came from Cincinnati, Ohio, to participate in the demonstration. “It’s the policy of the party to support Israel, and until that policy changes, that’s the way it’s going to be.”
On Thursday, when Harris was supposed to formally receive the nomination, there was going to be another big protest.
For months, pro-Palestinian organizations have been against the Biden administration’s financial and military backing of Israel in its conflict with Hamas, which, according to Gaza health officials, has resulted in the deaths of over 40,000 Palestinians.
Following an attack on October 7 by Hamas terrorists who, according to Israeli counts, murdered 1,200 people and kidnapped over 250 hostages, Israel went on the offensive.
In the spring, there were widespread protests on US college campuses, and police occasionally had to take out student encampments following altercations between demonstrators and counterprotesters.
“The people in power are the Democrats,” stated Abudayyeh on Monday. “They are fighting a war. They can stop it, they are complicit in it, and they are responsible for it.”
