Pro-Palestinian Arab students held a “die-in” protest in downtown Chicago last Wednesday to “honor and remember” Gazans who were killed in the recent round of escalation with Israel.
The rally was organized by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) Chicago and sought to condemn Israeli air strikes on Gaza.
During the rally, SJP members read aloud the names of Arabs who were killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza, including the name of senior Islamic Jihad commander Baha Abu Al Ata, whose elimination by Israel was followed by the escalation, in which Islamic Jihad terrorists fired more than 400 rockets toward Israeli cities and towns.
The protesters, who included members of SJP from DePaul University, Benedictine University Chicago, and the University of Illinois at Chicago, also chanted, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” during the protest.
Following the rally, SJP thanked in a Facebook post "everyone who joined us in letting the world know that Israel’s constant war crimes cannot be ignored and that the lives of those we lost demand justice”.
Emily Briskman, executive director of Jewish United Fund, said, “Any loss of life is regrettable. In this era of ‘alternative facts,’ SJP continues to distort the truth, ignoring the hundreds of rockets that were launched into Israel, terrorizing Israeli citizens.”
News of the Chicago rally comes on the same day that it was reported that students at Oberlin College in Ohio set up a memorial to the 34 who were killed in IDF bombings during the escalation, most of them Islamic Jihad terrorists.
The students are Jews belonging to the Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) organization and students belonging to the Palestine Liberation Students' Organization, according to the Yediot Aharonot newspaper.
Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan condemned the monument's construction.