Singing echoed on Wednesday around the United Center in Chicago, where ten thousand Democratic delegations and enthusiasts came to formally put Kamala Harris as the party’s presidential candidate. During the celebrations, Palestinian citizens’ rights activists did not stay quiet and compared the DNC to the DNC 1968, where protests against the Vietnam War were met with police violence.
“Just like 1968, there’s nothing to celebrate!” the protesters chanted to Harris and demanded a change in the United States’ lightning support of Israel. Protesters said they would not support her candidature unless there were adjustments.
On the third day of the convention, the demonstrators were chanting, for instance, “DNC, your hands are red, over 40,000 dead, ” with Palestinian flags and hand-painted signs that read, “While you’re speaking, they are dying. ” Police made sure that protesters moved along the chain of bicycles in approved directions and established a barricade around the convention hall.
While the protest was mostly non-violent, a worrying element was the police’s rough arrest of two young women in a transit station and the protesters’ chant “Let them go” that followed. The explosion raised concerns about such practices and the handling of protesters, especially those supporting the Palestinian causes.
This Midwestern city is home to a large number of Palestinians and other persons of Middle Eastern origin, and people of every background and color were mourning collectively the war in Gaza, for instance, in which more than forty thousand Palestinians perished in the preceding few months. People insisted on antiwar message sharing, especially in progressive cities like San Francisco.
As the convention progresses, more demonstrations are scheduled, meaning that the voices of the people chanting ‘justice’ will not fade in the city.
