CHICAGO — A raucous scene unfolded within earshot of the Democratic National Convention Wednesday night as more than a thousand pro-Palestinian protesters clad in keffifyehs, holding Palestinian flags, and chanting “free Palestine” marched past.
The protesters marched down the street mere blocks from where Democrats would gather to hear Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz accept his nomination for vice president later that evening.
The protests, which stayed largely peaceful except for minor scuffles with police around transit stations, contrasted with Tuesday’s protests that resulted in 56 arrests outside the Israeli consulate in Chicago. Despite two clashes with police, no arrests were made on Wednesday.
Wednesday’s protest took a festive tone with a drum line, air horns, and Palestinian flags waving as the group repeated chants during their march from Union Park in Chicago, Illinois to just outside the United Center.
The group demanded the Biden administration immediately sign an embargo on arms sales to Israel stopping current sales and preventing future sales of U.S. weapons to Israel.
Theresa Brockman of Eureka, Illinois, said at the protest that she wanted the Democrats to commit to stopping aid to Israel and instead use the money to pay for affordable housing or other social programs.
“Hoping that one more body, combined with all the bodies that are out here today, will hopefully have an influence on Harris and Biden and everybody in the administration,” Brockman said.
Before the group marched on the DNC the crowd heard from several pro-Palestinian activism leaders and big names like Jill Stein and Cornell West, who are running for president as the Green Party candidate and an independent.
They rallied activists before their march on Wednesday calling on activists to vote for them instead of former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris.
Stein told voters to stay persistent and “don’t let them talk you, your friends, your neighbors, into genocide.”
Stein billed herself as an alternative to Vice President Harris and former President Donald Trump for voters who are concerned with U.S. funding of the Israeli military operation in Gaza that has killed over 40,000 civilians, according to the Associated Press.
“If you vote for genocide, you are consenting to genocide,” Stein said. “If you vote for genocide, you are enabling genocide. Don’t let them talk us out of our humanity. Voting against genocide is a moral imperative.”
Stein said activists should use their vote to send Harris and Trump a message.
“Every vote against genocide is a shot across the bow of an empire, announcing that empire’s days are numbered, that the opposition is organized and we are not going away,” Stein said. “And it builds every vote, every act of support, every flyer, every phone call, every stand that we take, every demonstration, builds the pressure for a ceasefire and weapons embargo starting now.”
West encouraged activists to continue to disrupt politicians’ lives and said to make sure leaders are uncomfortable to show that “there is no way that actual genocide ethnic cleansing can be taking place” without activists calling attention to it.
“We are going to make sure that the American Empire in all of its bestiality and denying in genocide and enabling genocide in acting as if it can proceed with business as usual will not take place,” West said. “Every one of us has to make a decision deep inside our hearts, minds, and souls. That we are willing to make a sacrifice. We refuse to be well-adjusted to injustice.”
West called for the activists to continue their fight despite leaders’ inaction.
“Don’t get discouraged, stay encouraged, be of great courage, and always know that those who rule, who try to divide and conquer us, are shaking in their boots because they know it’s a new day in the awakening,” West said.