Rally Clash: Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Reaches the Streets of Chicago

“The Arabs will have to go, but one needs an opportune moment for making it happen, such as a war.” – Ben-Gurion, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Ilan Pappe, p. 23.

A small crowd of approximately 500 people gathered outside the Thompson Center today, in a show of support for the latest round of ethnic cleansing perpetrated upon the Arab population in Gaza, by the Zionist state of Israel. The pro-Israel event was organized by the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago.

“You need to clear all those people out of here,” exclaimed one pro-Israeli supporter to a Chicago police officer. Her remarks were in reference to a group of Palestinian supporters, who had gathered across the street from today’s Israeli rally.

“Thus, it was now conceded by all serious scholars that the ‘Arab radio broadcasts’ were a Zionist fabrication, and that the Palestinians had been ethnically cleansed in 1948.” -Norman Finkelstein, Beyond Chutzpah – On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History, Introduction, p.3

“This fact must be viewed in all its clarity and sharpness. With such a composition, there cannot even be complete certainty that the government will be held by a Jewish majority. . . There can be no stable and strong Jewish state so long as it has a Jewish majority of only 60 percent.” -Ben-Gurion, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, Benny Morris, p.28

Not everyone was nice…

Multiple times during the rally, I witnessed Israeli supporters attempting to cross the street, in apparent efforts to confront and antagonize the Palestinian supporters who had gathered to counter-rally. Here is one pro-Israel demonstrator apparently attempting to physically confront people on the Palestinian side of the street.

Before the man was able to make contact, he was forced back by the Chicago Police.

This was one of several antagonistic Israeli supporters that actually made their way past the police line, and onto the Palestinian side of the street.

A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator made a peace offering.

The offer was rejected, and an argument erupted. I tried to imagine for a moment what it must be like to have lost family members due to Israeli bombing, and then to have these people with their smug attitudes getting in my face… wow… I’m not sure if I would have been able to restrain myself.

This pro-Israeli demonstrator placed a scarf over her face once she awoke to the fact that she wasn’t in the privacy of her home screaming at her television set.

Compared to the Palestinian marches that have occurred over the past few weeks, this Israeli rally was tiny, and without any authenticity of spirit. I found many of the Israeli supporters to be quite smug and downright antagonistic.

Here a group of Palestinian supporters passionately chanted their desire – “What do we want? FREEDOM!!!”

Richie Havens, Freedom

UPDATE: The Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago is reporting that some 2000 people attended their rally. There were only around 500 people, in my estimation. To be fair, I must mention that the Palestinians also exaggerated their numbers by claiming that some 15k attended their march on July 20,2014. I placed my estimation at around 5,000.

Regardless, the Palestinian rallies far outnumbered the Israeli rally that was held today.

Another perspective worth listening to. Sam Harris makes several valid points in the podcast below.

“We’re all living in Israel now. It’s just that some of us haven’t realized it yet.” -Sam Harris

“What would each side do if they had the power to do it”…

…is an outstanding question. It’s one I ask myself often. But, Sam uses poor logic in assuming the Zionist elements within Israel wouldn’t exterminate every Arab straightaway. Sam’s first moral disparity between these two religiously motivated societies is one of an explicit, versus implicit “charters of extermination.” Sure, Israel has the ‘physical’ power to do whatever they want, but they publicly must move slow – over a period of time – in driving out the Arab population. That has been the charter of Zionism since the beginning. I disagreed with Sam when I read this argument in his, The End of Faith. I just don’t see the historical record supporting Sam’s position on this point.

However, he is correct about the developmental difference between Islam and Hamas, versus Judaism and secular Israel. I also agree that while the creation of the State of Israel was a horrible and unjust idea from the onset, we have to deal with that mistake as it is.

In this video, Norman Finkelstein brings light to the point Sam Harris misses – ethnic cleansing is a foundational building block of Zionism