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Pro-Hamas Protesters Show Up at Jewish Illinois Officials’ Homes, Declare ‘No Sleep for War Criminals’
Illustrative: Pro-Hamas protesters outside the Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago, Illinois on Tuesday, May 21, 2024. Photo: Ron Sachs via Reuters Connect
Pro-Hamas agitators roamed the streets of the greater Chicago area over the weekend, harassing Jewish residents and fostering unrest in their campaign to pressure elected officials into boycotting and divesting from Israel.
Marching through the heavily Jewish suburb of Highland Park early on Saturday morning, a mob consisting of some 40 protesters — who concealed their faces with masks and keffiyehs — amassed outside the home of US Rep. Brad Schneider (D), who is Jewish, reportedly dousing “red liquid” on the sidewalk.
About 24 hours later, the protesters undertook a similar action, showing up at the Chicago home of Illinois Gov. Jay Robert Pritzker (D), who is also Jewish.
The group responsible for the disturbance, which calls itself “Direct Action for Palestine,” said on social media that Pritzker and Schneider are “war criminals” while denouncing Schneider’s voting for a bill which, if passed, would defund the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), several of whose employees allegedly aided Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel.
“No sleep for war criminals. Palestinian, Arab, and allied youth refuse to let war criminals rest, including Representative Brad Schneider who was awoken at 2:30 am,” Direct Actions for Palestine said in a social media post following its demonstration. “We demand a complete reinstatement of UNWRA funding, Illinois’ divestment from Israel, and an end to the US backed genocide on Gaza.”
Reports on the protesters’ actions circulated on social media, with some saying that they approached residents asking if they are a “Jew.” Others said that local law enforcement declined to make any arrests.
“It’s unfortunate that instead of seeking a constructive dialogue with Congressman Schneider, a group of people hiding their faces chose to taunt and intimidate a predominantly Jewish neighborhood on the Jewish Sabbath in the middle of the night,” a spokesperson for Schneider said in a statement following the incidents. “It’s even more disturbing the chose to harass a community that is preparing to commemorate the second anniversary of the Highland Park mass shooting, a shared tragedy that was spurred by hate.”
The statement added, “The congressman is always happy to meet and sit down with anyone. I encourage those who disagree with his views to seek a conversation in the daylight rather than disturbing and traumatizing families in the darkness of night.”
The Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) Midwest office denounced the demonstrations on Sunday, describing them as blatantly antisemitic and undermining the group’s claim that it wants peace.
“The chants were antisemitic. The false charge of genocide is antisemitic,” ADL Midwest tweeted. “The targeting of Jewish elected officials is antisemitic. This clearly isn’t about peace.”
Incidents of antisemitic hatred in Chicago have increased, according to a new report by the Chicago Commission on Human Relations issued last week.
“Antisemitic acts including assault, harassment, and vandalism rose to their highest level in recent history in 2022, jumping 128 percent from the previous year, from 53 to 121,” the report said, before noting that anti-Jewish hate crimes have further spiked due to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. “Tensions around the conflict have impacted communities across the country, leading to protests in our streets and college campuses.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Pro-Hamas Protesters Show Up at Jewish Illinois Officials’ Homes, Declare ‘No Sleep for War Criminals’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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White House Withdraws Nomination for US Hostage Envoy
FILE PHOTO: Adam Boehler, the CEO of the US International Development Finance Corporation, addresses the daily coronavirus task force briefing in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, US, April 14, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Leah Millis/File Photo
The Trump administration has withdrawn the nomination of Adam Boehler to serve as special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, the White House said on Saturday.
Boehler, who has been working to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, will continue hostage-related work as a so-called “special government employee,” a position that would not need Senate confirmation.
“Adam Boehler will continue to serve President Trump as a special government employee focused on hostage negotiations,” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
“Adam played a critical role in negotiating the return of Marc Fogel from Russia. He will continue this important work to bring wrongfully detained individuals around the world home.”
A White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Boehler withdrew his nomination to avoid divesting from his investment company. The move was unrelated to the controversy sparked by his discussions with the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
“He still has the utmost confidence of President Trump,” said the official.
“This gives me the best ability to help Americans held abroad as well as work across agencies to achieve President Trump’s objectives,” Boehler told Reuters in a brief statement.
Boehler recently held direct meetings with Hamas on the release of hostages in Gaza. The discussions broke with a decades-old policy by Washington against negotiating with groups that the US brands as terrorist organizations.
The talks angered some Senate Republicans and some Israeli leaders. According to Axios, Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer expressed his displeasure to Boehler in a tense phone call last week.
Boehler was given permission from the Trump administration to engage directly with Hamas, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said earlier this week, calling the talks a “one-off situation” that had not borne fruit.
Boehler has been credited with helping secure the release of Fogel, a US schoolteacher who was freed by Russia in February after three and a half years in prison.
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Bernard-Henri Lévy, German Officials Bow Out of Israeli Antisemitism Conference
French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy addressing the 38th Zionist Congress. Photo: Screenshot.
i24 News – A French intellectual superstar and a pair of German officials announced that they withdrew from a conference on antisemitism organized by the Israeli government, citing the participation of far-right figures in the Jerusalem event.
Iconic thinker Bernard-Henri Lévy, who was set to deliver the conference’s keynote address, opted out upon learning that Marion Marechal and Jordan Bardella from France’s far-right National Rally party were among the other speakers.
Felix Klein, the Federal Government Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany and the Fight Against Antisemitism, “has decided not to attend,” his representatives told Haaretz.
“He was unaware of the other attendees when he accepted the invitation, and upon learning who the other speakers were, he decided to withdraw.”
Volker Beck, a former Green Party parliamentarian who chairs the Germany-Israel Friendship Society (DIG) also announced he was cancelling his attendance. “If we associate ourselves with extreme right-wing forces, we discredit our common cause; it also goes against my personal convictions and will have a negative impact on our fight against antisemitism within our societies.”
The post Bernard-Henri Lévy, German Officials Bow Out of Israeli Antisemitism Conference first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Kicks Out South Africa’s Hamas-Linked Ambassador
Marco Rubio speaks after he is sworn in as Secretary of State by US Vice President JD Vance at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, Jan. 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
i24 News – US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday designated the South African ambassador to Washington Ebrahim Rasool as a Persona Non Grata, branding Rasool a “race-bating politician.”
The decision comes after Rasool made the inflammatory allegation that Trump was “leading global white supremacist” movement.
A known supporter of the genocidal Palestinian group Hamas, Rasool even boasted that he owned a keffiyeh signed by late Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh.
South Africa filed a claim with the International Court of Justice, alleging that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza during its ongoing war against Hamas, a charge both Israel and the US regard as slanderous and antisemitic.
The post US Kicks Out South Africa’s Hamas-Linked Ambassador first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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