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Pro-Hamas Protesters Show Up at Jewish Illinois Officials’ Homes, Declare ‘No Sleep for War Criminals’
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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Treasure Trove: An Israeli stamp reflects the complex mix of emotions about Oct. 7
Michelle Shalmiev was born in a village in the Caucasian mountains and immigrated to Israel and settled on a kibbutz when she was 14. Her series “Putting Your Stamp on History” […]
The post Treasure Trove: An Israeli stamp reflects the complex mix of emotions about Oct. 7 appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Download a special Oct. 7 print edition of The Canadian Jewish News
Printable obituaries of eight Canadian victims and more of our original coverage.
The post Download a special Oct. 7 print edition of The Canadian Jewish News appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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The Jewish People Perform Another Miracle
JNS.org – This Oct. 7 will not only be an anniversary of tears, of pure contrition, even if the memory is burning as the people of Israel live. As to how, it wasn’t at all obvious. Our whole history is made of miracles—from the splitting of the sea to escape from the Egyptians to the Inquisition to the pogroms to the thousand other genocidal attacks to which the Jews have been subjected. In every case, the results are always incredible and surprising, especially for how we have emerged active, faithful to our Torah tradition and committed to the return to Jerusalem until we made it happen.
The War of Independence in 1948 was fought by concentration-camp veterans, yet we defeated all the Arab armies, united in hatred, who marched against us. Later, in 1967, 1973 wars were won by a hair’s breadth with miraculous strokes of imagination and leaders who gave birth to ideas that people would have expected. No one would have ever bet a euro, penny or shekel on the idea that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and his entire hierarchy could be eliminated, petrifying Iran, especially since we have already reduced its other favorite proxy, Hamas, to pieces. And now we have bombed Iran’s other proxy, the Houthis, some 2,000 kilometers away, destroying the airport from which they receive their weapons and aid from the ayatollahs. The Islamic Republic’s leader, Ali Khamenei, is reportedly hiding underground, the Iraqi and Syrian Shi’ites are waiting to see if they are next, and cities controlled by Tehran are shaking.
As President Joe Biden said, it is a measure of justice, but one that Israel has undertaken in an impossible fashion, defending its citizens amid a thousand prohibitions with determination and without fear. Only in this way can a 76-year-old young state, which has been attacked from all sides, defend itself. The country’s existence is the latest chapter in the history of a people born many millennia ago in the Land of Israel, who are finally back home and defending their state.
The war is certainly not over, as Hezbollah reportedly had 100,000 fighters. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knows that he must see this fight through to the end, despite the international pressure to which Israel has been subjected for nearly a year. Israel’s leadership understands that its very existence is at definitive risk if there is no “new Middle East” in the aftermath of Oct. 7.
While previous generations and Israeli leaders hoped that peace agreements would establish peace in the region, today’s leaders know that there is also a need for battle to stop those who, dominated by absurd fanatical and religious beliefs, wish to kill you. (After all, what do the Houthi rebels in Yemen have to do with the Jews and Israel?)
This is the lesson of our time—not just for Israel and the Jewish people but for everyone. The Jewish people are writing a new page in history, one in which the free world must write and fight alongside them, as it is a battle for the survival of Western ideals. Israel has eliminated the two most dangerous terrorist groups in the world—Hamas and Hezbollah—with operations that will set a precedent for decades. And it challenges Iran. I would like to hear the applause, please.
The post The Jewish People Perform Another Miracle first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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