A man who fired a gun into the air Sunday after being swarmed by a group of pro-Palestinian protesters in the northern Chicago suburb of Skokie was quickly subdued and arrested by police, according to reports.
Pro-Hamas protesters gathered outside Ateres Ayala, a banquet hall on the border of Skokie and Lincolnwood, to protest against a peaceful pro-Israel rally inside that had been organized by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish anti-Nazi group.
In a scuffle that took place outside, a man pulled out a pistol and fired one shot into the air.
Police quickly surrounded the man and took him into custody, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Footage of the incident seems to show the man jumping out of his car as pro-Palestinian protesters swarm his vehicle. He is seen chasing after one protester, then running back toward his car when he is surrounded by flag-waving Palestinian supporters. The video also shows the police confronting him, whereupon he puts his gun on the ground. Police are then seen putting him in cuffs and leading him away.
“During the gathering, a subject was confronted by numerous individuals in the Lincolnwood Town Center mall across the street from the [Israeli solidarity] event, at which time the subject pulled a firearm and discharged the weapon in the air,” Lincolnwood police said in a statement.
No one was injured, and the police have not released any information on the person arrested.
About 1,000 people from more than a dozen organizations were in attendance inside the dining hall, including the Mobile Museum of Tolerance, the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish United Fund, the Jewish National Fund, and others. Outside, perhaps a hundred pro-Palestinian protesters marched against the Jewish groups.
The pro-Palestinian group had shifted focus to the northern suburbs after a planned “peace and prayer” rally to support Israel was scrapped in downtown Chicago because organizers said they received credible threats to their lives.
According to NBC Chicago, the pro-Palestinian protesters said that pro-Israel protesters do not have the right to hold rallies, which is false under the First Amendment.
NBC Chicago reported:
“We called for the demonstration today at the “Solidarity With Israel” rally to send a clear message that our people are facing war crimes, starvation, and unrelenting bombing by Israel that must be ended immediately; and we reject the notion that zionists should be able to gather and celebrate U.S.-backed, Israeli genocide in our community while our people are being massacred back home,” the USPCN’s statement read in part.
“We will continue to march in the streets and in front of legislators’ offices to demand that the U.S. immediately end all aid to Israel and stop arming Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people,” the statement continued.
A statement sent to NBC Chicago from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the group that organized Sunday’s Israel Solidarity event, said “Last evening the Simon Wiesenthal Center organized an event in Solidarity with Israel which brought together numerous communities and faith groups. It was an incredible display of solidarity and support for the State of Israel and the Jewish people. The Jewish community is mourning for the victims of terrorism and we are praying for the safe release of the hostages.”
Hatem Abudayyeh, national chair of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, told the Sun-Times that they moved their protest to Skokie because Jews “must be confronted as the racist apologists for Israel that they are.”
Skokie police also reported arresting a man who sideswiped a Palestinian protester. The protester was not injured and refused to be transported to the hospital.
In another case, a man pulled out a can of Mace and sprayed it into the crowd of pro-Palestinian supporters. The man’s brother said the man with the Mace felt threatened by the Hamas supporters.
Skokie police said the man who sprayed the Mace was detained, but the department did not say if he was being charged with anything, only noting that the incident is under investigation. He was also not publicly identified.
Still, the Sun-Times reported that several pro-Hamas supporters who were hit with the Mace said they wanted to press hate crime charges.
“This is not gonna stop us,” a protester told the paper. “We are going to challenge Zionists everywhere, and we’re going to continue to demand that this country stops U.S. aid to Israel.”
Skokie is known for being a historically Jewish suburb in which neo-Nazis attempted to march in 1978, winning the right to do so under the First Amendment before ultimately choosing to march elsewhere.
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