Chicago’s Reaction to Gaza’s Plight

Over ten thousand individuals flooded the streets of Chicago this Sunday to protest the siege on Gaza and occupation of Palestinian land, and to urge US policy-makers to stop sending aid to Israeli troops. This was the fourth mass protest in the city this summer. Each protest has garnered more and more attendees.

Buses left from various mosques and community centers from surrounding areas. The details of the protest were exchanged mainly through social media sources, such as Facebook and Twitter.

The protesters held up homemade signs, chanted through megaphones or yelled as loudly as they could (some confessed that they lost their voices by the time the protest was over). Protesters held flagstaffs and waved the flag of Palestine through the air. The flag, a notable symbol of these protests happening in Chicago and worldwide, was also painted on faces and emblazoned on the fronts of shirts. The protest ended without any violence or clashes with authority, such as the

Protests for Gaza were also taking place around the world. There was a protest in London on July 19th and an unsanctioned Paris protest on the same day which was broken up by the police. Johannesburg protest on July 18th, and a protest in Istanbul staged outside of the Israeli consulate after Israel announced the launch of ground forces in Gaza, which had to be stopped by riot police and water cannons. Other locations included Malaga, Madrid, Kashmir, Seoul, Ahmadabad, Athens, Berlin, Tunis, Washington, DC, Jakarta, Chile, and Beijing. (From

Major cities in each continent and millions of people demanding a change. And it was all for a few miles of land and a few million oppressed people on the Gaza Strip and occupied Palestinian land.