The Democratic convention is coming to Chicago and Palestine looms large.
Will the convention be an echo of 1968 when a police riot had the whole world watching?
Unless they come to their senses the Democrats will come to Chicago this summer and nominate Joe Biden to face Donald Trump in November.
The city leaders, including Mayor Johnson, have made it clear that any protests of the U.S. role in the Israeli assault on Gaza and the West Bank will not be allowed anywhere near the United Center or McCormick Place where the convention will take place.
In case you didn't know, the Chicago area is home to the largest population of Palestinians in the country. It is estimated that somewhere between 70,000 and 100,000 Palestinians live in the Chicago area.
Demonstrations by Palestinians and supporters (that would include me) have become weekly events here. The protests have been large, young and militant.
Even as Joe Biden continues to give support and military aid to Netanyahu he has tried to calm the protests by sending administration representatives to meet with Palestinian community leaders, first to Detroit ahead of the primary in Michigan and now to Chicago.
In Chicago the ploy has been a failure.
Politico is reporting this morning that leaders of the Chicago area Palestinian communities have turned down a request by the White House to meet in Chicago today, Thursday.
Tom Perez, a senior adviser to the president and past chairman of the national Democratic Party, and other advisers had wanted to meet with Palestinian, Arab and Muslim leaders and elected officials to talk about Gaza
“All the Palestinian leadership we work with in Chicago have rejected this overture, and USPCN [U.S. Palestinian Community Network] considers anyone — Palestinian, Muslim, Arab — who takes a meeting with the White House to be an absolute sell-out. There’s no more time for meetings,” said Hatem Abudayyeh, an organizer with the group.
“I met with Tom Perez in the White House in October and there have been many other meetings that have been had,” said Democratic state representative Abdelnasser Rashid about why he declined to attend. “There’s nothing new to be said. We need an immediate and permanent ceasefire. And we need the United States to stop supplying arms to Israel.”
Illinois voters are going to the polls as I write this in early voting which ends next week.
There is no “uncommitted” line on the Illinois ballot as there was in Michigan and Minnesota. Illinois also does not count or report out the write-in votes for “ceasefire”.
I wrote-in “ceasefire” anyway.
Politico wrote:
The real worry might be five months from now when the president takes the stage to be officially nominated at the Democratic National Convention. Protesters are expected to come en masse to Chicago.
What will happen in the streets of Chicago during the DNC is anybody’s guess.