Gunshot fired outside Skokie/Lincolnwood rally to support Israel; Pro-Palestinian demonstrators pepper-sprayed, police say
A man fired a gunshot into the air and several people, including a police officer, were pepper-sprayed when a pro-Palestinian group demonstrated outside a Jewish organization’s rally in solidarity with Israel Sunday, according to Lincolnwood and Skokie police.
The rally was originally set to be a fundraising dinner for the Midwest Regional Office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, whose website describes it as a Jewish human rights activist organization, but organizers switched it to a Solidarity with Israel event in Skokie after the Israel-Hamas war started on Oct. 7, they said in a news release.
About 200 pro-Palestinian supporters gathered in the parking lot outside the kosher event hall where the event was being held, Ateres Ayala, 3412 W. Touhy, Skokie. They at times spread out near a grocery store and fitness center in the same shopping center.
A Chicago man near the Lincolnwood Town Center mall, which is across Touhy Avenue from the Skokie event hall, was confronted by numerous individuals, drew his gun and fired a shot in the air, Lincolnwood police said in a statement, adding no one was injured.
Police took him into custody, and said Monday they had presented the case to the Felony Review Unit of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office but that office declined to bring charges. They said the 39-year-old man holds a valid concealed carry license, but are not releasing his name because he was not charged.
In a separate incident, the man who fired the gun also struck a pedestrian during a hit and run incident, but the pedestrian declined medical care, Lincolnwood police said.
On the Skokie side of Touhy Avenue, to the north of Lincolnwood, a Chicago police officer and two other people sustained minor injuries when someone pepper-sprayed the crowd, according to a Skokie police statement. They estimated the number of pro-Palestinian demonstrators who gathered outside the Jewish group’s rally at about 200.
One person was arrested and released, and another person was taken into custody for the pepper-spraying incident, which is still under investigation, Skokie police said.
The pro-Palestinian supporters gathered an hour before the Solidarity with Israel event. Hatem Abudayyeh, the chair of the U.S. Palestine Community Network, said the group counter-protested the Israel rally to “end their complicity and end their support of Israel.”
“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 U.S. Palestine Community Network said in a statement after Sunday’s protest.
At the indoor Solidarity with Israel rally, around 600 people gathered to listen to speeches by rabbis, businesspeople and local politicians voicing their support of Israel and for Israel to defend itself. The attendees included families, people old and young, some with Israeli flags big and small.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper took his turn at the podium to say the president and CEOs of major corporations “collectively spoke out for the suffering people (in the war) in Ukraine. But when it comes to dead Jews, we hear crickets.”
Yinam Cohen, General Consul of Israel to the Midwest, stressed his point that, “We are fighting Hamas. Not against the Palestinian people.”
“I think the most important thing today for Israel is to know that you’re not alone. That you are thinking of them, that you are supporting them,” said Cohen.
Hamas is a terrorist organization.
State Sen. Laura Fine doubled down on the statement, saying “In our darkest times the strength and support of our community is what reminds us that we are not alone.”
Alison Pure-Slovin, the director of the Midwest Regional office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said the event 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,” she said. “The Jewish community is mourning for the victims of terrorism and we are praying for the safe release of the hostages.”
The U.S. Palestine Community Network had also been in Skokie last week staging a sit-in at the local office of U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky. They had demanded the congresswoman sign a call for a ceasefire in Gaza to allow in humanitarian aid. Police cited seven people for trespassing after they disregarded police officers’ instructions to leave about an hour after the office closed.
