St. Clair Square locks doors to keep pro-Palestinian protesters from entering mall
Some people planning to shop at St. Clair Square in Fairview Heights on Saturday afternoon were turned away for more than an hour due to a pro-Palestinian protest in the parking lot.
Organizers had posted plans on Facebook and other social media to engage in “civil disobedience,” and there had been talk of people hanging banners and painting 10 children red to symbolize blood, according to Fairview Heights Police Chief Steve Johnson.
“The mall made a decision to lock the doors and not allow (protesters to enter) in order to keep everybody safe,” he said, noting that police officers got involved to head off any potential problems.
Johnson reported no injuries, arrests or damage. He declined to comment on the type of protest or number of participants, noting it’s against police-department policy to provide publicity for such activities.
“That’s why they want to do it,” he said.
The protest, called “Global Day of Action: Shut It Down for Palestine,” had been scheduled for 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. Saturday by the Solidarity Coalition STL/Metro East. It’s described as a coalition of groups fighting for “racial, social, economic and environmental justice for all.”
The coalition has sponsored several protests in recent months to demand a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, which has resulted in the deaths of more than 30,000 people, mostly Palestinians living in Gaza.
“We’re protesting to raise awareness,” said J.D. Dixon, a Belleville-area activist and one of the coalition’s founding members.
“We need to highlight the fact that tens of thousands of men, women and children who have nothing to do with Hamas have been slaughtered. (Israel is) destroying hospitals, and our tax dollars are paying for it.”
Dixon was referring to the fact that the United States is an ally of Israel that has contributed money to its war effort.
Employees who answered phones in St. Clair Square’s administrative and security offices on Monday declined comment. Michael Hagen, senior general manager of that mall and South County Center in St. Louis for CBL Properties, couldn’t be reached for comment.
One of the would-be shoppers who tried to enter the mall on Saturday afternoon was Tammy Dress, of Belleville.
When Dress and her husband approached a Dillard’s entrance, they were informed that the store was “closed” by two security guards standing inside the vestibule between doors, which were locked.
The couple saw two more security guards at another Dillard’s entrance and one at the J.C. Penney door.
“We didn’t know what was going on,” Dress said. “People were trickling out of the mall. They looked like customers. A couple of them had bags in their hands. They weren’t running or anything. They were just leaving.”
Dress returned to Dillard’s on Sunday and did her shopping, and everything seemed normal.
The Solidarity Coalition’s last metro-east protest took place Feb. 2. About a dozen people showed up to hang a banner from the Bunkum Road bridge over Interstate 64 in Fairview Heights.
Tena Mahmood, a Palestinian-American who lives in O’Fallon and co-organizer of the St. Clair Square protest on Saturday, estimated that 75 people carried signs and chanted slogans in the parking lot near the mall’s main entrance after being denied entry.
Mahmood said many Americans don’t realize that Palestinians in Gaza were mistreated by Israel for decades before Oct. 7, when Hamas militants killed about 1,200 Israelis and took 250 hostages; and that the vast majority of Gaza residents aren’t affiliated with Hamas.
Mahmood called Israel’s attacks in the past four months “genocide,” pointing to more than a million civilians displaced by bombings and living on the streets without adequate food or medicine.
“We are not in favor of death on either side,” Mahmood said. “We just want this to stop.”
Organizations in the Solidarity Coalition include American Muslims for Palestine, Voices of Palestine Network, Progressive Jews of St. Louis, the Community Liberation Network and others.
On Saturday, the coalition also organized a protest at St. Louis Galleria. Photos posted on Instagram showed protesters walking through the mall carrying banners and crowds surrounding speakers with megaphones.
One of the coalition’s Facebook posts read, “We are letting businesses on the global (BDS) lists like Victoria Secret, Pink, American Eagle Outfitters, Bath and Body Works and more know that due to their support and funding of Israeli businesses, we will continue to spread the message to boycott them as long as they continue to be complicit in the genocide of the Palestinian people.”
BDS stands for Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions, a Palestinian-led movement for “freedom, justice and equality,” according to its website.
The Solidarity Coalition suggested that participants in Saturday’s protests wear red, black or green (colors of the Palestinian flag) and keffiyehs (traditional Arab headdresses) and bring signs and flags.
People participating in Fairview Heights were to meet at 625 Lincoln Highway, the Schnucks store address, for “direct action” followed by a march. No destination was specified.
“Every precaution will be put in place to provide the utmost safety possible for all protesters, but there will be some civil disobedience involved,” an organizer wrote. “For people that are not comfortable with this, they can opt to only participate in the march.”
