Ahead of Democratic convention, anger in Chicago’s ‘Little Palestine’

A billboard reading ‘End illegal Israeli occupation’ in Bridgeview, suburbs of Chicago, Illinois, Aug. 18, 2024. (AFP)

• Palestinian flags flutter in the wind, shops display signs in both Arabic and English, and posters call for demonstrations against steadfast US military support of Israel
• Harris has been largely vague on foreign and domestic policy so far, and it is unclear what sort of relationship she will strike with Palestinian Americans

BRIDGEVIEW, United States: On the outskirts of Chicago, as enthusiastic Democrats gather for their national convention, some residents of “Little Palestine” have a different message for presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
“They won’t be having our votes this year,” said Ali Ibrahim, the manager of a Palestinian bakery in Bridgeview, Illinois, a pendant in the shape of historic Palestinian lands hanging around his neck. “And we do not want them in office.”
Nestled by Midway International Airport and a soccer stadium, the Chicago suburb is home to the largest Palestinian community in the United States.
Palestinian flags flutter in the wind, shops display signs in both Arabic and English, and posters call for demonstrations against steadfast US military support of Israel as the death toll mounts in Gaza.
The kickoff of the Democratic National Convention on Monday, just 15 miles (24 kilometers) away in downtown Chicago, has only heightened divisions between Palestinian Americans and the national party, and comes amid similar fractures with the country’s larger Arab community, once a reliable Democratic voting bloc.
“We are angry. We are frustrated,” Souzan Naser, a 46-year-old professor, told AFP.
“You can’t expect us to vote for you when your values, your policies, your principles don’t align with ours.”
President Joe Biden has stuck by Israel in its war in Gaza, sparked by an attack by Hamas militants on October 7 that resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures. Hamas also seized 251 hostages in the attack.
The Israeli military campaign in Gaza in response has killed more than 40,000 people, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry, with the United Nations rights chief saying “most the dead” were women and children.
Swaths of the territory have been reduced to rubble, humanitarian aid has been blocked from entering the Strip and international observers have raised serious human rights concerns.
Amid the destruction, Gaza recorded its first case of polio in 25 years, with water infrastructure destroyed and civilians displaced in fetid conditions.
Biden and Harris “could have easily called for a ceasefire, had this war over a long time ago,” said Ibrahim.
Naser, a member of the activist group US Palestinian Community Network, was born in the Palestinian territories and raised in Bridgeview.
Residents in the Chicago suburb worked hard to elect Biden in 2020, she said, “and now they feel betrayed.”
For many, the war is more than a hypothetical question of foreign policy, she added.
“I had one student who lost 35 members of her family,” she told AFP, her voice choking with emotion. “And couldn’t reach others. Didn’t know if they were alive or not.”
Harris has, at times, struck a different tone than her boss, calling for a ceasefire in March before she was running for president.
Most recently, however, during her last-second campaign launched after Biden decided not to run for reelection, she rejected calls for an arms embargo.
“Has she done enough yet? No, will she? We hope,” said restaurant owner Muhammad Baste, 38, insisting on a change in US government policy rather than just rhetoric.
It is possible the Democratic Party will have to go into November without votes from “Little Palestine” and other Arab-American communities — including a large number of residents in nearby Michigan, viewed as a key battleground state.
“We know another Trump presidency would be a disaster,” said Naser, while insisting that the Palestinian community has given “Biden ample time to change course.”
Harris has been largely vague on foreign and domestic policy so far, and it is unclear what sort of relationship she will strike with Palestinian Americans — but the vice president got off to a rocky start.
As anti-war protesters interrupted a speech in Michigan earlier this month, she shot back: “If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that. Otherwise, I’m speaking.”