Pro-Palestinian protesters rally on Mag Mile to draw attention to Israel-Hamas war

Protesters took to Chicago’s iconic Magnificent Mile retail district on Black Friday to condemn violence in the Gaza Strip, declaring they wouldn’t accept “business as usual” in the city while thousands of families suffer overseas.

“While you’re shopping, bombs are dropping,” pro-Palestine activists said along Michigan Avenue, handing out pamphlets laying out statistics about the civilian death toll.

Just before 12:30 p.m., police shut down the southbound lanes of Michigan Avenue for the crowd that swelled to about 1,000 to march through the signature shopping district.

The protest looped back at Illinois Street to shut down all of Michigan Avenue just before 1 pm.

Snowplows blocked eastbound streets to discourage protesters from heading to DuSable Lake Shore Drive, which activists blocked to traffic last weekend.

Israel and Hamas agreed Wednesday to a four-day cease-fire to facilitate the release of dozens of people taken hostage during Hamas’ Oct. 7 raid on Israel. Hamas on Friday released 24 hostages of the around 240 held captive in Gaza for weeks. The release of the first hostages was to be followed in the evening by the freeing of 39 Palestinian prisoners.

Terms of the cease-fire in the Israeli bombardment of Hamas weren’t enough to end the long-term misery, though, many attendees of the demonstration said.

“It needs to be way longer than four days. It needs to be permanent,” said Hanaa L., who attended the rally on a brisk morning the day after Thanksgiving with fellow Whitney Young High School senior Eisha A.

“I think they’re really just stopping for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Then after that, they’re going to start killing people again,” Hanaa said. “There are over 5,000 children who have been killed already. How can you sit there ... when our own government is helping fund it?”

More than 13,300 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and minors, have been killed since the war began, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. At least 1,200 people have died in Israel, mostly civilians killed in the initial Hamas attack.

Throngs of tourists and shoppers whipped out cellphones as they passed the spectacle across the street from Water Tower Place.

“No more money for Israel’s crimes,” they chanted.

Fawn Pochel, an Irving Park resident, called the pause in violence for a hostage exchange “a tactic to make people comfortable.”

“They want to make people feel better so they go out on one of the biggest spending weekends in the Western world. They’re trying to distract attention from the situation.”