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

Protesters blocked traffic along the Mag Mile for more than an hour on Black Friday to condemn violence in the Gaza Strip, declaring they wouldn’t accept “business as usual” in Chicago’s signature shopping district while thousands of families suffer overseas.

“While you’re shopping, bombs are dropping,” pro-Palestinian activists said outside the Water Tower on Michigan Avenue, handing out pamphlets detailing the civilian death toll that has soared since the surprise Hamas attack on Israel Oct. 7 and Israel’s bombardment of Gaza since.

The Near North Side demonstration played out on the kickoff of the holiday shopping season as details emerged in the four-day cease-fire that Israel and Hamas agreed to in a hostage-prisoner swap. Hamas on Friday released 24 of the roughly 240 hostages the militant group has held in Gaza for more than a month, while 39 Palestinian prisoners were expected to be freed by Israel later in the day.

While many in the Chicago crowd of about 1,000 activists said they were heartened by any pause in violence, they agreed the deal wasn’t enough to end the long-term misery — and they were skeptical of its timing.

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

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“I think they’re really just stopping for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Then after that, they [Israel] are 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 [U.S.] 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.

Protesters organized by the U.S. Palestinian Community Network of Chicago brought their boisterous messaging to the ritzy shops along Michigan Avenue, where Chicago police shut down traffic for demonstrators about 12:30 p.m.

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

Throngs of tourists and shoppers whipped out cellphone cameras as they approached the spectacle of activists blocking the entrances of the Victoria’s Secret store at 734 N. Michigan Ave. The protesters also targeted the nearby Starbucks Reserve Roastery.

Two women tried to force their way through the line of protesters into the Victoria’s Secret Black Friday sale, but were briefly turned away after a shouting match with activists who chanted, “Shame, shame!”

“Why don’t you think about what Hamas has done?” one of the women shouted back.

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Each store entrance was blocked for only a few minutes.

Some customers who received the same “shame” treatment from protesters at Starbucks returned “shame-shame” hand gestures to the crowd from behind the second-story cafe glass. Another couple flashed middle fingers from a rooftop deck.

Most of Michigan Avenue was reopened by 1:40 p.m.

Pilsen resident Zach Cheikho said he and the other protesters succeeded in “occupying the streets.

“The Magnificent Mile, in terms of brick-and-mortar business, in terms of consumerism, it is the hub in Chicago,” Cheikho said. “So we have to make it clear that it’s not business as usual.”

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