Orland Park mayor rejects Gaza cease-fire resolution, suggests those opposing U.S. interests ‘go to another country’

The Chicago Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations on Tuesday condemned Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau’s suggestion that those who disagree with America’s interests regarding the Israel-Hamas war can “go to another country.”

The southwest suburban mayor made the remarks Monday during a village board of trustees meeting — which was streamed online — after Arab American residents requested that the village adopt a cease-fire resolution.

Speakers presented a petition with more than 800 signatures calling for the board to follow Chicago’s lead in passing a resolution.

“First and foremost I’m an American. I’m not a German American, I’m an American. That’s where my allegiances lie. Period. Dot. End of Story,” Pekau said, stressing that his opinions were his own and not representative of the board or the village.

“And if you’re an American citizen, and you don’t feel that way, in my opinion, you’re entitled to that opinion, but you can certainly go, and go to another country and support that country, and all the power to you if you choose to do that,” he continued. “I will always support America’s interests.”

Pekau said he agreed with the official U.S. position, which is “to support a two-state solution and that Hamas is a terrorist organization.”

He dismissed the idea of a resolution, saying Orland Park residents were deeply divided on the issue “and therefore we are not getting involved.” He said the war was a “complicated foreign policy” issue in which the village had no influence or authority.

CAIR-Chicago condemned Pekau’s comments Tuesday “in the strongest terms,” calling them “ignorant and dangerous.” CAIR is the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights group.

“The notion that Americans who disagree with an official should pack up and leave to another country is more befitting of the 1960s Soviet Union, rather than of the United States where freedom of expression and conscience is a founding principle of this country and its constitution,” Ahmed Rehab, executive director of CAIR-Chicago, said in a statement.

“His words and actions have shamed the office he holds and an apology is warranted,” Rehab said. “Moreover, the mayor is probably blissfully unaware that 61% of Americans support a cease-fire. So he is asking for most of the country to pack up and leave.”

In a statement late Tuesday Pekau said he valued the “respectful views of all my constituents” and said CAIR-Chicago was mischaracterizing events “to create a controversy where one does not exist.”

More Palestinians live in Cook County than any other county in the country, a recent WBEZ analysis found. Most live in the southwest suburbs, including in Orland Park, Oak Lawn, Tinley Park and Bridgeview.

Several speakers who stood before the board Monday identified themselves as being part of the local Arab American community, including Yousef Zegar, who said he was a lifelong resident of Orland Park.

“Our community is hurting. We have members of this community who have lost friends and family members,” he said. “If nothing more, we want to be heard in our hometown. We want to feel pride in Orland Park, even if it’s just via a symbolic gesture of solidarity.”

The meeting grew contentious after public comments, when audience members became frustrated with Pekau’s response to the petition and interrupted the mayor as he spoke.

A recess was called after more interruptions, and the room was cleared. Pekau made his comments that those who disagree with U.S. policy should “go to another country” when the meeting resumed 25 minutes later.

“Each attendee who wished to give public comment was afforded the opportunity to speak without interruption,” Pekau said Tuesday. “Unfortunately, I was not given the same courtesy during my comments.”

And in response to speakers who pointed out that Chicago and San Francisco have adopted cease-fire resolutions, Pekau said “if that’s how you want to live then go live there, because Orland Park ain’t it.”

Chicago became the largest city in the nation to demand a cease-fire in the war after the resolution passed last week with Mayor Brandon Johnson’s tie-breaking vote.

Pekau also addressed concerns over a rise in anti-Muslim hate crimes stemming from the rhetoric surrounding the war. He referenced a recent incident in Orland Park in which a man was charged with a hate crime for allegedly punching and making hateful comments towards a neighbor of Palestinian descent.

“I heard hate crimes brought up, and there was one that I’m aware of from a disturbed elderly gentleman,” Pekau said. “There were other things that he said as well, and he was arrested as he should have been, and that’s exactly how we treat everybody here. That has nothing to do with foreign policy.”

Pekau attended elementary, junior high and some of high school in Orland Park before his family moved to Phoenix. He was a weapons system instructor as a member of the Air Force and was deployed in 1992, 1993 and 1998 to Saudi Arabia during Operations Desert Storm and Southern Watch.

He was elected mayor of Orland Park in 2017. He led a challenge during the COVID-19 pandemic to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s mask and vaccine mandates. In 2022 Pekau, a Republican, lost a congressional bid to Democrat Sean Casten.

Pekau has also been critical of Illinois’ criminal justice reforms and has resisted bringing migrants to the village.