40 pro-Palestinian demonstrators arrested in protest blocking expressway to O'Hare

A group of demonstrators protesting American response to the Israel-Hamas war blocked traffic on westbound Interstate 90, cutting off traffic to O’Hare International Airport on Monday morning.

Protesters linked arms and blocked lanes of Interstate I-90 around 7 a.m., a demonstration they said was part of a global “economic blockade to free Palestine,” according to Rifqa Falaneh, one of the organizers.

Traffic in the San Francisco Bay Area was snarled for hours as demonstrators shut down all vehicle, pedestrian and bike traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge and chained themselves to 55-gallon drums filled with concrete across Interstate 880 in Oakland. Protesters marching into Brooklyn blocked Manhattan-bound traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge. In Eugene, Oregon, protesters blocked Interstate 5, shutting down traffic on the major highway for about 45 minutes.

Chicago police officers were called to the 10000 block of West O’Hare Avenue at 7:50 a.m. for a gathering of people obstructing the roadway, causing a considerable traffic jam, according to Chicago police and a post from the airport on X.

Thirty-one women and nine men between the ages of 19 and 43 were arrested, police said. Charges were pending.

The flow of traffic resumed around 9:20 a.m., police said. Airport operations were interrupted for about 15 minutes.

Details on the arrests were not released immediately.

Earlier, a social media photo and video showed empty lanes near the terminals usually clogged with heavy traffic and travelers leaving their cars and walking to the airport, trailing their luggage behind them.

Among them was Madeline Hannan from suburban Chicago. She was headed to O’Hare for a work trip to Florida when she and her husband’s car ended up stalled for 20 minutes. She got out and “both ran and speed-walked” more than a mile. She said she made it to the gate on time, but barely.

“This was an inconvenience,” she said in a telephone interview from Florida. “But in the grand scheme of things going on overseas, it’s a minor inconvenience.”

Protesters say they chose O’Hare, in part, because it’s one of the largest airports. Among other things, they’ve called for an immediate ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas.

Contributing: Associated Press

Nam Y. Huh/AP Photos