CAIR-Chicago responds to pro-Palestinian college protests

CHICAGO - More and more organizations are weighing in on the ongoing pro-Palestine college protests that are unfolding across the country. 

On Thursday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations is addressing ongoing demonstrations. 

Since Tuesday, a group of demonstrators has been sleeping in tents in the quad and they don't plan to leave anytime soon. 

They've joined pro-Palestinian students from other local universities, including Northwestern and the University of Chicago in calling for their schools to disclose and divest from what they believe is a genocide in Gaza. 

In the last week, protests on local campuses, while at times contentious, have remained relatively peaceful but have sparked strong reaction on both sides.

On Thursday morning, the executive director of the Committee on American-Islamic Relations in Chicago spoke out about local encampments. 

"This is a peaceful, non-violent protest that is not unlike the American pastime of similar protests that we saw against the apartheid situation in South Africa, that we saw against the Vietnam War in 1968. This is exactly the sphere in which this is happening," said Executive Director of CAIR-Chicago, Ahmed Rehab. "This is for peace, this not a nationalist movement. Jews who live in historical Palestine are not the problem. It is the systems of oppression that is the problem." 

CAIR-Chicago is also condemning the anti-Semitism bill that passed the House with broad bipartisan support.

They are calling it, "unconstitutional."