106 protesters arrested during rally at Israeli consulate in Chicago

CHICAGO - On Tuesday, in downtown Chicago, there was a massive rally against Israel by hundreds of Jewish citizens. Protesters shut down the entrance of the building that houses the Israeli consulate, and more than 100 were arrested.

In what organizers call the largest gathering of Midwestern Jews in solidarity with Palestine, nearly a thousand protesters flooded the lobby of the Ogilvie Transportation Center Tuesday morning, blocking the entrance to trains and stores but not reaching the offices of the Israeli consulate high above.

"We really want to make the message loud and clear," said Michael Wolfe of Jewish Voice for Peace, one of the organizations that sponsored the rally. "We need a ceasefire right now, and that there are Jews and allies that do not stand for what is happening with our tax dollars and our grief and our name."

When protesters refused to leave the building, Chicago police began making arrests, taking 106 people into custody and charging them with criminal trespass.

The protesters said they condemn the Hamas attacks last month that killed more than a thousand people in Israel. But they also condemn Israel's response, firing thousands of missiles and flooding troops into Gaza, which resulted in the killing of thousands of civilians in an effort to root out Hamas.

"Gaza is the size of Milwaukee. There's 2.2 million people. 50 percent of them are children," said protester Jodi Melamed, who came from Milwaukee with her husband for the rally. "We've already lost five-thousand children. That is not defense. It is horror. It is genocide. Jews know genocide when we see one."

The Israeli Consul-General to the Midwest, Yinam Cohen, issued a statement about the protest at their front door: "Those who publicly support Hamas, a designated terrorist organization who murdered 1400-plus Israelis on October 7th, rip down American flags, and chant 'from the River to the Sea'--a call to annihilate the State of Israel--do not represent peace."

But the Jewish protesters say answering violence with more violence is not the answer.

"I don't see that job of being a mother and educator as stopping with the children in front of me," said Leah Koch, as she cradled her one-year-old son. "I think it's my duty to stand up for children everywhere."