Chicago students hold 'die in' protest to honor Palestinian terrorists
The students chanted "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," effectively calling for the destruction of Israel.
By DONNA RACHEL EDMUNDSZeina Ashrawi, of the Students for Justice in Palestine Society of George Mason University, participates in an anti-Israel rally in Washington, DC(photo credit: JIM WATSON / AFP)
Anti-Zionist students lay down in the streets of Chicago last Wednesday to "honor and remember" a Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander and operatives who were killed in the latest round of fighting between PIJ and the IDF.The "die-in," organized by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) Chicago, was held to "condemn Israel’s constant attack on Gaza that has gone unchecked since the start of the occupation," the organizers said in a post on social media.Dozens of onlookers listened as the SJP activists used a megaphone to broadcast the names of the Palestinians killed in Gaza last week during escalating hostilities with Israel, an event which one speaker described as “a two-day attack on the people of Gaza, killing 36 innocent Palestinians.”The first name to be read out was Bahaa Abu al-Atta, the senior PIJ commander assassinated in a targeted strike by Israeli forces on November 12. Al-Atta was targeted, according to Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi as he had “undermined the quiet in southern Israel” and “acted in every way to sabotage attempts for calm with Hamas.""He was a living ticking bomb, and up until today worked and planned attacks. He was responsible for the majority of attacks that took place over the past year,” Kochavi added.His death sparked a barrage of more than 450 rockets fired from Gaza into southern and central Israeli over two days, forcing Israeli civilians to flee for shelter. Nearly 60 Israelis were treated for injuries or shock as rockets struck homes, businesses and infrastructure.PIJ targets were in turn attacked by IDF forces. Gazan officials reported that 16 civilians were among the 34 recorded fatalities; the Israeli military countered that around 25 of those killed were PIJ members, and shared photos of fighters in the uniform of the terrorist organization.It also announced an investigation into a strike that killed several members of the same family, including at least three children.PIJ has been recognized as a terrorist organization by both the United States and the European Union, yet the students, drawn from campuses across Chicago including DePaul University, Benedictine University Chicago, and the University of Illinois at Chicago, presented the event as memorial for civilians.The students chanted “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” a slogan used by Hamas and other Palestinian groups to call for the destruction of Israel.Following the event, they took to social media to thank "everyone who joined us in letting the world know that Israel’s constant war crimes cannot be ignored and that the lives of those we lost demand justice."Spread the word," they added. "Educate your community/campuses. Call your representatives and tell them to condemn Israel’s war crimes."Emily Briskman, executive director of Jewish United Fund, which is the Jewish Federation in Chicago said, “Any loss of life is regrettable. In this era of ‘alternative facts,’ SJP continues to distort the truth, ignoring the hundreds of rockets that were launched into Israel, terrorizing Israeli citizens.""They have a history of distorting reality in favor of twisting facts to fit their narrative," Briskman stated. "JUF’s Israel Education Center provides educational programming about Israel for entire campus communities and develops opportunities to engage in a wide variety of perspectives."