What is appropriate protest in a democratic society? There are many forms of protest, including minor law-breaking civil disobedience, and over decades Americans have come to accept them as within the bounds of acceptable political expression.
Gathering in the middle of the night outside a private home, masked mobs beating drums, blowing trumpets and yelling hateful slogans is not one of them.
But that’s exactly what U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider, a Democrat who represents much of Chicago’s northern suburbs, and his neighbors in Highland Park endured around 3 a.m. on June 29 as dozens of demonstrators descended on their neighborhood to protest Israel’s war on Gaza. Highland Park police understandably did not have the manpower to round up 40 protesters at that time of day, even though they were undoubtedly breaking the law.
I spoke with Schneider, who was home at the time, and his account is downright terrifying: Imagine being startled awake at 3 a.m. to the sights and sounds of an angry, masked mob just outside your home.
Schneider wasn’t the only target of the mob: the area is predominantly Jewish, and after the rioters saw a sign in a neighbor’s yard that read “We support Israel,” they began yelling “Zionists go to hell,” the congressman said.
He said a family living nearby included a 98-year-old woman and her baby.
So in many ways, this wasn’t just an attack on a politician’s policy stance. This was an attack on a neighborhood that was primarily made up of Jewish residents. It was grotesque and anti-Semitic.
“I think the kindest way I can say this is that these people are asking Israel to surrender and get rid of them,” Schneider said. “They’re trying to intimidate my neighbors and turn me around. They don’t know my neighbors or me.”
Indeed, the next afternoon, June 30, nearly 100 residents gathered on Schneider’s patio, along with representatives from the Highland Park Police Department, to discuss what had happened and what they would do if it happened again. Schneider said the discussions were positive, and he was touched by the support he and his family had received. Neighbors told him not to change his stance on Israel and Hamas in any way.
A few days later, on the Fourth of July, Senator Schneider’s office in Washington was attacked. Photographs of hostages still being held by Hamas were removed and ripped from the wall outside his office. Senator Schneider is not the only member of Congress who has photographs of hostages posted outside his office, but to his knowledge, his is the only office that has been attacked in this way.
Governor JB Pritzker, who has spoken surprisingly little about Israel and Gaza and has little to do with US foreign policy, was also visited by protesters, many of whom carried the same banner as the one outside Governor Schneider’s home. Governor Pritzker was apparently targeted primarily because he is Jewish.
Of course, there are plenty of other politicians, including in Illinois, who voted exactly the same as Schneider on Israel and Gaza, but whose hometowns are not the scene of pre-dawn protests. One is forced to conclude that Schneider and Pritzker were targeted because of their Jewish identities.
Needless to say, protests like this aren’t going to change anyone’s mind – this is hateful harassment, pure and simple.
“Everyone I know wants this war to end,” said Schneider, a longtime supporter of a Palestinian state and a staunch supporter of the First Amendment.
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