According US media reports, the protesters assembled at Chicago's Union Park on Monday morning (local time) on the first day of the democratic convention in a show of solidarity with the people in Gaza and against the Biden administration’s financial and military support for the Israel regime.
They continued to march, carrying Palestinian flags and signs with slogans such as "End US aid to Israel" and "Stop the war in Gaza", the Los Angeles Times reported.
Michelle Cohen, 68, who traveled to Chicago from the Minnesota state capital St. Paul, said she hoped to vote for Harris, but she could not stand with the Democratic Party's policy on the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza.
I cannot sit with my family members and play with my little grandchildren without doing something about the rest of the children (of Gaza) who are being killed, she said angrily.
Chicago, the largest city in the state of Illinois, hosts a sizeable population of Palestinians and American Arab community.
This week, about 40,000 people are expected to demonstrate in front of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) against the stance of President Joe Biden on the Israeli war.
The umbrella group "March on the DNC" drew fewer supporters than expected to a park outside the convention arena, hours before Biden was to address the gathering but organizers say this number may exceed 100,000 people in a couple of days.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators who plan to shut down the DNC are taking cues from New York City, where protests on college campuses were orchestrated with the help of an encrypted messaging network.
A group of Palestinian supporters calling themselves the " Anti- Genocide Delegations" say they will use their right to free speech at the DNC this week to make their case. This group wants a ban on arms aid to individuals and groups that have committed human rights violations.
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