CHICAGO — Protesters fueled by fervent opposition to American support of Israel remain dedicated to demonstrating outside the Democratic National Convention next week, despite the party’s last-minute change to a nominee who is seen as more sympathetic to their cause.
Protest groups readying for the event say tens of thousands of people will descend on Chicago for the event to coronate Vice President Kamala Harris as the nominee after President Joe Biden abandoned his re-election bid.
Chartered buses will bring demonstrators from Minnesota, Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin and beyond, said a chief organizer behind planned marches next week, Hatem Abudayyeh, the national chair of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network advocacy group.
Abudayyeh said he held a virtual meeting with members across the country to gauge interest in changing direction after Biden stepped aside from seeking the nomination. There was quick consensus, he said.
“We’re not going to do anything different. We’re going to mobilize,” Abudayyeh said. “Harris represents the administration; she represents Biden. There is nothing that she has expressed independently that tells us she does not support the policies.”
Predictions about large, disruptive protests once dominated discussions about the convention. But since the upheaval within the party, talk of protests has died down. Harris and her vice presidential candidate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, are drawing crowds of 10,000 or more in battleground states, and money is flowing into the campaign at breakneck speed — tamping down concerns in the party that disaffected Arab and Muslim voters in key states like Michigan could cost Democrats the race.
Harris has called for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war but has largely echoed the language of the Biden administration. Biden has increased pressure on Israel to accept a cease-fire agreement, but he has been one of the strongest supporters of Israel since Hamas' attack on Oct. 7, which killed more than 1,100 people and led to hundreds of others’ being taken hostage. Israel's response has killed tens of thousands of civilians in the Gaza Strip, where Hamas fighters continue to hold hostages — a retaliation that has outraged critics of both Israel and the U.S. and fueled domestic opposition to Biden.
Since she became the nominee, Harris has clashed with protesters at her rallies, including one event where she warned that the opposition risks electing former President Donald Trump.
But pro-Palestinian groups say they’re expecting the same level of engagement from their members as if Biden were the nominee next week. They have already added “Killer Kamala” to “Genocide Joe” in protests, including Sunday outside a fundraiser in San Francisco. Abudayyeh said his group will be satisfied when the U.S. stops sending money to Israel to support a war that has killed thousands of civilians. He also said he fears an escalation is unfolding in the region.
"The movement is saying not only are we needing to stop the genocide, but we need to stop the possibility that this thing is going to be a regional war," he said.
Law enforcement officials in Chicago say that after a year and a half of planning, both the convention and the city will be safe regardless of what unfolds.
“We do feel very prepared; we are very ready. What people really need to understand is this is a national security event. Every resource of the federal, state, county and local government will be used,” Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. “It’s the highest security designation that the United States can give to anything. ... We feel very confident in the security plan in the Chicago Police Department. We’re going to work hand in glove to make sure that the DNC is safe and that Chicago is safe.”
Still, Robert Grant, the former FBI special agent in charge in Chicago, warned that aside from those who attend to peacefully protest, there are often bad actors who try to take advantage of large-scale events.
“It’s summer. It’s Chicago. There’s always knuckleheads that come into town,” Grant said. “You could be a Republican, you could be a Democrat, you could be a Libertarian or independent, they’re there to cause chaos. That’s all they care about.”
Grant referred to the 2012 NATO summit in Chicago, the most recent major event in the city that necessitated a high level of security protections — though still not as high as the Democratic convention, he said.
Before the summit, investigators identified locations where homemade weapons, like socks filled with rocks, were covertly stashed. Law enforcement monitored social media for cryptic public messages some of the groups communicated in real time and was able to relay the intelligence to bike patrols that disrupted bad actors before they struck.
A menacing-looking video circulated on social media Tuesday in which the narrator, whose face was cloaked, said, “As home to the largest Palestinian diaspora in the country, we want to give Killer Kamala, her partners in crime, and her future VP a warm welcome to our city.”
Guglielmi said the Secret Service was aware of the video: “We are tracking that. We are seeing that. We are going to make any adjustments necessary.” But he pointed to an FBI statement that there are currently no credible threats to the convention.
“At this time, the FBI is not aware of any specific and articulable threats related to the DNC,” the FBI statement said. “We will continue to evaluate and share intelligence received from domestic and international partners related to the DNC just as we would for any large-scale event within the Chicago area.”
