Holocaust survivor Larry Heimlich reads a plaque at the Holocaust Monument in Skokie, Illinois, in 2014. Photo by Michael Heimlich/iStock

By Beth Harpaz October 24, 2023

Two people were arrested and a man was beaten to the ground when pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel protesters clashed in Skokie, Illinois. 

The melee unfolded Sunday outside a “Solidarity with Israel” event organized by a regional office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. The event, held at Ateres Ayala, a kosher banquet hall, attracted about 1,000 people. It was intended to show support for Israel in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 terror attacks by Hamas. 

About 200 protesters staged a pro-Palestinian rally in response, and police from nearby Lincolnwood arrested a man who they said fired a shot after being “confronted by numerous individuals.” The man, who the police said had a license to carry a gun, was later released without being charged, and police did not provide his name. Lincolnwood’s deputy chief, Travis Raypole, said media reports that the man had driven a car into the group were erroneous.

The person seen being beaten to the ground in a video that got thousands of views on social media was identified as Peter Christos, a staff member of the pro-MAGA Christian nationalist group Turning Point USA. Christos said on X (formerly Twitter) that he was attacked by “pro-Hamas” protesters while escorting an elderly Jewish couple into the Israel event.

The video shows Christos being tackled and punched by individuals carrying Palestinian flags. A post by the group StopAntisemitism erroneously described Christos as Jewish; Turning Point founder Charlie Kirk said on X that Christos is Christian. Neither Christos nor Turning Point responded to queries from the Forward. 

A second individual was arrested in Skokie for pepper-spraying a crowd, according to Skokie police, who charged Zevulen Ebert with aggravated battery and committing a hate crime in connection with the incident. The Chicago Sun-Times said the spray hit one of their reporters, a police officer and pro-Palestinian protesters, and that the assailant wore an Israeli flag as a cape. Police did not confirm those details. 

The infamous court case: Nazis and free speech

Skokie, located about 13 miles from Chicago, made headlines in the late 1970s when neo-Nazis sought to march there. The village refused permission and the American Civil Liberties Union, representing the National Socialist Party of America on free speech grounds, took the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. The court famously ruled that the display of swastikas is permitted under the First Amendment and that the village could not block the march. The march did not ultimately take place, but Skokie has been associated with the case ever since. 

At the time, more than half of Skokie’s 70,000 residents were Jewish, including some 7,000 Holocaust survivors. Today, about 28% of the population identifies as Jewish. The village is also home to a dozen synagogues and a Holocaust museum.

Other recent acts of hate

Sunday’s pro-Palestinian rally was organized by the U.S. Palestinian Community Network.  The group’s national chair, Hatem Abudayyeh, told The Associated Press that the rally was staged to push back against acts of hate. “This is a concern we’re having across the country,” Abudayyeh said. “Palestinians, whether at protests or living their daily lives, are being attacked.”

On Oct. 14, a landlord in Plainfield, Illinois, was charged with murdering a 6-year-old Palestinian boy who lived downstairs. 

Jews have also been targeted. The Illinois comptroller’s office fired attorney Sarah Chowdhury, who was also president of the South Asian Bar Association, after she reportedly left threatening comments on a Jewish lawyer’s Instagram page, including, “Hitler should have eradicated all of you.” 

And an Oct. 19 student “sit-in” at Niles West High School in Skokie planned as a peaceful event by Jewish and Muslim student groups ended with students chanting, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” The principal later sent out an email acknowledging that while most of the sit-in unfolded in a “peaceful and respectful manner,” a small group chanted “disparaging remarks.” 

The Anti-Defamation League reported a 21% increase in antisemitic activity in the United States since the Oct. 7 massacres by Hamas and Israel’s response. 

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who is Jewish, held a press conference Monday with the Arab American Bar Association and others to condemn acts of hate and plead for peace.

“I realize there are things happening in the world away that affect people’s reactions, emotional and otherwise,” Pritzker said. “But, again, we live here. We are all neighbors with one another. Illinoisans stand up for one another.”

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