Chicago calls out McNally Capital for complicity in Palestinian genocide, demands stop starving Gaza
Chicago, IL – Hundreds of people rallied outside McNally Capital headquarters on Tuesday evening, July 22, and chanted “Stop starving Gaza now!” Some banged pots and pans to make noise in a way symbolic of Palestinians waiting for food aid in Gaza.
The emergency rally was hosted by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM).
“The U.S. and Israel have turned humanitarian aid into a weapon of war to ethnically cleanse Palestinians, and U.S. companies like McNally and their CEO are responsible for this famine,” said a speaker with PYM. “The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is a ploy from the Israeli Occupation Forces and America to hire killers to hunt our people. If we stand by and watch idly, then we too are participants in their genocidal crimes.”
McNally Capital is a Chicago-based investment firm that invests in Safe Reach Solutions, the logistics company which manages the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Since May 27, nearly 1000 Palestinians have been killed and thousands more injured while seeking aid, by Israeli forces and American contractors.
“Chicago is Palestine’s city,” said Nick Sous of the US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN). “We have no space for any business that funds genocide, ethnic cleansing and occupation of our people in Falasteen and Gaza.”
Sous also highlighted the complicity of Michael Freirichs and the Illinois State Board of Investments, stating, “In addition to McNally, there is Michael Freirichs. He’s invested, just like McNally, millions of dollars in the state of Israel, profiting off of the destruction of Gaza. It's also the Illinois State Board of Investments, which has invested in similar companies like Boeing and other weapons manufacturers, and probably McNally’s at this point, who are invested in the ethnic cleansing of people in Gaza.”
Protesters also attacked the Boston Consulting Group’s involvement in the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the Egyptian government’s reluctance to open the Rafah border, and the policies of Donald Trump’s administration.
“We have reached the limits of moral outrage. You know what we need now? We need power. We need people power. The kind you build here on the street, the kind you build in your workplace, the kind you build in your neighborhood. If you are not organizing, we are not winning,” said Eman Abdelhadi from Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine.
“The same people who want to put our neighbors in cages are the people who believe in starving our siblings in Gaza and Palestine. Our enemy is the same and our job is to fight that enemy everywhere we can and any way that we can,” Abdelhadi added.
Chicagoans walking by showed support for the protesters. One UPS worker on his break said, “Anyone aiding in the genocide will not get away with it; we are all watching what they are doing.”