Chicago, IL – Only a few hours before the public learned of the U.S. military’s attack on Iran’s three nuclear sites, hundreds took to the streets in Chicago, June 21, with the Coalition for Justice in Palestine (CJP) to demand hands off Iran. The protest was one of the Coalition’s recurring downtown protests, demanding an end to the ongoing U.S.– backed Israeli genocide of Palestine.

Over the last eight days, Israel has been at war with Iran, beginning with its unprovoked attack on Iran on June 13. Iran launched waves of retaliatory missiles in response, confusing Israeli defense systems and striking key locations in Tel Aviv, Haifa and the surrounding areas.

In sweltering 93-degree heat, over 200 protesters gathered at Ida B. Wells Drive and Michigan Avenue yesterday, with community-based organizations such as the Anti-War Committee Chicago (AWC-Chicago) Chicago Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression (CAARPR), and Students for Democratic Society at University Illinois Chicago (SDS at UIC) mobilizing in support.

“There is one country in the middle east that has refused—that has vehemently rejected—to be a signatory to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty; that is not Iran, that is Israel!” Tarek Khalil from American Muslims for Palestine Chicago, a member of CJP, said in his address to the crowd.

Khalil continued, “There is one country in the Middle East that is, as I speak, committing a genocide against the Palestinian people; that is not Iran, that is Israel!” Israel and the U.S.’s recent attacks on Iran come in the 21st month of the ongoing genocide of the Palestine people, carried out by the Israeli apartheid regime, with full diplomatic support, weapons, billions of dollars of military aid, and intelligence from the U.S.

After the rally, protesters took to the streets, marching along Michigan Avenue, and drawing public attention from downtown Saturday shoppers, tourists, workers and businesspeople.

The protest’s demands were timely, with Trump announcing only four hours later that the U.S. military had attacked Iran’s nuclear facility, Fordo, with six B-2 stealth bombers, dropping 396,000 pounds of bunker buster bombs on the underground site. The U.S. Navy reportedly fired 30 TLAM cruise missiles at two other nuclear sites. Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi condemned the U.S. attack as “a grave violation of the UN Charter, international law and the NPT.” NPT is the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

Lara Haddadin from U.S. Palestinian Community Network linked the attacks on Iran to the genocide in Palestine, saying, “The U.S. and Israel are always the aggressors – from Palestine to Lebanon to Syria to Iran, it is clear that the pattern of sanctions, destabilization, occupation and more is all to maintain U.S. dominance in the Middle East and all of the Third World.”

An emergency response action, called by U.S. Palestinian Community Network, a member of CJP, and Anti-War Committee Chicago is set for Monday at 5 p.m. in Federal Plaza.

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