Protesters in dozens of cities across America are participating in the “Global Strike for Gaza” today. They’re attempting to effect economic blockades to coincide with Tax Day. Iran’s attack on Israel this weekend didn’t deter the pro-Palestinian groups from holding the already-planned events.
In Chicago, protesters organized by a group called Chicago Dissenters blocked the access road to O’Hare International Airport at around 8:30 a.m. to protest Boeing, which sells military equipment to Israel. Activists posted videos on social media of irritated airline customers walking along the shut-down road with luggage in tow. Some of the comments on the post mocked “the privilege of being annoyed” and being “inconvenienced by having to walk to your flight while Palestinians are being murdered.” All of the participants in the blockade were masked.
The Dissenters are nationally funded by grants from the Third Wave Fund, an activist group started in 1992 to mobilize young radical feminists which has since shifted its focus to resourcing and supporting “youth-led, intersectional gender justice activism.” The Dissenters were given a “Mobilize Power Fund” grant in November 2023 to support “safety and security measures among their membership as part of their organizing to free Palestine.” As an aside, it’s worth mentioning that, along with aiding the “Free Palestine” movement, Third Wave Fund also finances a “Sex Worker Giving Circle,” which is “a diverse range of sex worker-led groups throughout the country and bringing current and former sex workers to the philanthropic decision-making table.”
Protesters have also blocked off Lockheed Martin in Virginia, the Golden Gate Bridge in California, the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge in New York, and numerous highways and airports. I’m glad to see these activists putting themselves on display. Every one of these events publicizes how cowardly and extreme pro-Hamas activists are, hiding behind masks and hurling obscenities. With every demonstration since October 7, their signs have gotten more extreme, their chants more vile. In October, protesters’ calls for “cease-fire” were almost knee-jerk; now the activists are cheering on Iranian missile attacks with glee and waving Hezbollah’s flag triumphantly. Full-throttle sympathy for terrorism was always the endgame, as we’ve written many times. Anyone who thought that calls for a cease-fire didn’t also mean the denial of Israel’s right to exist now have an array of evidence proving otherwise.