“The repressive police response to a Palestine solidarity protest at the Israeli Consulate seemed preplanned and designed to stifle free expression during the Democratic NAtional Convention,” Ben Meyer, of the NLG’s Chicago guild said. ” Assurances that the City would respect people’s First Amendment rights during the convention rings hollow next to this brazenly aggressive approach to free expression.”

The Consulate General of Israel to the Midwest praised local law enforcement efforts and said in a statement it was “appalled” over the violence in front of its office, saying that it was “anything but peaceful” and “completely contradictory to the spirit of the DNC.”

The event, non-permitted, which began around 7 p.m. CDT, was organized by Behind Enemy Lines, a leftist group with militant leaning, and Samidoun which is a group banned in Israel and Germany over alleged ties to terrorist groups.

“This vocal minority does not represent the vast bipartisan majority of Americans who stand strong in support of Israel,” the consulate stated, adding it was “incredibly heartwarming” to see “many Americans countering this hate” as it unfolded outside its Chicago office, which the consulate believes echoes “the strong bond between America and Israel.”

The consulate was barricaded and heavily protected by police on bicycles as protestors were chanting pro-Palestinian slogans. After speeches the scene quickly got unruly and proceeded to quickly march toward Chicago police down the block.

Hundreds of local police officers wearing riot gear made several attempts to box in the group of demonstrators as some engaged with officers, but had managed to direct the crowd toward the downtown Chicago Loop area.

Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling praised the city’s officers for “showing restraint when no one else did,” saying his team “did an excellent job responding to violence and vandalism.”

On Tuesday, reports said some protestors who got pushed downtown left the scene and some got arrested as others marched on to near Union Station, where some were seen climbing on signs before Chicago police forcibly took them down.

Police slowly corralled groups of demonstrators to various street intersections and made handfuls of arrests before again letting the diminishing crowd advance, ending at the corner of Monroe and Canal streets where police ended the protest, ordered people to disperse before arresting scores of remaining protestors.

“Dozens of people were brutally arrested outside the Israeli consulate by Brandon Johnson‘s thugs defending the genocidal criminals inside the DNC,” Behind Enemy Lines posted on Instagram Tuesday night, a dig at Chicago’s Mayor Brandon Johnson, a Democrat.

Chicago’s sizable metropolitan area with more than 9 million residents has the largest centralized Palestinian population in the nation. Additional security measures were in place Tuesday night after pro-Palestine protest organizers led by Behind Enemy Lines vowed to disrupt DNC proceedings that night.

Israeli consulate officials were “beyond disappointed” with what it claimed is the mayor’s “ongoing support” for “anti-Israel protests in Chicago, particularly during the DNC, and his continued disregard for the large pro-Israel and Jewish community in the city,” which a 2020 Brandeis University study reveals is an estimated 319,600 Jewish residents living in more than 175,000 in the Chicago metropolitan area.

Samidoun and BEL are one of several groups that have descended on Chicago in protest of the ongoing Democratic Convention for various different causes as other pro-Palestinian groups reportedly have plans to continue demonstrations Wednesday on the DNC’s third day.

Tuesday was the second day protestors at the DNC clashed with police after Monday’s mostly peaceful Coalition to March saw an estimated crowd of possibly up to 6,000 participants where more than 10 people got arrested, according to the DNC 2024 Joint Information Center.

But organized groups arrived in Chicago with “hostility,” and “that’s exactly what we saw tonight,” Snelling told reporters on Tuesday. “People got too close to officers.”

It was revealed organizers planned a “shut down the DNC for Gaza” rally for Tuesday evening to start outside Israel’s consulate located less than 2 miles east from the convention site at downtown Chicago’s United Center, which is on the same street.

Snelling said Tuesday that Chicago police were “up to the challenge” of policing the organized protests. He stated his belief how Monday’s breach with protestors was not representative of that march as a whole.

“Within that protest, we had people who simply wanted to exercise their First Amendment rights,” he said.