Bridgeview, Illinois is a suburb of Chicago that looks a lot like most other suburbs here, with strip malls and one-story houses. But look a little closer and you see that many of the shop signs are in Arabic -- restaurants, jewelry stores, nut and spice shops. Locals call this Little Palestine, the largest community of Palestinian Americans in the U.S.
In the main shopping strip an electronic billboard flashes with one number -- 40,000 – the latest Palestinian death toll, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Israel has waged a war in Gaza since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack, which killed around 1,200 Israelis and took over 250 hostage. Families of the hostages continued their push at the DNC for those hostages to be released.
The war that has unfolded since, alongside the humanitarian crisis it has created in Gaza, has left Palestinian Americans a community in perpetual mourning, says Thear Ahmad, an emergency medical physician.
“I think all of us are struggling with the fact that there’s this celebratory atmosphere around the Democratic National Convention,” he says.
The Biden administration says Israel has a right to defend itself, a position Vice President Kamala Harris has echoed. Harris has also said she won’t be silent about the rising Palestinian death toll, “but if it's just more empathy and no changes on the ground that's not enough for us,” Ahmad says.
As Israel continues to wage war on Hamas and more Palestinians are killed, Palestinian Americans and their allies are calling for an end to what they believe is a genocide. President Biden and Israel both reject the idea that what’s happening in Gaza is a genocide or that Israel is committing war crimes. The International Court of Justice says it is plausible that Israel has violated the terms of the Genocide Convention, but it has not been found guilty. Humanitarian groups also have accused Hamas of numerous war crimes.
Biden says he’s working towards a ceasefire, but obstacles remain high. For his part, former President Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, has criticized Biden for not supporting Israel enough and vowed to “crush” the pro Palestinian movement that has galvanized anti-war protests on college campuses across the country.
In this community, these Palestinian Americans doctors, teachers, students, businesspeople and activists are taking this moment with the Democratic National Convention in their backyard as an opportunity to try to bring their stories to Party leaders. Here are some of their reflections on what is happening in Gaza and this political moment.
Hamza AbdulQader, critical care nurse
“I have been in Little Palestine, Bridgeview, my whole life. I recently came back from a medical mission to Gaza. I was there for two weeks in March with an organization called PAMA, the Palestinian American Medical Association.”
“Seeing it first hand was the most catastrophic and cruel thing I've ever experienced in my entire life. There are no words, there are no videos, there are no pictures that can depict what it's like there on the ground. It has gotten infinitely worse since then and it continues to get worse every single day. As a member of this community, as a Palestinian, as an American, I don't really know how to describe what it is like to be a part of this community. You feel a sense of betrayal, a sense of anger, frustration, hopelessness.”
“But this community is something that, without it, I don't know where I'd be. Because everyone here is just nonstop. They don't give up. And that stubbornness that the Palestinian identity has is something that I love now.”
Taleb Awad, owner of The Nut House
“I’m a 42-year-old Palestinian, born and raised in America.”
“Our shop is located in the heart of Little Palestine. We cater to Middle Eastern communities. We have all the nuts, seeds, Turkish delights, coffee, all the stuff we import from the Middle East right here to your doorstep.”
“The morale in the community has been at an all-time low. The younger ones are very vocal and they're doing a great job going to the demonstrations and protest and doing what they can, but the ones that it really hits home to is the ones that are my parents' age because they literally went through this before, it just was never documented like this.”
“After 9/11 they made us out to be the bad guys. Now I feel like with social media, it completely backfired on them. People that have never ever seen or met a Palestinian before are fighting for us. I really believe that there's going to be a bright light at the end of the tunnel. I'm just keeping my faith strong.”
Shorou Kakarah, activist with the Chicago chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine
“Just the horrors that we're seeing, as a Palestinian, or just just as a human, I feel like we're desensitized to it. We're still going to protests every week, you know, now we have the DNC [here] that's the most, biggest thing that we have, but I just, I don't know, for me, it's like, I'm desensitized to it, in a sense. Like, what more can I do?”
“We try to have our voices heard, and it's almost like nobody's hearing us. We're out on the streets, like, every weekend, you know, and it's like, ‘okay, like, we're here. Can you guys at least just look at us? Just look at us.’”
Aladdin Nassar, home builder
“My father's originally from Gaza. He was born in 1937 and he was displaced during the Nakba. This last 10 months or so we really saw him kind of re-traumatized and reliving that initial trauma of the Nakba in 1948.”
“I think there's still a window for Kamala Harris directly to indicate that the policies of Biden are not the policies of Kamala Harris and that the same old tired rhetoric of Israel has a right to defend itself as cover for Israel committing mass murder, mass genocide, bombing schools, bombing hospitals, bombing safe zones -- that that is no longer the policy of the United States. And that Palestinians have a right to exist, Palestinians have the basic rights of any other human being. So there is still a window. I would say it's almost shut though.”
Tammie Ismael, Islamic school principal
“The area that we're in is very heavily populated by Palestinian Americans, and that's reflected in our student population.”
“They have family members there and they will say ‘nobody knows where my grandparents are, it's been a week, we can't get in touch with them.’ They will say ‘my cousin was killed’ and the word that we use is shaheed or a martyr like ‘he's been martyred and please pray for him’ and we have kindergartners say ‘oh um my aunt is gone she's in heaven now because they bombed her.’”
“It is very hard to keep students hopeful when they feel that those who have the power are completely ignoring the worst thing they've ever seen. And as an adult, I don't have the answers because I feel the exact same way.”
Nida Sahouri, pharmacist
“I'm on a leave of absence right now because it’s just too much. I was not functioning because I see videos and the images from Gaza and the West Bank. And my manager is like, can you please take time off?”
“Whether it's Kamala [Harris] or Biden -- doesn't matter. It's the Democratic Party that needs to change their stand about this war. Our main things are, you know, stop aiding Israel, stop the genocide and bring aid and resolve the Palestinian issue once and for all, because if it's not resolved, then we're gonna keep going at it again and again.”
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