LGBT Conference in Chicago Turns Violent From Anti-Israel Protesters

[maz]

It's just fishy all around.


LGBT Conference in Chicago Turns Violent From Anti-Israel Protesters

Anti-Israel protestors stormed Friday's gay rights Creating Change Conference at the Chicago Hilton, hosted by the National LGBTQ Task Force, forcing the cancellation of an event hosted by A Wider Bridge, an organization that advocates growing the relationship between the "LGBTQ communities of North America and Israel."

Reportedly chanting "no justice, no peace," protesters displayed signs equating the Jewish state with apartheid and Zionism with racism, targeting a reception featuring Israeli LGBT rights activists Sarah Kala-Meir and Tom Canning of the Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance, an Israeli LGBT advocacy group.

"There were about 200 protesters outside the room. They blockaded the room, three of them entered the room, took over the stage, and the people from Jerusalem Open House were not allowed to speak," explained Adrian Shanker, Executive Director of the Allentown, Pennsylvania-based, Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center. "They [Kala-Meir and Canning] were escorted out of the room so they would be safe, and we were all asked to leave through the service entrance for our safety."

Many of those attending the Jerusalem Open House reception were there to show support and learn how the organization was dealing with the aftermath of a stabbing rampage this past July at the Jerusalem gay pride parade.

According to a video posted by the Gay Liberation Network, "besides the protests of Arabs, Muslims and Latinos, the Task Force's moves prompted a who's who of local Black Lives Matter organizations to publicly denounce the Task Force and/or boycott the conference."

The video reveals a volatile situation as Jews trying to leave the area are being physically stopped by protesters shouting orders of "Occupy, Occupy," while a man trying to leave the area is heard shouting "you're pushing me."

"When you have Jewish people in a room blockaded by a lot of angry people yelling at them from outside, accusing them of being racists and blocking the exits so they can't leave, it creates an unsafe environment for Jews, as our cultural history has shown over time," said Mr. Shanker.

The Pennsylvania gay rights leader does give the protestors the benefit of the doubt, believing that many didn't realize the impact they were having on a number of visibly Jewish attendees.

"For a lot of us it wasn't a discomfort for having discourse around Israel and Palestine and human rights, but rather a discomfort because many of the protestors didn't quite understand the language they were using—that the rhetoric they were chanting went beyond a political difference—that some of the language was actually incendiary."

Citing the crowd chanting "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," Shanker believes the protestors misunderstood that to mean a better human rights record, not realizing it is actually a call for the elimination of Israelis from that region.

Andy Thayer of the Gay Liberation Network told the Haym Salomon Center, "People at our protest were angry—rightly so—but no one's safety was significantly threatened, which is more than could be said when such protests happen in Israel and the occupied territories."[/url

[Idaho Kid]

Yep.  Very fishy.  Hardly an event likely to draw honest (unpaid) anti-Shitholeistan protesters.