CHICAGO (AP) — More than 1,000 pro-Palestinian protesters marched Wednesday past a park where pro-Israel demonstrators had earlier gathered and toward the arena hosting the third night of the Democratic National Convention.

The demonstration was largely peaceful. The day before, there had been violent clashes between police and demonstrators, in which 56 people were arrested.

As protesters passed under a new elevated train station near the United Center that had been completed just before the DNC, police officers were seen taking a person to the ground on the platform above. In response, hundreds of protesters pushed against the edge of the station, banging their hands and flagpoles against the glass, and demanding that police release the person. The person exited the station moments later through the emergency exit, escorted by police officers but not handcuffed, prompting cheers from the crowd.

The pro-Palestinian protesters included many families and people of different faiths. Some children ate popsicles as they walked, others were pushed in strollers or carried in carts. Shortly before the march began, small groups of Muslims gathered in a park to pray, using keffiyehs as prayer rugs. The march leaders included rabbis, and a small group marched through the crowd holding a sign that read “Christians for Ceasefire.”

Buses had picked up families and students from area mosques and brought them to the demonstration, including residents of Chicago’s southwest suburbs, where one of the largest concentrations of Palestinians in the country lives.

A protester is detained by police near the Israeli consulate during the Democratic National Convention, Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Noah Berger

Raed Shuk, 48, brought his children from the suburbs, including his two-year-old son, who sat on Shuk’s shoulders before the march. Shuk, whose parents are Palestinian, said they have come to so many rallies that his son knows the slogans by heart.

“The humanity of everyone must be taken into account equally here and there,” he said of Gaza. “I want to help my children learn from this experience that you must always stand up for your rights and always protest peacefully.”

Earlier, police escorted pro-Israel protesters from a park near the United Center because the area had been cordoned off for the activists’ march there.

The rally near the United Center was organized by the US Palestinian Community Network, a Palestinian and Arab community organization, and came the evening after a fierce skirmish with Chicago police at a protest that was not affiliated with a coalition of more than 200 groups that has organized other sanctioned rallies and marches this week.

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein attended Wednesday’s rally and criticized the police’s use of force, which she described as an “overwhelming presence.”

“This is an absolute intimidation of the American people to silence our protest,” she said in an interview with the Associated Press. “…This is an absolute violation of our basic democratic rights.”

Chicago Police Commissioner Larry Snelling said the people arrested Tuesday night outside the Israeli consulate, about two miles from the United Center where the Democrats were meeting, “appeared with the intent to commit acts of violence and vandalism.” Snelling called the police response “proportionate.”

“As a Chicago Police Department, we did everything we could to de-escalate the situation,” Snelling said during a press conference.

According to Chicago police, 30 of the people arrested by police were cited for disturbing the peace. One person was arrested for resisting police, while nine people were charged with misdemeanors including disturbing the peace, resisting police officers, assault, battery and property damage, police said.

The violent clashes between pro-Palestinian protesters and police began minutes into the demonstration, after some protesters – many dressed in black and with their faces covered – attacked a line of police officers who had blocked their march. They were eventually able to get past the police, but were surrounded several times throughout the night by police in riot gear, who did not allow the protesters to disperse.

Hatem Abudayyeh, co-founder of the US Palestinian Community Network, responded to the clashes between pro-Palestinian protesters and police, blaming the police for maintaining peace.

The police “have only one responsibility here,” he said. “They have a responsibility not to violate our rights under the First Amendment to the Constitution.”

Abudayyeh led a separate march on Monday, but was not an organizer of the demonstration on Tuesday evening in front of the Israeli consulate.

Snelling said two people were taken to hospital with minor injuries, one for knee pain and one with a finger injury. Two officers were injured but refused medical attention because they did not want to leave their colleagues alone, Snelling said. He said three journalists were among those arrested, but he did not provide details on the charges.

The Israeli consulate has been the scene of numerous demonstrations since the Gaza war began in October, and the protests during the DNC largely focused on opposition to the war between Israel and Hamas.

The largest protest so far, which attracted around 3,500 people on Monday, was largely peaceful and resulted in 13 arrests, most of them related to breaching security fences. Two people were arrested on Sunday evening during another largely peaceful march.

Also on Wednesday, a man who fled a courthouse in Mississippi and is wanted on charges of murder and armed robbery was arrested. The man was taken into custody at a restaurant about a half-mile from the United Center after a standoff with police. There was no indication he had any connection to the gathering.

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