Man facing hate crime charges after 3 pepper sprayed at pro-Palestinian protest in Skokie
No charges for man who fired gun in the air near pro-Palestinian protest outside Solidarity with Israel event
SKOKIE, Ill. (WLS) -- A man is facing hate crime charges after chaos erupted during a pro-Palestinian protest outside a pro-Israel event in Skokie over the weekend.
Police were seen responding to a disturbance during a demonstration by about 200 Palestinian supporters on Sunday night while a show of solidarity with Israel was underway indoors at Ateras Ayala.
In response, police set up a perimeter around the shopping plaza on Touhy Avenue and only allowed people with a ticket to the event on the premises, leaving demonstrators to protest yards away from the entrance.
At one point, chaos ensued. Police said three people, including a Chicago police officer, were pepper sprayed during the rally.
Officers were seen tackling someone to the ground, and then, leading at least two men away in custody.
On Tuesday, police said they arrested 33-year-old Zevulen Ebert in connection with a pepper spray incident.
Ebert has been charged with two hate crime counts and two aggravated battery counts, police said. He is due in court on Wednesday for a pre-trial release hearing.
However, charges will not be filed against a man who fired a gun near the protesters, according to the Cook County state's attorney's office.
The 39-year-old man, who prosecutors declined to name, was released from police custody. In a statement issued Monday, prosecutors said the man, a Firearm Owner Identification Card and Concealed Carry License holder, had "no criminal history."
"After reviewing the evidence, which includes surveillance video and witness statements, we have determined the individual ... acted in self-defense upon being surrounded by a crowd and attacked by some of those individuals," according to the statement.
Shortly after 5:30 p.m., a smaller group of protesters moved south across Touhy Avenue after seeing the man exit his sedan and chase a woman who appeared to take an Israeli flag off his car, according to nearby camera footage.
He was surrounded by protesters, according to a chaotic video of the incident provided to the Sun-Times by a witness, then a gunshot can be heard on the video.
People scream and the crowd scatters, and the man can be seen holding the gun as someone screams, "Get him! Get him!"
Lincolnwood police confirmed the man fired a weapon into the air, and he was arrested at the scene.
Hatem Abuddayeh, the national chair of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, said the state's attorney's office was "absolutely wrong" in releasing the man, who he said "endangered hundreds."
He blamed America's political leaders, specifically President Joe Biden and some elected officials in Illinois who have voiced support for Israel, for stoking the attacks.
He said decisions such as the one not to file charges give the Palestinian community reason to worry about its safety.
Since the Israeli-Hamas war started two weeks ago, Muslim activists in Chicago have said anti-Muslim hate is worse than after 9/11.
Two Chicago-area Muslim schools have received violent threats - causing several Muslim schools to go on lockdown - a suburban man was charged with a hate crime for threatening to shoot two Muslim men, and another suburban man allegedly told a woman, "Go back to your country." And 6-year-old Palestinian American Wadea Al-Fayoume was killed in an alleged hate crime because of his ethnicity and Muslim faith, authorities said.
"I don't think (pro-Palestinian protesters) are gonna be dissuaded from wanting to do more and being public in their support for their people and their demands of our government," Abuddayeh said. "But it's a message to our community that the people in charge don't care that we're being attacked."
Alison Pure-Slovin, the Midwest regional director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which organized the Israeli solidarity event, said prosecutors likely decided not to press charges because the man "didn't feel safe."
"He was afraid because he was accosted by other people," Pure-Slovin said. "The United States of America guarantees free speech. You should not be accosted because of your beliefs."
A representative for the Anti-Defamation League said antisemitic actions have increased sharply in the weeks since war broke out. A Portage Park woman had her Israeli flag replaced with a Palestinian one that read "Palestine will be free, all Jerusalem to the sea," according to Chicago police. Another Israeli flag was vandalized in downstate Champaign, according to the ADL.
Police asked anyone with information about the incident to call them at 847-982-5900.
The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.
