(Politico) Moments after Iran launched an attack on Israel, around 400 pro-Palestinian protesters in Chicago broke out in chants of “Hands off Iran!” The head of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights organization, claimed Iran “is responding in self-defense.”
And the young pro-Palestinian group IfNotNow called both Iran and Israel “authoritarian governments” that were putting citizens in danger, adding that “further escalation only serves these warmongering, corrupt politicians’ interests.”
In the immediate aftermath of Iran’s attack on Israel, the positions of progressive and pro-Palestinian groups are only hardening and further widening the rift between the activist base and moderates in the Democratic Party just seven months before the election. The response from the pro-Palestinian left suggests the latest flashpoint in the conflict is doing little to reorient the debate at home.
