Pro-Palestinian demonstrators batter pro-Israel activist helping old man in Skokie

Videos posted on the social network X (formerly Twitter) Monday showed a group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators violently beating a man on the ground in Skokie, Illinois, while an older, visibly Jewish man looked on with alarm. The events took place on Sunday, amid dueling rallies in response to the war between Israel and Hamas.

Charlie Kirk, leader of the right-wing activist group "Turning Point USA," identified the man in the video as Peter Christos, who was attending the rally along with another activist from the organization. "Christos," Kirk wrote on X, "was violently attacked while he and another TPUSA staffer were trying to escort an elderly Jewish couple away from a pro-Israel rally. On the way to their cars, they encountered pro-Hamas supporters who assaulted them, punched them repeatedly, and hit them with a flag pole before cops could pull them away to safety." Christos posted a similar account of the events as well. 

Yesterday in Skokie, myself & @TPUSA coworker were violently attacked by Pro-Hamas protestors while trying to escort a lost, elderly Jewish couple to the Pro-Israel event.I was punched repeatedly, kicked in the head, and hit with a flagpole.This is being Pro-Israel in 2023. pic.twitter.com/IYRePuiPxX

— Peter Christos (@peterchristos) October 23, 2023

It was one of several disturbances at the scene, which took place outside the Lincolnwood Town Center, where the Simon Weisenthal Center was hosting a "Standing with Israel" event.

About 200 pro-Palestine counterprotesters came to picket the event, according to NBC5 Chicago. Police said that at one point, members of the crowd confronted an individual who then brandished a handgun and shot one warning shot in the air. That individual was taken into custody. A participant in the pro-Palestine protest was also taken into custody for assaulting two people with pepper spray, causing minor injuries.

On Oct. 22 in Skokie, Illinois, a Solidarity with Israel rally was violently countered by a group of Palestine and/or Hamas supporters. Several people were injured and one man fired warning shots in the air when he was pursued by a mob. One video captured a group assault by… pic.twitter.com/FWGL3Qth6A

— Andy Ngô ️‍ (@MrAndyNgo) October 23, 2023

Skokie is a historic battleground for antisemitism, free speech

Skokie, Illinois is a suburb of Chicago whose population has been largely Jewish since the mid-20th century, including a significant community of Holocaust survivors. In the late 1970s, Skokie became a free speech battleground, when the American Nazi Party began to hold demonstrations there.

After pressure from the Jewish community prompted a legal battle between the neo-Nazis and the local authorities, the Nazi Party's right to hold openly antisemitic demonstrations advanced to the Supreme Court, which ruled that hate speech, so long as it did not directly incite to violence, is protected under the free speech clause of the US Constitution.