Chicago business owners, reeling since the lootings and vandalism that occurred during the 2020 civil uprisings, are taking no chances with the thousands of anti-Israel activists who are set to arrive at the Windy City’s downtown area this week to “shut down the DNC for Gaza.”

Although the Democratic National Convention is set to kick off Monday, business owners in the downtown area have already taken measures to protect their stores from belligerent rioters, boarding up their windows and barricading their doors. By Thursday, several storefronts had been shielded by plywood, local media outlets reported. 

“As we know, this city has a poor track record when it comes to protecting businesses,” a local store owner, Scott Shapiro, told ABC Chicago. “We felt it was more prudent to board up, since our customers and their employers have told them to stay home throughout the convention for their own safety.” 

Mr. Shapiro’s menswear shop on Clark Street, Syd Jerome, nearly went out of business four years ago after it was repeatedly ransacked and lost nearly $100,000 in merchandise. His shop was just one of the businesses that suffered from repeated break-ins during the George Floyd protests that took hold of Chicago in summer 2020. 

The owner of Chicago Board-Up Services, Vicki Fichter, said her crew has already worked on more than a dozen businesses in the past week and she has received more than 40 requests for board-up jobs in the downtown area. 

“We’re boarding them up tight, so that there’s no entry,” Ms. Fichter told ABC. 

The planned protest, which is being called “March on the DNC,” was marshaled by a coalition of nearly a hundred different organizations with the goal of “bringing our demands to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 2024.” 

On a website for the march, the coalition criticizes the Democratic Party as being “a tool of billionaires and corporations” and writes that the party’s decision to swap out “genocide Joe Biden” does not “wash the blood of over 50,000 Palestinians off their hands.” 

“Their actions, such as financing genocide in Palestine and war in multiple countries; continuing the mass incarceration of Black and brown people; deporting millions of immigrants; and neglecting campaign promises made to the oppressed communities who represent their voting base, show that the Democratic Party only serves the agenda of the rich and powerful,” the coalition writes.  

The coalition’s “main demand” is to end American aid to Israel, or what its calls “arming and supporting this genocide.”  

The march also lists additional demands “of the people’s movements,” including “immigrant rights and legalization for all,” “LGBTQIA+” and “reproductive” rights, “stop police crimes,” and “money for jobs, school, healthcare, housing, and environment, not for war.” 

The planned protests have caught the attention of the Anti-Defamation League, which announced on X that it will be “closely monitoring developments” related to the rallies.  

The advocacy organization warned that the groups are preparing to disrupt the event, with some “radical organizations” even “vowing to ‘throw down against the DNC’ and possibly instigate violence.” One of the groups participating in the rally shared an Instagram post pledging to “shut down the DNC for Gaza,” adding, “let’s give them what they deserve.” 

“Nearly 100 orgs are expected to protest the DNC, some aiming to ‘shut it down’ and ‘flood the city.’ Some of them have a history of encouraging confrontation with law enforcement and ‘direct actions,’ including property destruction & defacement, and physical takeovers of spaces.” the group added. 

In the same thread, the ADL detailed the antisemitic offenses of some of the organizers behind the event, including those of Samidoun, a “Palestinian prisoner solidarity network.” 

The group, the ADL notes, has been at the “forefront” of several “anti-Israel rallies where support for terror is rampant,” and “openly praises the Oct 7 attack on Israel and supports Hamas, Hezbollah, PFLP and other US-designated terror groups.” 

Another organization backing the protest, Students for Justice in Palestine, is facing a lawsuit for allegedly acting as “the propaganda arm” for Hamas on American college campuses. Chapters of the organization were banned from several universities, including Brandeis, Columbia, and Rutgets, for harassing and intimidating Jewish students. 

“The right to peaceful protest is sacrosanct,” the ADL adds. “But all must speak out when certain groups explicitly lionize terror organizations, celebrate the biggest massacre of Jews since WWII, and get accolades from the Iranian regime — the world’s leading state sponsor of terror.”

The coalition is organizing formal rallies on Monday and Thursday — the days during which President Biden and Vice President Harris are slated to speak — and the crowds are expected to be in the tens of thousands of people, a spokesman for the coalition, Hatem Abudayyeh, told the Times of Israel. 

While the coalition succeeded in securing a permit to congregate near the DNC arena, the United Center, it failed to obtain permission for a more desirable and longer march route. The city has also banned it from putting up stages, portable toilets, tents, or sound equipment. 

A pro-Israel nonprofit group, Israeli-American Council, which was looking to stage a counter-protest, was unable to gain access to a permit from the city, the Times of Israel reports. The group opted to install an art exhibit nearby to honor the hostages that remain in Gaza.  

The Secret Service has set up security perimeters around McCormick place — where party members are set to meet during the day — and around the United Center. 

Ahead of the expected protest, Chicago’s police superintendent, Larry Snelling, announced that his department will not be tolerating violence or vandalism of any kind. “The minute that starts, we have to put an end to it,” he said. “When people become comfortable committing acts of violence and vandalism, that’s when it turns into a riot.”