CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - About a dozen pro-Palestinian protesters have been arrested after a demonstration outside a building in the Loop this morning.
They blocked two entrances to the Barclays building on LaSalle and Adams for about two hours during the morning rush.
Members of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, Anti-War Committee Chicago and others are calling on the investment bank to divest itself from the war in Gaza.
Chicago Police officers dressed in camo were seen separating protestors who had chained themselves together. It was preventing people from getting in.
The pro-Palestinian groups accuse Barclays of financially supporting the war in Gaza by holding shares in defense companies supplying Israel. Barclays says that’s a misstatement. The company acknowledges it provides financial services to those companies but says it is not a shareholder or investor in them.
The investment bank says it would end relationships with businesses shown to make cluster bombs or components.
An Israeli strike on a school sheltering the displaced in the Gaza Strip killed at least 27 people, including a child and seven women, Palestinian officials said Thursday, as Israel continues to strike at what it says are militant targets across Gaza.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not say how many were fighters but say women and children make up more than half of the fatalities. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced around 90% of its population of 2.3 million people, often multiple times.
A year ago, Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed into army bases and farming communities, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. They are still holding about 100 captives inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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