Pro-Palestinian protesters assault man entering Chicago screening of film on Nova festival massacre

A group of pro-Palestinian protesters assaulted a man holding a small Israeli flag as he walked into the Logan Square Theater in Chicago where a screening was being held earlier this week of a documentary on Hamas’s October 7 massacre of the Nova music festival in which 364 people were killed.

The suspects were among dozens protesting in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood, trying to block attendees from entering the building.

The protesters shouted “shame on you” at attendees of the event sponsored by several Jewish organizations.

“I did not say anything to anyone, as we walked up I did not look at anyone, I did not give anyone the finger, I simply walked up holding an Israeli flag,” the assault victim tells ABC 7. “A group of them was swinging me around and threw me into a parked car. I was completely surrounded by maybe six or seven that started punching me in the head.”

The man, in his 50s, was not seriously injured in the attack, but local police have opened an investigation into the attack.

“Each step of the way, it’s gotten worse and worse all in the same continuum, an attempt to push Jews aside physically and rhetorically and that is where we are right now,” Dan Goldwin tells ABC. Goldwin is the public affairs executive director for the Jewish United Fund, the Jewish federation body in Chicago.