A man attending a Solidarity With Israel event Sunday in Skokie was charged with hate crimes and felonies for allegedly pepper-spraying pro-Palestinian demonstrators outside the event, police said.
Zevulen Ebert, 33, of the 5000 block of Oakton Street, Skokie, was charged by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office with two counts of felony aggravated battery and two counts of felony hate crimes, according to a news release from Skokie police late Tuesday.
Skokie police had arrested Ebert Sunday evening near the Ateres Ayala kosher event hall, 3412 Touhy Ave., where the Midwest Regional Office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center was holding the Solidarity with Israel event.
Ebert was waving an Israeli flag in front of a group of Palestinian supporters when an individual came up from behind and tried to take Ebert’s flag, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office said in a document Wednesday. A verbal exchange followed between Ebert and the group, after which Ebert discharged pepper spray, the document said.
More than one Chicago police officer was sprayed, and Ebert accused Palestinians of killing babies and gave “obscene middle finger gestures” to Palestinian supporters, the document said, immediately after using the pepper spray.
The document also said the incident was captured on video from police officers’ body-worn cameras and private citizens’ cameras. It said Ebert was not visibly attacked or threatened before discharging the pepper spray.
At a pre-trial court appearance Wednesday, Judge Anthony Calabrese of the Skokie branch of Cook County Circuit Court released Ebert from detention and ordered him to appear at his next court date Nov. 16.
Ebert’s lawyer, Hal Garfinkel, said the hate crime charges would not likely stick and described Ebert’s case as a political one.
“Because of what is going on politically nationally and internationally, in regards to the protest, I believe the State’s Attorney’s Office had to succumb to political pressures and proceed with criminal charges against my client,” Garfinkel said.
Inside the hall at Sunday’s Solidarity with Israel event, speakers expressed shock, concern and sorrow over attacks on Jews in Israel during the Israel-Hamas war, as well as the kidnapping of Jewish hostages, and discussed what Israel could or should do next. Many attendees besides Ebert carried Israeli flags.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators arrived before the event was to start at 5 p.m. and stood outside in the parking lot holding signs and Palestinian flags and chanting in support of protecting Palestinians in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war. Hamas is a terrorist organization.
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Police said some of the demonstrators Sunday evening crossed Touhy Avenue from north to south, leaving Skokie and entering Lincolnwood. Lincolnwood police said Sunday night that at the Lincolnwood Town Center mall, a man fired a gunshot into the air, and in a separate incident, the same man used his car to strike a protester in a hit and run. No one was injured by the gunshot, and a protester was injured in the hit and run, Lincolnwood police said, but rejected medical attention.
Lincolnwood police said they took the 39-year-old man who had fired the gunshot into custody and presented the case to the Felony Review Unit of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office, which declined to bring charges.
The U.S. Palestine Community Network, which organized the Sunday protest, issued a statement Tuesday night after charges were brought against Ebert, saying it approved.
The statement quoted Hatem Abudayyeh, the organization’s national chair, saying, “Zionists have attacked Palestinians and our supporters in Seattle, L.A., New York, Minneapolis, and now Skokie, but we are a brave people and we won’t stop protesting for our rights and to demand that the U.S. government force Israel to end its killing of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.”
Ebert’s conditional release will not include electronic surveillance, according to court documents.
An arrest does not constitute a finding of guilt.