By PEORIA FOR PALESTINE

A ceasefire of sorts in Gaza — with Israelis still scarring, maiming, and murdering numbers of Palestinians daily in comparison with the earlier dozens and hundreds — remains a weak reality two years after the U.S.-funded Israeli genocide and famine began. At this point in the ongoing struggle, Peoria For Palestine would like central Illinois to remember a few things.

Our peaceful agitations that began on Sunday Oct. 15, 2023 at the corner of Main and University in Peoria focused on the Israeli massacres of innocent Palestinian civilians — an internationally recognized crime against humanity first prosecuted in 1945’s Nuremburg Trials against the Nazis.

Our ad hoc group of human rights activists returned to the high-profile, heavy-traffic Campustown intersection the following Wednesday afternoon when apartheid Israel shockingly attacked a Palestinian hospital. The outrage that spread across the globe then seems almost quaint in the aftermath of the horrific, daily Israeli war crimes that became routine.

These local peace activists quickly organized themselves into a determined force that regularly turned out demonstrators at the same location, which sometimes emptied into Main Street for loud and boisterous marches. We interrupted traffic for at least an hour in broad daylight on one Sunday afternoon in Peoria, hometown to Richard Pryor, Bradley University, and complicit Caterpillar bulldozers.

Not that anyone who wasn’t there would know. Our daily newspaper of record, the Peoria Journal Star, never once covered our street demonstrations. Not once. Talk about abdicating basic journalistic principles and ethics.

However, PFP was far more than a one-trick pony.

PFP organized a vigil at City Hall to read the names of thousands of Palestinian dead, sponsored two city-approved bridge lightings with the floodlights shining the red, green and white of Palestine, hosted a “die-in” outside City Hall, held a powerful seminar at the community college featuring a physician and critical care nurse who recounted their terrible conditions in Gaza, screened documentaries “Israelism,” “Where Olive Trees Weep,” and the Academy Award-winning “No Other Land” free of charge at the public library, held monthly Palestine book club meetings, published articles, and much more.

On Sept. 5 of this year, PFP hosted an Existence is Resistance gathering on the Peoria Riverfront featuring indigenous rights champion Jo Lakota, Palestinian activist William Asfour of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)-Chicago, Tarek Kahlil of the Illinois Coalition for Human Rights, Imam Mazhar Mahmood of the Islamic Foundation of Peoria, and Hind Abi-Akar of Peoria for Palestine and recent City Council candidate. The event was sponsored by more than 15 local, national, and international businesses and organizations.

Twice, PFP was the driving force behind landmark events that literally rocked Peoria City Hall.

“Israel-Hamas war sparks a fierce debate in Peoria. City Council meeting becomes forum for activists,” began a front-page story in the Peoria Journal Star.

It continued, “A crowd of people packed into Peoria City Hall on Tuesday night (Feb. 14, 2024) to publicly debate the conflict in Gaza as many called for the Peoria City Council to vote on a cease-fire resolution.

“Activists on both sides of the issue spoke to the council in a tense night that at times devolved into yelling and insults. Both sides accused the other of pushing twisted narratives and misinformation, arguing about multiple topics, including genocide and the extent of rape in the conflict.

“In total, 37 people spoke to the council over the course of almost three hours.”

After the failed attempt to bring the Peoria City Council on record concerning the most contentious foreign policy and human rights issue of our time, Mayor Rita Ali released a statement that included her now infamous declaration, “Peoria is not Chicago.”

Her explanation to refuse to consider the ceasefire resolution was based on the need to keep “neutral” on the issue, noted the statement.

PFP later released its own statement, condemning Mayor Ali’s response as “offensive” and displaying pro-Israeli bias.

A strong number of Peoria council members had expressed privately they were in favor of our local ceasefire resolution. But no one was willing to voice their positions for peace on the record or come out in opposition to the mayor’s block of the ceasefire vote.

We remain proud of our hard work to bring a Gaza ceasefire vote to Peoria City Council, an unsuccessful attempt to bring the city in line with more than 100 other U.S. cities and government bodies to successfully pass ceasefire resolutions.

The other time PFP packed council chambers occurred a few weeks later on April 9, 2024. We attempted to place an advisory referendum on city ballots for the November 2024 elections via an archaic state township process that would have asked local voters “Shall the United States federal government and subordinate divisions stop giving military funding to Israel, which currently costs taxpayers $3.8 billion dollars a year, given Israel’s global recognition as an apartheid regime with a track record of human rights violations?”

It only required a simple majority vote of those attending the April 9 public session at City Hall in order to add the advisory referendum on the regular ballot for most of the Peoria city voters. Local Zionists led by the Jewish Federation of Peoria, however, turned out in big numbers. We lost that count 67-93 at the packed, open-township meeting in council chambers that overflowed into two additional rooms.

Finally, the 800-pound elephant in Peoria’s room is, and always will be, Caterpillar, which has knowingly for years made profits from sales of bulldozers and heavy equipment to Israel — which are used as illegal weapons of war and occupation. Cat’s D9 and D10 bulldozers have become infamous worldwide as symbols of war crimes used in the home demolitions of innocent Palestinians.

Included in the United Nations report from June 30, 2025, titled “From economy of occupation to economy of genocide” is the following mention of Cat:

“Providing Israel with equipment used to demolish Palestinian homes and infrastructure, through both the U.S. Foreign Military Financing programme and an exclusive licensee requisitioned by Israeli law into the military. In partnership with (other companies), Israel has evolved Caterpillar’s D9 bulldozer into automated, remote-commanded core weaponry of the Israeli military, deployed in almost every military activity since 2000, clearing incursion lines, ‘neutralizing’ the territory and killing Palestinians.”

According to the UN report: “Since October 2023, Caterpillar equipment has been documented in use carrying out mass demolitions — including of homes, mosques and life-sustaining infrastructure — raid hospitals and crushing Palestinians to death.”

PFP has never shied away from reminding Peorians and everyone in central Illinois about the direct role they play in the occupation of Palestine through Caterpillar.

We continue to demand a boycott of all Caterpillar products until the Fortune 100

company stops its sales and transfers of equipment to apartheid Tel Aviv.

Peoria For Palestine remains steadfast in its commitment to human rights globally and an end to the occupation of Palestine.

— Peoria For Palestine is an all-volunteer group of central Illinois human rights activists.