“Free, free Palestine! Free, free Palestine!” Hundreds of protesters, donned in black and white checkered scarves called Keffiyeh, rumbled into Federal Plaza Wednesday, calling for the U.S. to end its military aid to Israel in the midst of renewed airstrike attacks on the Palestinian territory in Gaza.

Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) Chicago, a network of student activists, organized the “emergency rally” in just twenty-four hours, Dina Abdalla, an SJP member from DePaul University said. Their chants demanded an end to the bombing campaign on Gaza as well as a halt to U.S. funding to Israel.

Abdul, a protestor who asked to withhold his last name and has family living in West Bank, said Israel was “using U.S. tax dollars to kill civilians.” Abdul said he hoped the protest would persuade the U.S. government to invest the tax funds at home instead.

“The U.S. could really use [the tax funds given to Israel],” protester Thenaii Abuhasna, said. “We are not asking for money, just for the conflict to be resolved.”

Abuhasna has family living in West Bank, whom she calls daily. She said West Bank is not as dangerous as Gaza.

“They live like everyone else. They go to work, school—education is a priority. They’re not fighting everyday,” Abuhasna said. Abuhasna found out this week that her fourteen year-old niece was sprayed in the face with tear gas by an Israeli soldier.

Sarah Scheinman, Vice President of Students Supporting Israel at DePaul University, said the claims to cease funding to Israel are “ludicrous.”

Scheinman said both the U.S. and Israel gain mutually from their partnership. Calling for an end to U.S. funding would be a double standard, considering U.S. involvement in other Middle Eastern countries, Scheinman said.

“Obama supports Israel and [the Israeli government] has the right and responsibility to respond [to Hamas attacks],” Scheinman said. “Innocent people are killed on both sides. It’s terrible. But it’s what has to happen, unfortunately.”

In terms of the future, Scheiman said, “the U.S. and Israel are vital allies. The only thing we can do is offer full support.”

Scheinman too has friends involved in the conflict who must regularly take refuge in the many bombshelters spread throughout their cities.

Scheinman’s friend, and recent DePaul graduate, Leah Karchmer, currently lives in Kiryat Gat in southern Israel, Scheinman said. Karchmer, now a graduate student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, works for a summer camp and has approximately 15-60 seconds to find a shelter for herself and the children at the camp when the emergency sirens go off.

Deputy Consul General at the Consulate General of Israel to the Midwest, Alex Goldman-Shayman, said many Israeli civilians have been protected by the anti-air missile defense system called the Iron Dome. A report by the New York Times said the Iron Dome system intercepted 27 percent of the missiles launched between Monday and Wednesday. The project is partially funded by the U.S.

Hours after the Chicago protest, a New York Times report said the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, claimed to increase the “assault” on the Palestinian resistance organization, Hamas, whom Netanyahu calls a “terrorist organization.”

Violence spiked Wednesday as rocket launches from Hamas were returned by Israeli airstrikes after last week’s abduction and murder of a Palestinian teenager, thought to supposedly avenge the abduction and murder of three Israeli teenagers in June.

“[The Israeli-Palestinian conflict] is not a war, it’s mass murder,” protester Omar Hammad said as a thirty foot-long Palestinian flag floated by amongst signs that read, “The Holocaust Is Back.” Shayman however called the conflict “an impossible reality we have to face.”

Shayman said Israel has resisted retaliation to the bombings from Hamas, but when the Israeli government has responded, they’ve tried to defend both Palestinian and Israeli citizens.

“We want to show the truth,” Nashiha Alam, President of SJP at Loyola, said. Alam compared the Palestinian conflict to other crimes against humanity like the Jim Crow laws in the U.S. and African apartheid. The rally was just one example of all different movements working to end violence, Alam said.

Abdalla, who is ethnically Egyptian, said, “a lot of Arab-Americans in college and high school become involved [in protests].” Despite the mostly young audience, however, Abdalla said the protest was not meant only for students. “We want to involve people from all over Chicago.”

Four organizations joined SJP Chicago’s protest, which started at the Israeli Consulate at 3:30PM Wednesday and marched down Michigan Avenue. The Arab American Action Network, The Antiwar Committee Chicago, The International Socialist Organization, and The Jewish Voice for Peace brought supporters together through word of mouth and social media.

The rally was a success, Alam said, however access to the media is not always available. “[Palestinians] want to have an equal say in what Americans hear,” Alam said.

Abuhasna said media coverage of the conflict has thus far favored the Israeli perspective.

“Fox, CNN— they make me sick,” Abuhasna said. “We’re trying to get Americans to talk about Palestine.”

On the other hand, Scheinman said the media “demonizes” Israel.

Social media tends to simplify the conflict and carry misinformation, Scheinman said. Too often people scroll through social media feeds like Twitter, see a picture with a hashtag like #gazaunderattack, and think the conflict “boils down to one side or the other,” Scheinman said.

Scheinman also said the perspective of the media depends on which side of the conflict one is standing.

“Students Supporting Israel have adopted the slogan ‘pro-Israel, pro-Palestine, pro-peace,'” Scheinman said. “The issue doesn’t have to be black and white.”

At the end of the rally in Federal Plaza, Angelina, an older, non-Palestinian woman who asked to withhold her last name, stood near the outskirts of the rally. She hoisted a photo of a slain Palestinian boy above her head and looked over the crowd. She said it was irrelevant whether she was ethnically Palestinian because the true issue was that another “defenseless population had been bombed.”

“If we don’t do anything, we are not human,” Angelina said.