A month after a town hall in Downers Grove was shut down due to protests over the Israel and Gaza war, U.S. Rep. Sean Casten faced several activists at a similar event Thursday in Evergreen Park.
Police officers removed individual pro-Palestinian protesters who interrupted Casten’s speech ahead of a scheduled question-and-answer session with about 100 attendees, largely focused on recent policy decisions made by President Donald Trump and his Republican counterparts in Congress.
The Democratic congressman began his address at the Hamilton B. Maher Community Center by acknowledging the Downers Grove town hall protests, which led police to cut the event short as several activists approached and confronted Casten at the front of the stage.
“The police felt that there was going to be a safety situation where some people were disrupting, and the audience was not happy with the people that were disrupting,” Casten said.
“The people who were disrupting had completely valid concerns,” he said, but urged Evergreen Park attendees to raise any issues “respectfully, and then sit down.”
However, fewer than five minutes into Casten’s address, a protester with a megaphone stood up and shouted frustrations about U.S. military assistance to Israel in its deadly attacks on Gaza residents during their war with Hamas. The protester, who was also present at Casten’s event in Downers Grove, would only provide her first name, Lamees.
Lamees and several protesters who followed her continued to interrupt Casten to criticize his position on the war, and were individually removed by Evergreen Park police. Some audience members, frustrated with the disruptions, began drowning them out by singing “Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye).”
Casten said much of the funding he supported for Israel was intended for defensive weapons to protect Israelis from Hamas fighters.
“There is no inconsistency with loving the Palestinian people, loving the Israeli people and criticizing the governments they represent, but trying to make sure they bring that forward,” Casten said.
Remaining protester Nick Sous wasn’t satisfied. The final activist to be escorted from the community center, he shouted to Casten that the funding to Israel he voted in favor of could have been used feed families rather than “continuously fund a genocide.”
“You’re ignoring us,” Sous said as police led him out the door. “You’re maintaining your silence instead of supporting your constituents, instead of providing housing, instead of providing education for people … You should be ashamed of yourself.”
Casten represents the Illinois 6th District, which stretches from west suburban Lombard southeast to Tinley Park, taking in Chicago’s Beverly and Mount Greenwood neighborhoods and areas near Midway.
Other questions surrounded Trump’s tariff and immigration policies, as well as threats to federal funding of social services.
Casten said he and other Democrats have developed a “counter strategy” against the Trump administration through trying to find common ground and put pressure on those on the other side of the aisle.
“I think the most useful thing we can do is to sort of get people to understand the stakes of the moment, which is part of how to I use events and town halls and interviews,” Casten said. “I think we’ve seen some of those movements going forward.”
