A military veteran burned the American flag he once flew on a tour in Afghanistan outside of Chicago City Hall Friday to protest the killing of at least 32,300 Palestinians in the ongoing war in Gaza, according to health ministry estimates. He also called on city officials to cancel the upcoming Democratic National Convention set for Chicago this summer.
Zachary Kam, 33, is one of a slew of anti-war military veterans across the country speaking out against the war in Gaza, where the World Health Organization has warned of imminent famine five months since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that Israeli officials estimated killed 1,200 Israelis and foreigners. His protest prompted swift backlash on social media, including against a Chicago City Council member who attended the protest but says he wasn’t there for the flag burning.
The Marine veteran told WBEZ he burned the flag “because the American people need to wake up to the reality of what’s happening in Palestine.” Kam served four years in the Marines, serving as a combat engineer, and records show he earned medals for serving in Afghanistan.
“There are very many people who disagree with [flag burning] and think it’s a disgrace. But there’s also many people who think that what America is doing is a disgrace. And that symbols shouldn’t matter more than reality and humanity,” he said.
“We’re paying for this. We’re building those bombs, we’re giving them away basically, and we are as a country the only ones who can stop this because we are funding them. If we didn’t want [the war] to be happening, we wouldn’t have it happen anymore.”
In a video of the flag burning obtained by WBEZ, Kam said he burned the flag “in memory of Aaron Bushnell,” the U.S. Air Force serviceman who died in the hospital last month after lighting himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., while screaming “Free Palestine.”
Chicago officials in recent months have waded into the national fray over President Joe Biden administration’s support of Israel in its war with Hamas, with the City Council narrowly passing — with Mayor Brandon Johnson casting the tie-breaking vote — a nonbinding resolution calling for a cease-fire. Protests over Biden’s position are sure to only increase in the months to come, as Chicago prepares to host the DNC in August where he is expected to be formally nominated for a second term by Democrats.
After photos of the flag burning in Chicago surfaced on social media, Ald. Gilbert Villegas, 36th Ward, a Marine veteran himself, posted Saturday that the protest was “totally disgusting and disrespects the millions of Americans who have defended this country.”
The criticism was mostly targeted toward Ald. Byron Sigcho Lopez, 25th Ward, who was pictured speaking in front of the charred flag. Sigcho Lopez told reporters Monday he supports canceling the DNC but said he was not present for the flag burning and didn’t know it was going to happen.
Villegas said the fact that the person who burned the flag is also a veteran of the Marine Corps doesn’t change his position and doubled down on his criticism of Sigcho Lopez on Monday.
“Maybe [Sigcho Lopez] he was not there when it actually burned, maybe his Uber was late,” Villegas said. “But when you’re an elected official in the United States of America representing citizens here, I think we’re held to a different standard.”
Kam said the flag he burned was once a symbol of pride for his own military service in Afghanistan.
“Everybody kind of took turns flying their flags, so they could take it home and say that they flew it,” Kam said. “But now that I realize the absolutely botched mess that was the Afghan war, there’s nothing to be proud of about that flag or where it flew. I had absolutely no right to be there.”
A small anti-war group called Behind Enemy Lines organized the protest Kam attended. The group has staged several other disruptive acts in recent weeks to call on Chicago leaders to cancel the DNC entirely.
The group is not affiliated with a broader coalition of pro-Palestinian organizers called March on the DNC, which is in a federal court battle with the city for permits to protests within “sight and sound” of the convention and is not calling for outright cancelation. That broader coalition is led by the U.S. Palestinian Community Network which has been at the forefront of pro-Palestine demonstrations for months. USPCN was not involved with or present for the flag burning.
In reaction to the flag burning, Hatem Abudayyeh, USPCN National Chair, said the “most important constitutional struggle right now” is the federal lawsuit his coalition filed to march within “sight and sound” of the United Center where the DNC will be held, as opposed to a protest area designated by the city in Grant Park.
He added there is a long, appreciated history of anti-war protests by veterans.
“It is a sector of the anti-war movement that has always been out there,” Abudayyeh said. “It is really important that they’re stepping out and speaking out, and saying that this is another example of the U.S. Empire perpetrating a crime against humanity.”
Mariah Woelfel covers city politics for WBEZ.
