After a hateful letter was sent to her Hickory Hills home, Palestinian American Lila Gaber said she hasn’t allowed her three young sons to get the mail and she is anxious walking out to get the mail herself.
Gaber, who has lived in Hickory Hills for five years, said typically, her sons, ages 9, 8 and 5, love running down their long driveway to get the mail, but Gaber said she’s had to explain to them she doesn’t want them doing that anymore because of a hateful letter.
“This is the first year my kids realized that there’s hate in the world. That just by you following a certain religion, or just by you being a certain ethnic group you could become a target. It was so sad to see that. It was sad to see innocent kids see that there could be so much hate in the world,” Gaber said.
After the stabbing death of 6-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume in Plainfield Oct. 14, Gaber said she set up a sign reading “Free Palestine” on her lawn.
Gaber said she went to get the mail Oct. 24, she noticed a letter addressed to “resident” at her address. At first, Gaber said she didn’t think it was strange because her husband runs his own business so they often get mail not addressed in their personal name.
She opened the envelope to discover a letter, typed in all capital letters, that read “This is the United States of America not Palestine!!!!!!! Remove the sign from the lawn or burn.”
After reading the letter, Gaber said she became emotional.
“I’m like, ‘Oh my God, is this a joke?’ because when you open it the first thing you see is “This is the United States of America,” Gaber said. “In my heart, I knew it was going to be something about the sign.”
She folded the letter and looked around, Gaber said, before calling her husband to tell him what happened. He told her to call the police.
Hickory Hills police Chief Jason Bray said the investigation is ongoing, and the incident is being investigated as a hate crime. No other reports of hate crimes against Palestinians have been made in Hickory Hills, Bray said, but there is an increase in reported hate crimes in the surrounding area.
“We will continue to investigate these incidents to the fullest and not tolerate incidents of hate crime,” Bray said.
When the first police officer arrived Oct. 24, Gaber said she felt he didn’t take her report seriously enough. The officer didn’t fill out any paperwork or take notes, but took a picture of the letter, she said.
But after the letter was reported in the Chicago Sun-Times, Gaber said a detective and Mayor Mike Howley visited her home on separate occasions. The detective took the letter with him for finger printing, she said.
Bray declined to comment on Gaber’s interaction with the first police officer who responded. Bray reiterated the investigation is ongoing, which includes sending the letter to the crime lab for more analysis.
Gaber said the sign means to free Palestinians from Israel’s rule, the current war and “people trying to take the little piece of land that we still have.”
“We can all live in harmony together,” Gaber said. “That’s all that sign means, just all of us living together.”
The sign is meant to show people that Palestinian lives are important and the Palestinian people need support and empathy, she said.
“Palestinians are college graduates. They are mothers. They are kids who love Spider Man, who love typical things that other kids love, too. That’s what the sign meant,” Gaber said. “It’s a sign that we all need to stand up for what’s going on.”
Gaber said her family hasn’t received any more hateful letters, and the sign is still up on her lawn.
“I did not take it down. If anything, it makes me want to voice it more,” she said.
akukulka@chicagotribune.com
