Chicago PSL Chapter's "Militant Women" Panel Celebrates Convicted Hijackers and Terrorists
PSL is among the organizations whose logos appear on promotional material portraying a hijacker, convicted murderer and perpetrator of a failed cinema bombing as “Liberation Luminaries"
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On July 29, the Chicago Liberation Center is scheduled to host a panel titled “The Erasure of Militant Women” and the launch of Liberation Luminaries, a booklet produced by the Palestinian Feminist Collective.
The event announcement describes the booklet as showcasing prominent women and feminist figures in the Palestinian struggle. Its promotional flyer depicts Leila Khaled, Assata Shakur, Anna Mae Aquash and Fatima Bernawi.
The flyer bears the logos of several organizations, including the Palestinian Feminist Collective, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, First Nations Garden, Black Alliance for Peace Chicago and Anakbayan at UIC.
Three of the women depicted have distinct histories involving violent criminal acts or convictions. Khaled participated in one completed and one attempted aircraft hijacking. Bernawi planted a bomb in a Jerusalem cinema that failed to explode. Shakur was convicted of first-degree murder. Aquash was herself kidnapped and murdered.
Documented Backgrounds of the Featured Women
Leila Khaled
Leila Khaled is a longtime leader of the U.S.-designated terror group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). In August 1969, Khaled and another PFLP member hijacked TWA Flight 840 during its flight from Rome to Tel Aviv and diverted it to Damascus.
On September 6, 1970, Khaled and Patrick Argüello attempted to hijack El Al Flight 219 from Amsterdam to New York. Pilot Uri Bar Lev put the aircraft into a steep dive, throwing the hijackers off balance. Security guards restrained Khaled, while an air marshal mortally wounded Argüello. Khaled was arrested after the aircraft landed at London’s Heathrow Airport.
Assata Shakur
Assata Shakur, born JoAnne Chesimard, was a member of the Black Liberation Army. In 1977, a New Jersey jury convicted her of first-degree murder and other charges arising from a 1973 shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike in which State Trooper Werner Foerster was killed. Shakur was sentenced to life imprisonment but escaped with armed accomplices on November 2, 1979. She later reached Cuba, which granted her political asylum in 1984. Her first-degree murder conviction remained in effect until her death in Havana on September 25, 2025, at the age of 78, according to the Associated Press.
Fatima Bernawi
Fatima Bernawi planted a bomb at Jerusalem’s Zion Cinema in October 1967. The device failed to explode, and an Israeli court sentenced her to life imprisonment. Widely recognized as the first Palestinian woman imprisoned by Israel on terrorism charges, Bernawi served approximately 10 years before being released in a 1977 prisoner exchange.
The Chicago Liberation Center and Liberation Illinois
The Chicago Liberation Center’s website states that the venue is sustained by Liberation Illinois Inc., a tax-exempt 501(c)(4) social-welfare nonprofit. Federal nonprofit records identify Patrick McWilliams as an officer of Liberation Illinois. The Washington Free Beacon, citing Illinois corporate filings, reported that activist Candice Choo-Kang also holds an officer role in the organization. Liberation Illinois and PSL Chicago both publicly list 2712 W. Cermak Road, the address of the Chicago Liberation Center.
Public records provide only limited information about Liberation Illinois’s finances. GuideStar states that the organization is required to submit Form 990-N, an abbreviated IRS electronic postcard generally used by tax-exempt organizations whose gross receipts are normally $50,000 or less. Unlike a full Form 990, the postcard does not disclose precise revenue, expenditures, assets, grants or funding sources. As a 501(c)(4), Liberation Illinois is also not required to identify its contributors publicly. Consequently, the available records confirm its tax-exempt status but reveal little about the scale of its finances, how it spends its money or who funds its activities.
Liberation Illinois Figures and Elias Rodriguez
McWilliams and Elias Rodriguez were separately quoted at the same January 2018 protest against Amazon. The contemporaneous report identified both men with ANSWER Chicago.
Rodriguez is now facing federal charges over the May 2025 fatal shootings of Israeli Embassy employees Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. A federal indictment charges Rodriguez with first-degree murder, hate crimes and terrorism-related offenses.
PSL’s Broader Organizing Infrastructure
PSL-affiliated organizing spaces known as Liberation Centers operate in several U.S. cities. The ADL reported that PSL organizer Sanika Mahajan described the party as having “mass organizations,” including Liberation Centers and The People’s Forum, that may not disclose explicit ties to the party in their public-facing work but are led primarily by PSL members.