Greater than 200 pro-Palestinian protesters blocked off site visitors on the San Francisco Bay Bridge, with some individuals chaining themselves collectively throughout lanes and shutting down a significant Bay Space route through the busy morning commute.
Protesters blocked the westbound lanes of the bridge, heading into San Francisco, and chanted, “Stop-fire now!” whereas others unfurled a big banner that learn “No army support to Israel,” in accordance with movies posted on the social media platform X by the Arab Useful resource & Organizing Heart, one of many teams concerned within the protest.
Police stand on empty westbound lanes of the Bay Bridge after protesters block site visitors.
(Jason Henry / AFP/Getty Photos)
The protest comes as President Biden and world leaders met within the space for the Asia-Pacific Financial Cooperation convention. Protesters on the bridge informed The Occasions the aim was to disrupt the convention and draw the eye of world leaders, particularly Biden, to the armed battle and deaths of Palestinians in Gaza.
“[Biden] is neglecting the group who is looking for a cease-fire, and so long as they’re being ignored, group members are keen to close it down week after week,” stated Rami Abdelkarim, an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Motion, one of many organizations that helped coordinate the protest.
Some protesters, with indicators on their backs that learn, “The individuals demand a stop fireplace,” lay down throughout lanes on the busy bridge, whereas others unfurled a big white banner that learn “Genocide” in crimson block letters.
Though lanes weren’t blocked on the eastbound lanes, site visitors in each instructions was affected, stated California Freeway Patrol Officer Artwork Montiel. By 11 a.m. officers had been nonetheless working to clear a lane for site visitors on the westbound lanes, he stated, including there was no estimate on when the bridge can be cleared.
Protesters started blocking lanes on the bridge at about 7:40 a.m., stated CHP Officer Andrew Barclay.
Barclay stated it was unclear what number of law enforcement officials responded to the protest, however stated “a considerable amount of personnel” had been referred to as to assist clear the bridge.
A number of CHP officers had been deployed sporting protecting gear, he stated.
In keeping with the Metropolitan Transportation Fee, about 3.7 million vehicles cross the bridge on a month-to-month foundation.
By 10 a.m., video from Fox KTVU confirmed a number of individuals detained, their palms sure behind their backs with zip-ties, sitting on the shoulder of the bridge.
Mohamed Shehk, a member of the Arab Useful resource Organizing Heart, informed The Occasions about 50 individuals appeared to have been detained by police in some unspecified time in the future, a determine that was confirmed by freeway patrol officers.
Shehk stated his group, in addition to no less than a dozen others, organized the protest Thursday due to the close by APEC summit.
“We need to see a right away halting of Israeli bombings of the Palestinian individuals,” he stated. “We’re right here to ship a robust message that there will likely be no enterprise as ordinary so long as the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza continues, and so long as the USA continues to blindly help this genocide by political cowl and direct army funding.”
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