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By Eli Rosenberg, Jessica Flores Updated April 15, 2024 (SFChronicle.com)
Demonstrators protesting the war in Gaza and U.S. support for Israel blocked the Golden Gate Bridge and a major Bay Area highway during the morning commute Monday, bringing traffic to a halt and causing significant delays for hours across the region as part of a planned day of disruption nationwide.
A total of 38 protesters were arrested Monday in the Bay Area actions, according to the California Highway Patrol, which called the blockages dangerous and unlawful. Monday evening, protesters gathered outside the Tesla factory in Fremont for a demonstration.
The protests broke out early in the morning, Interstate 880 was blocked in Oakland in both directions and some protesters chained themselves to concrete-filled barrels. On the Golden Gate Bridge, protesters chained themselves to parked cars to block vehicles from traveling across the famous span and held a banner that read: “Stop the world for Gaza.”
The demonstrations were the latest upswell of aggressive and emotional protests over the war in Gaza in the Bay Area. In previous demonstrations since the war started last fall, protesters blocked the Bay Bridge and shut down the busy Port of Oakland.
The CHP condemned Monday’s actions: “Attempting to block or shut down a freeway or state highway to protest is unlawful, dangerous, and prevents motorists from safely reaching their destinations. As necessary, the CHP will take enforcement action that includes, but is not limited to, issuing citations, impounding vehicles, arresting individuals who intentionally block traffic on the state’s transportation system or pose a threat to public safety.”
The 38 protesters were arrested on suspicion of unlawful assembly, remaining at an unlawful assembly, refusal to comply with lawful order, unlawful to stop on a bridge, resisting/delaying an officer, unlawful for a pedestrian to be on a freeway, and conspiracy to commit a crime and false imprisonment.
The protests coincided with actions across the country as part of a day of economic protest and disruption planned for April 15, or A15 — Tax Day. Organizers said the demonstrations were meant to call attention to the United States’ support of Israel and the ongoing war, through military support, financial aid and weapons production. More than 30,000 Gazans have been killed according to the latest figures, and hundreds of thousands of others displaced and at risk of famine according to major aid groups.
In Chicago, protesters blocked a main access road to O’Hare International Airport for more than an hour before police cleared it. In Philadelphia, police towed more than a dozen vehicles and arrested more than 90 people for blocking roadways around the city. In many places, protesters targeted the locations of companies that produce weapons and military equipment, including Boeing, Pratt & Whitney, and Day & Zimmermann. Internationally, protests took place in London; Ottawa; and Melbourne, Australia, among other locations.
In the Bay Area, the first highway to be cleared was northbound 880, where seven people were arrested and the highway reopened just before 10 a.m. After that, CHP officers cleared protesters from the Golden Gate Bridge, arresting 26 of them before reopening the span just after noon. They also towed four vehicles from the bridge. The last highway to be cleared was southbound 880, where about 300 people blocked traffic, including seven who had attached themselves to six concrete-filled barrels. Police forced a group of those protesters off the highway into the city around Seventh Street. Five of those protesters were arrested.
Traffic had been backed up for several miles around the Golden Gate Bridge and I-880. The Dumbarton Bridge as well as the San Mateo Bridge remained relatively unimpeded for commuters rerouting across the bay.
“These actions around the world served to target the global economy and the US economy specifically due to its complicity in the genocide of the Palestinian people,” A15 Action, one of the groups that organized the protest, said in a statement. “Without the billions of dollars in military aid provided to Israel by the United States government and produced by the economy, the massacre of over 30,000 people in Gaza would not have been possible.”
Shortly before 7:30 a.m., hundreds of protesters walked down Seventh Street in West Oakland, some holding signs that read, “Stop the world for Palestine,” before entering the freeway via an onramp.
Organizers told protesters to “get comfortable” and that they would start setting up food stations. The group sat down on the southbound lane of I-880, near the Broadway exit, around 8 a.m. “This is the power of the people!” an organizer said through a microphone. CHP officials declared the gathering to be an unlawful assembly and ordered the demonstrators to disperse shortly before 9:30 a.m.
“We felt that it was time to move past symbolic action into taking more calculated risk against the capitalist system, because we know that money is really what speaks to (elected leaders),” an organizer, who gave her name as Hay Sha Wiya, said at the scene.
Some drivers exited their vehicles to ask organizers questions, or take videos on their phones. Others asked the demonstrators for permission to drive through.
Atticus Elliot Wood, 12, attended the protest with his mother, Stacy Wood. He said he wanted to come to the protest, his first against the war, because “what’s going on out there is wrong, and I want to support Palestine.” Wood said the protest is “showing the United States that we don’t want our tax dollars going to war.”
Two stranded drivers stood outside of their cars, watching the crowd from afar.
One man, Joseph Muñoz, an iron worker, was on his way to work before protesters took over the highway. He called the protest an “inconvenience,” but said he understands that protesters were trying to call attention to the war in the Middle East.
“I don’t support Israel bombing Palestinians,” he said. “I don’t support this, either,” he said of the highway blockage.
Nora Mishanec and Jordan Parker contributed to this report.
Reach Jessica Flores: jessica.flores@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @jesssmflores. Reach Eli Rosenberg: eli.rosenberg@sfchronicle.com
April 15, 2024|Updated April 15, 2024 7:47 p.m.
Eli Rosenberg comes to the San Francisco Chronicle most recently from NBC News, where he covered tech and economic issues. Before that, he was a reporter at the Washington Post for four and a half years, covering labor on the business desk. He has written about misinformation campaigns, politics, immigration issues, and fires and other disasters across the country. He spent years in New York as a metro reporter, at the Brooklyn Paper, Daily News, and the New York Times, and is looking forward to getting back to his roots as a local reporter. He lives in the East Bay with his family, and enjoys cold plunges, beach camping and exploring the Bay Area food scene when he’s not on deadline.
Jessica Flores is a reporter for The San Francisco Chronicle. Before joining The Chronicle in 2021, she worked for USA Today, NPR affiliate KPCC and Curbed LA. Originally from L.A., she received her master’s degree in journalism from the University of Southern California and a bachelor’s degree from Mount Saint Mary’s University in Los Angeles.
She can be reached at Jessica.Flores@sfchronicle.com.
