By Lucy Hodgman, Staff Writer Feb 28, 2026 (SFChronicle.com)
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Jim Martinez, left, and hundreds of other protesters outside the Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building in San Francisco rally Saturday against the attacks on Iran by the United States and Israel.Manuel Orbegozo/For the S.F. Chronicle
Less than 24 hours after the United States and Israel launched a wave of missile strikes against Iran, hundreds of protesters blocked off a downtown San Francisco street Saturday to demonstrate against escalation abroad.
Tensions between the U.S. and Iran have risen sharply in recent weeks, culminating in President Donald Trump’s Saturday announcement that the latest attacks had killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Democratic Party leaders, while also sharply critical of Khamenei’s regime, were quick to condemn the intervention as an illegal overstep.
Iranian American demonstrator Yasmine Mortazavi said she had been anxiously reading the news morning and night, waiting for “something like this to happen.” Mortazavi is a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, which joined the overnight, multigroup scramble to organize the protest after news of the airstrikes broke.
“Today is the day the war started,” Mortazavi said. “I don’t think I was completely shocked, but I’ve felt a little bit numb.”
Protesters in San Francisco march against the United States and Israel attacks on Iran
Protesters march down Market Street in San Francisco on Saturday in response to the U.S. attacks on Iran.Manuel Orbegozo / For the S.F. Chronicle
She added that the size and diversity of Saturday’s protest was a testament to Americans’ general opposition to war abroad. The protesters outside the Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building included young children in strollers, older couples and college students. They waved Palestinian flags and passed out literature for local political candidates, chanting “Bombing Iran is a crime” and “No boots on the ground, no bombs in the air.”
Dina Saadeh, an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement, told the Chronicle that organizers selected the federal building as the site of the demonstration so their voices would be better heard by lawmakers, both in Washington, D.C., and at home in the Bay Area.
“We’re sending a clear message to our elected officials, even the political elite here in S.F.,” Saadeh said. “We reject the rampant imperialism that they serve to gain from. … People here are engineering a better world simply by showing up and saying, ‘We reject this.’”
A broadly anti-Trump sentiment loomed over the event: Many protesters carried “ICE out” signs, and one man wore an oversize Trump mask and carried a sign reading “War is peace.” But demonstrators were also wary of Democratic leaders, who they said had failed to condemn the Israeli government more strongly amid its ongoing conflict in Gaza.
As they marched from the federal building down Market Street, protesters stopped to boo and chant “shame” outside the Golden Gate Theater, where California Gov. Gavin Newsom appeared that night for a discussion of his new memoir. Newsom, who has long been floated as a likely 2028 presidential candidate, condemned the airstrikes and said in a statement that Trump is “putting Americans at risk abroad because he is unpopular at home.”
Edward Hasbrouck, 66, attended Saturday’s demonstration with the same “Don’t invade Iran” poster he took to protests in the wake of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, in which the U.S.-back shah was overthrown and replaced with an Islamic ayatollah. The marker-drawn poster has been in Hasbrouck’s basement for decades, he said — and the fact that he’s had to break it out regularly over the years proves to him that the issue goes beyond either major political party.
“Getting rid of Trump isn’t going to be enough,” Hasbrouck said. “We’re still going to need a peace movement, and we still need to be here to get the Democrats to recognize that war is not popular. Part of their opposition should be taking a stand for peace.”
Feb 28, 2026
Staff writer
Lucy Hodgman is a Hearst Fellow on the Climate Team at the San Francisco Chronicle, covering seismic building issues, homeowners insurance and breaking energy and environment news. She previously covered politics for the Times Union, in Albany, New York, and breaking news for Politico and the Sacramento Bee.
Originally from Brooklyn, Lucy graduated from Yale University with a degree in English. Reach her at lucy.hodgman@hearst.com.
