Anti-Israel activists in San Francisco, Oakland, and Chicago blockaded roads this morning, shutting down critical arteries for traffic and trade.
In San Francisco, demonstrators completely brought traffic to a halt across the iconic Golden Gate Bridge, while another protest shut down a critical freeway that serves the Port of Oakland, one of the largest and most vital shipping hubs in the United States. San Francisco police have begun making arrests in an effort to clear the protesters.
Video footage from CBS shows protesters on the bridge carrying a banner that read “STOP THE WORLD FOR GAZA.”
In Chicago, anti-Israeli protesters blocked a freeway near O’Hare International Airport, hindering access to one of the busiest airfields in the U.S. An American Airlines flight bound from Chicago to Washington returned to the airport on Monday morning after a threatening message was found on the bathroom mirror. American Airlines claims the threat was “not credible.” Chicago police are reporting that protesters have been cleared, and traffic has resumed, according to a local ABC station.
Traffic in San Francisco, already some of the most congested in the state, is currently dealing with miles-long traffic jams. Protesters believe that disrupting trade is the best way to put pressure on government officials over the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.
“Calls for a ceasefire and for aid to be let in [to Gaza] have been unheard,” Hay Sha Wiya Falcon told KQED, a Bay Area-based Lakota activist who joined the West Oakland demonstrators. “It’s very clear if you look at who’s funding our representatives … money is what talks to them. And I think to have this worldwide economic blockade, which has spread to 55 cities and six continents, the world is speaking very loudly about what we want to see, and that’s a liberated Palestine.”
The protests were planned and coordinated through a group known as A15. The group operates a website that broadcasts the demonstrations. Protesters organized using social media, including TikTok and Instagram.
“There is a sense in the streets in this recent and unprecedented movement for Palestine that escalation has become necessary: there is a need to shift from symbolic actions to those that cause pain to the economy,” the website reads. “As Yemen is bombed to secure global trade, and billions of dollars are sent to the Zionist war machine, we must recognize that the global economy is complicit in genocide, and together, we will coordinate to disrupt and blockade economic logistical hubs and the flow of capital.”
The group planned similar economic protests on Monday in Seattle, San Diego, Philadelphia, San Antonio, Chicago, and Tallahassee, and internationally in Mexico City, Melbourne, Ho Chi Minh City, Johannesburg, among other locations.
In San Antonio, protesters briefly blocked the entrance to Valero headquarters but had left by 10:30 a.m. local time.