San Francisco Chronicle | Photo: Benjamin Fanjoy
Hundreds of people protested the prospect of a war with Iran and voiced support for immigrants in the United States and Palestinians in Gaza during a rally Friday evening outside the federal building in San Francisco’s South of Market.
The protest outside the Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building, which drew about 200 people at its peak, was organized by a coalition of activist groups, including Bay Resistance, the Answer Coalition and the Bay Area chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
The escalating conflict between Israel and Iran was a major focus of Friday’s protest. President Donald Trump said Thursday he will decide within two weeks whether the U.S. military will strike back at Tehran. Tensions initially soared last Friday with a surprise wave of Israeli airstrikes targeting Iran’s nuclear and military sites, military leaders and nuclear scientists.
“As the U.S. escalates aggression on Iran — backing Israeli strikes and pushing for war — it exposes its imperialist playbook: defend Zionism, crush resistance. From Gaza to Tehran, the U.S. fuels war and genocide to maintain control,” organizers said in promoting the event, billed as an “emergency protest.”
A demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag at the protest outside the Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building. Anna Connors/S.F. Chronicle
The protest featured several speakers and closed the block around the federal building at Seventh and Mission streets, with many protesters chanting, “Free, free Palestine.”
Bay Area protests against Israel’s war with Hamas have cooled in recent months, though activists have found new energy since Trump retook office in January. Last Saturday’s No Kings Day protests drew tens of thousands of people to events in dozens of Bay Area cities decrying Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids nationwide. Weeks earlier, demonstrations against Tesla CEO Elon Musk drew huge crowds to the vehicle’s showrooms across the Bay Area condemning the early force behind the Department of Government Efficiency, though the onetime Trump ally’s relationship with the president has cooled in recent weeks.
“At home, the war continues through ICE raids, family separations, and repression of migrants — all part of the same violent system,” the organizers said. “We reject this imperialist war machine and stand with all people resisting Zionism and U.S. domination.”
