A pro-Palestinian protest briefly blocked rush-hour traffic on San Francisco‘s iconic Golden Gate Bridge on Wednesday morning.
The California Highway Patrol (CHP) shut down the gathering shortly before 8 a.m., FOX San Francisco reported. The protest on the six-lane bridge lasted around 30 minutes.
A group called the Palestinian Youth Movement took credit for the protest. In a news release, it said “dozens of Bay Area residents shut down the Golden Gate Bridge in response to Israel’s bombing of Rafah, to demand that President Biden stop supplying Israel with weapons and to call for an immediate ceasefire.”
Authorities said there was a protest by the Waldo Grade on southbound US Highway 101 near the Golden Gate Bridge Toll plaza.
All lanes were temporarily blocked and authorities were able to open traffic on the southbound lanes by asking demonstrators to move.
Signs displayed by the protesters called for the Biden administration to stop giving Israel military assistance. The protesters also called for Israel to halt its military offensive in Rafah, a city in southern Gaza.
CHP officers used golf carts to help them move the protesters to the sidewalks on each side of the bridge, the news report said. No one was arrested, the CHP said.
“We discuss this all the time, and the response is very well coordinated,” CHP Officer Erid Edige said. “There’s a game plan for it.”
In November, protesters shut down the Golden Gate Bridge for several hours when Biden was in the city for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
Similar demonstrations have occurred in other cities to denounce Israel’s military operation in Gaza after Hamas attacked and killed around 1,200 people on Oct. 7 on Israeli soil.
