A cease-fire may have put a halt to fighting across the Gaza-Israeli border, but nonetheless, pro-Palestinian demonstrators were out in force Saturday on San Francisco streets, calling for an end to the blockade of Gaza.
Organizers behind a rally and march that set off from the 16th Street BART station welcomed the cease-fire agreement announced in recent days, but they also made it clear that they plan to continue pushing in support of Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank.
“The cease-fire isn’t okay, until the people of Gaza can move freely throughout Palestine, until the apartheid wall is torn down,” said one speaker.
The solidarity rally came on the heels of several others that took place in the Bay Area after the fighting began.
Hatem Bazian, a UC Berkeley professor who attended the march, said he sees the demonstrations as part of the broader wave of activism that’s been unleashed over the past year.
“I think we’re seeing this change in front of us, and Palestine is connected to it,” he told KCBS Radio. “There’s a new era that we are witnessing.”
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