Pro-Palestine protesters cause havoc, closing down Golden Gate Bridge and Brooklyn Bridge
Protests were part of global campaign to push for ceasefire
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Your support makes all the difference.Pro-Palestinian demonstrators blocked San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge and other major Bay Area roadways on Monday, as well as closing down Brooklyn Bridge in New York City, part of a worldwide set of demonstrations pushing for a ceasefire and an end to US military support for Israel’s war effort in Gaza.
About 60 activists blockaded the southbound span of the iconic bridge around 7.30am, snarling rush hour traffic headed into San Francisco for hours.
The action, where demonstrators unfolded banners with slogans like ‘Stop the world for Gaza,’ prompted the California Highway Patrol to issue a Sig-alert and close northbound lanes as well as pedestrian sidewalks and bike paths on the bridge, according to NBC Bay Area.
By Monday afternoon, the entire bridge was reopened, and about 60 people had been arrested, KRON 4 reports.
Across the bay, activists also held up traffic along multiple points of Interstate 880 in Oakland. Some of the demonstrators reportedly chained themselves to concrete barrels weighing in excess of 300 pounds, and police were filmed cutting them loose with bolt cutters.
Meanwhile, even more dramatic scenes played out in New York that afternoon.
Hundreds of marchers walked from Manhattan onto the road across the Brooklyn Bridge, waving flags, beating drums, and lighting off flares.
Police corraled most of the demonstrators off the roadway and made multiple arrests.
Activists later gathered in downtown Brooklyn and continued to demonstrate.
The protest actions were part of a global campaign called A15, which saw demonstrations in cities across the world like Athens, Belfast, Sydney, and Barcelona.
In Philadelphia, activists took over a section of Market Street and others protested outside of the headquarters of Day & Zimmerman a firm supplies munitions to governments like Israel.
The A15 campaign seeks to implement a "worldwide economic blockade in solidarity with Palestine and calling for an arms embargo and an end to US tax payer funding for Israel.”
The US is Israel’s key international ally and military supporter, providing nearly $4bn a year in mostly military aid.
As of March, the US had approved over 100 military sales to Israel since the invasion of Gaza.
More than 33,000 Palestinians and 1,100 Israelis have been killed in the conflict since Hamas’s 7 October surprise attack, the majority on both sides being civilians.
In January, Oxfam warned that Israel was killing an estimated 250 Palestinians a day, the highest ever rate of death in a 21st century war.
“It is unimaginable that the international community is watching the deadliest rate of conflict of the 21st century unfold, while continuously blocking calls for a ceasefire,” Sally Abi Khalil, Oxfam’s Middle East Director, said in a statement at the time.
On Saturday, Hamas rejected an Israeli ceasefire proposal, arguing Israel hadn’t acceded to demands like a permanent ceasefire, withdrawal from Gaza, the return of displaced people, and increased aid.
Israel, meanwhile, seeks the return of all Hamas hostages, and says it will not stop fighting until the group’s military force is destroyed.
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