Pro-Palestinian protesters block westbound Bay Bridge for hours; dozens arrested
Pro-Palestinian protesters demanding a cease-fire in Gaza blocked all westbound lanes of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge for hours during the Thursday morning commute.
Eighty people were arrested and over a dozen vehicles used to block the lanes were towed, authorities said.
The California Highway Patrol said the protesters blocked the westbound lanes on the bridge's eastern span just before Treasure Island shortly before 8 a.m. Two lanes were re-opened shortly after 10 a.m. to Caltrans and official vehicles, while intermittent groups of regular vehicular traffic were creeping by on the right-hand shoulder. By 11 a.m., traffic was moving on the two right lanes.
However, while the cars that were stuck on the span by the protest were moving again, CHP kept the Bay Bridge closed to westbound traffic until the earlier incident was cleared. All lanes feeding into the Bay Bridge toll plaza from the MacArthur Maze were being detoured in other directions.
That closure has not surprisingly led to westbound congestion on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge and the San Mateo Bridge.
As of 11:45 a.m., Caltrans said lanes reopened on the bridge were still specifically to clear the vehicles that were stuck during the protest. The bridge itself was finally being reopened to westbound traffic a few minutes later.
Some of the protesters chained themselves together on the roadway. Images showed their protesters' arms locked together through the open windows of several stopped vehicles.
The Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC) said on social media that the action by about 200 protesters was to highlight what it called a genocide happening in Gaza while President Joe Biden was hosting cocktail parties in San Francisco.
The group unfurled a banner reading, "Biden Harris: Ceasefire Now" across the lanes while others held a banner reading "No to US military aid to Israel. Still other protesters held a "die-in" on the roadway, covering their bodies in white sheets and placards that read "11,000 dead."
Jesse Strauss, one of the protest organizers and a Jewish activist from Oakland, highlighted the demonstration's motive.
"What happened today on the Bay Bridge is a demand for a cease-fire and an interruption of business as usual because, as far as I'm concerned, as long as we see genocide happening, we need to stop it," Strauss asserted passionately.
Strauss's connection to the cause stems from his family's survival during the Holocaust, underscoring the urgency of raising awareness during the APEC summit.
"This disruption is a demand for leaders to pay attention. We know they know what's happening. We know they're ignoring it. We know they're not respecting the basic decency of human life of international law," Strauss emphasized.
Eastbound traffic on the bridge out of San Francisco was also impacted by the protest action, both due to drivers slowing to look at the activity on the westbound side and periodic closures by the CHP.
As of 9:30 a.m., a CHP spokesman said protesters were being arrested and officers were working to remove the vehicles from the roadway.
"It's gonna take a little while. However, we're not going to be blocking all the lanes so we're hoping we can reopen at least one or two lanes in the meantime so that traffic can start flowing," said CHP spokesman Officer Art Montiel.
At a press conference on the bridge a short time later, the CHP said 50 people were arrested and at least 15 cars removed from the bridge. Some 250 police and CHP officers were mobilized to the protest. As many as 50 more protesters could be arrested following a review of videos of active participants in the protest, the CHP said.
A number of protesters were being found in vehicles hundreds of yards behind where the main protest was staged which was slowing the process of clearing the scene, CHP said. So far, protesters were being taken into custody peacefully and not were actively combative with law enforcement.
Protesters under arrest were being loaded onto San Francisco Sheriff's Department buses to be removed from the bridge that were just leaving the scene as of 10:15 a.m.
Authorities noted that many of the abandoned cars involved in the protest that were being towed had no keys to be driven off the span because protesters had thrown ignition keys over the side of the bridge.
California Highway Patrol division chief Ezery Beauchamp called the bridge protest highly coordinated and said the participants shut down the span in a matter of seconds. While Beauchamp said the patrol supports free speech rights, CHP did not condone a traffic shutdown that could prevent emergency vehicles from crossing.
"This is the wrong way to do it," he said. "This is 100% wrong, it's unacceptable and it's illegal."
UCSF Medical Center representatives confirmed that the demonstration impacted the transportation of organs for transplant surgery Thursday.
"Currently at UCSF, I think the the number of organs delayed is three," said Dr. Garrett Roll, Associate Professor of Transplant Surgery at UCSF. "I don't know about the other medical centers in the Bay Area. There are two other large transplant centers in the Bay Area that are probably suffering from the same issues as well."
Shortly before 10 a.m., motorcycles were allowed to drive past the scene of the protest on the right shoulder, with some riders saying they had already been stopped in traffic for two hours. Soon after, some cars were beginning to get past the protest on the shoulder as well and authorities were able to open two lanes shortly after that.
Motorists at the Bay Bridge toll plaza in the metering lights area were allowed to turn around to get out of the backup into eastbound traffic. Some vehicles that were on the span were also instructed to drive in the opposite direction of traffic along the right shoulder to exit the bridge near the toll plaza.
Toni, an Oakland resident and recent transplant from Mississippi, found herself among those affected by the traffic deadlock.
"I almost ran out of gas in traffic, like I'm late for work literally right now, and I'm sitting here crying because I'm late for work again, just stuck in traffic," Toni expressed.
"I just called my job and made up an excuse to be late; this is my second time this week," Toni lamented about her predicament.
Other motorists stuck on the bridge were seen taking advantage of not going anywhere to enjoy the view from the eastern span.
A similar protest happened Thursday morning in Boston. Demonstrators seeking a cease-fire in Gaza blocked traffic on the Boston University bridge during rush hour, stopping traffic for more than two hours.
