Bay Area youth took to the streets of Union Square in San Francisco on Friday to demand a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
Photo courtesy of the Arab Resource and Organizing CenterBay Area youth led a protest calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza on Friday, effectively taking over San Francisco’s Union Square during a busy Black Friday rush.
The demonstration was led by members of Arab Youth Organizing, a youth program connected with the Arab Resource and Organizing Center. Protestors began marching around 2:00 p.m. from City Hall, and numbered about 1,000 by the time they reached Union Square, according to AROC press coordinator Wassim Hage.
“Youth from all around the Bay came together to organize this thing,” Hage said. “The energy was super powerful; it was amazing to see them take this kind of leadership. They really know how to keep a crowd excited.”
Young people in the Bay Area have been leading demonstrations calling for an end to the Israel-Gaza war in recent weeks, including walkouts at high school campuses across the region. Hage estimates that Friday’s march is the largest youth-led demonstration for Palestine since the crisis began.
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“A few days’ pause of the killing of Palestinians is not enough,” Lowell High School student and AYO member Helena Awwad said in an AROC press release, referring to the four-day truce between Israel and Hamas that began on Friday. “We need a permanent ceasefire immediately. We’ll be taking to the streets to ensure our politicians listen to us now.”
As the march entered Union Square, Black Friday shoppers exiting stores like Macy’s joined the march alongside activists and demonstrators, Hage said.
“We wanted to make sure that during this holiday moment that the plight of the people in Gaza did not fall out of people’s hearts and minds,” Hage said.
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Rumors circulating on social media of the protest leading Macy’s to go on “lockdown” were false, a spokesperson with the San Francisco Police Department confirmed. No arrests were made.
Demonstrations calling for a permanent Israel-Gaza ceasefire took place at shopping centers across the country on Black Friday, including protests at Sacramento’s Arden Fair Mall and The Grove in Los Angeles.