Updated May 6
“When we gathered here last year, we couldn’t have imagined that we would still be here, in the middle of this horrific war in Gaza, a year after,” J Street’s Shimrit Braun Kamin said at a peace rally Saturday afternoon in Oakland.
Braun Kamin, the Northwest regional director of the progressive pro-Israel nonprofit, spoke to about 200 people gathered at the Lake Merritt Amphitheater, where a grassroots group called SFBay4Peace first gathered in January 2024 to mourn all of the lives lost since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, 2023.
The latest SFBay4Peace rally was one of at least 20 happening around the world, Braun Kamin said. They coincided with “It’s Time,” a peace summit set to take place in Jerusalem later this week and cosponsored by over 60 organizations.
The event also took place the day before Israel’s government announced a major military expansion in Gaza that includes occupation.
Braun Kamin started off the rally.
“Not in our name to the war and destruction in Gaza; the failure to bring the hostages back home; the violence and land grabs in the West Bank; and the weaponization of antisemitism to silence dissent,” she said.
Rally co-sponsors included Bay Area Friends of Standing Together, New Israel Fund, J Street, UnXeptable and the San Mateo Living Room Jewish-Palestinian Dialogue Group.
Mickey Gitzin, NIF’s director in Israel, was able to attend the Oakland rally because he was already in the Bay Area for the organization’s annual Guardian of Democracy gala.
“We’ve decided to call for peace now, now when it’s hard, now when it’s complicated, because we know there is no other way, for security, dignity and justice, in Israel or in Palestine, without peace,” Gitzin told the rallygoers.
Braun Kamin said that organizers had reached out to some local Palestinian activists to speak but their lawyers recommended they not do so out of fear they could face deportation amid the Trump administration’s crackdown. However, one of them anonymously wrote a letter that was read aloud by someone else.
We’ve decided to call for peace now, now when it’s hard, now when it’s complicated. Mickey Gitzin, NIF director in Israel
The letter addressed the tens of thousands of people killed in Gaza during the war, as well as the 1,200 people killed in Israel on Oct. 7.
“Don’t get used to hearing these numbers,” the letter said. “Each and every one of them is a unique story, and they show us the failure of humanity to stop this madness.”
Braun Kamin warned that some speakers might offer narratives that rallygoers weren’t used to and that could push them beyond their comfort zones.
Lucy Janjigian, a Jerusalem native and Bay Area resident, shared such a narrative. Her parents survived the Armenian genocide at the hands of the Turks that began in 1915, only to move to Jerusalem. In the 1948 war after Israel declared its independence, she said, her family had three hours to pack and leave their home, where many interfaith dialogues had taken place.
J Street’s Northwest regional director, Shimrit Braun Kamin, leads chants of “Stop the war! Bring them home! Bring peace!” during the rally. (Aaron Levy-Wolins/J. Staff)
Israeli American Rony Sagy, whose relative Carmel Gat was kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023, and later killed in a Gaza tunnel, holds a portrait of Carmel. (Aaron Levy-Wolins/J. Staff)
Lucy Janjigian, a Jerusalem native and a Christian, describes how Israel’s 1948 War of Independence tore her away from her Jewish friend. (Aaron Levy-Wolins/J. Staff)
Palestinian singer Catrene Malshey (center) performs with her children Mia Payan (left) and Antonio Payan. (Aaron Levy-Wolins/J. Staff)
Artist David Solnit (right) spreads his arms, directing volunteers to spread the wings of the crane/dove “who sticks his neck out for peace.” (Aaron Levy-Wolins/J. Staff)
Volunteers march around with the peace crane/dove during the rally. (Aaron Levy-Wolins/J. Staff)
“My parents locked the door and took the keys, expecting to return. We never returned home,” she said. “I understand the plight of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Since 1948, we’ve had injustices and wars in the Middle East that have worsened with the genocide in Gaza.”
The claim that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza is rejected by Israel and its supporters, who point to efforts to move civilians prior to military operations, among other factors. Hamas, which launched the current war with an attack on civilians on Oct. 7, 2023, continues to hold 59 hostages in Gaza. Of them, up to 24 are believed to remain alive.
Later, Braun Kamin acknowledged that the word “genocide” is a trigger for Israelis and Jews in that it’s one-sided and doesn’t acknowledge their pain from Oct. 7.
“But the Israeli mainstream media isn’t really reporting on what’s going on in Gaza and a lot of people just aren’t exposed to what’s really happening there,” she said. “After Oct. 7, we couldn’t say cease-fire in mainstream spaces or talk about ending the war. But things have changed, so I think it’s our role to keep pushing the boundaries and not hide it because then we’re able to push forward the discussion as well.”
Rony Sagy, an Israeli American who lives in the Bay Area, also spoke. She is a relative of Carmel Gat, one of six hostages murdered in a Hamas tunnel in August 2024, and of Kinneret Gat, Carmel’s mother, who was murdered on Oct. 7 at Kibbutz Be’eri.
“I’m a daughter of Holocaust survivors that lost everything,” Sagy said. Speaking about Israelis, she added, “Many others who came from non-European countries are survivors of hate crimes for their Jewish identity. The majority of the Israeli population now is not aligned with its government. It’s not aligned with its values or its priorities.”
The speakers were interspersed with songs, including “Eli Eli” sung in Arabic by Catrene Malshey, a Christian Palestinian singer who grew up in Haifa.
Participants held photos of both Israeli hostages and Gazan children who have been killed. They painted banners, one of which said: “From the River to the Sea, Only Peace Will Set Us Free.” Another offered part of a James Baldwin quote: “The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe.”
There was also a massive street puppet of a white bird that took six people to operate. “It’s a crane … or maybe it’s a dove, sticking its neck out,” Leah Yael Levy said. “Either way, like peace, it takes coordination, effort and care to fly.”
After the rally, Braun Kamin told J. she was encouraged by the turnout. In the leadup to the event, she saw negative posts in some mainstream Jewish spaces about a gathering to demand the end of the war at such a difficult time.
“I saw people being so resistant to the message,” she said. “But coming here and seeing those who were ready to listen to other narratives and stories, this is what helps us keep doing these things.”
And referring to a April 29 event in Raanana, Israel, where people gathered in a Reform synagogue to watch a screening of a joint Israeli and Palestinian commemoration of the 1948 War of Independence and the Nakba, only to be attacked by a group opposed to their beliefs, Braun Kamin said that all support is vital.
“Our friends, the activists in Israel, especially need it right now,” she said.