For the second week in a row, pro-Palestinian protesters interrupted a Berkeley City Council meeting demanding a resolution on an Israeli cease-fire in Gaza.
Tuesday morning’s agenda included a zoning issue held over from last week’s meeting. But after a few minutes, constant yelling from the crowd derailed the discussion.
“If members of the public could please stop disrupting our meeting,” Mayor Jesse Arreguín said.
His plea was in vain.
“Since the council cannot conduct business at the meeting due to the continuous disruption by members of the public and the audience, who are yelling and chanting and disrupting our meeting, this disruption has rendered the orderly conduct of the meeting unfeasible,” Arreguín said.
The council moved to a separate room and continued to stream its meeting.
A week earlier, on Nov. 14, about 20 people spoke during a public comment period and pressed the council to pass a resolution calling for an Israeli cease-fire in its war against Hamas. The council cut that meeting short when protesters wouldn’t stop chanting and shouting after the public comments.
“Draft a resolution or expect continued disruptions,” one person told the council, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
There was no resolution on a cease-fire in front of the council on Tuesday. Council members were instead discussing the construction of taller buildings in areas around UC Berkeley to increase housing options for students. The Berkeleyside news outlet estimated that 30 people disrupted the meeting and continued to give speeches after the council left the room.
If members of the public could please stop disrupting our meeting.
The disruptions in Berkeley reflect the intensifying protests in the Bay Area since the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre and Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza.
The Richmond City Council passed an anti-Israel resolution on Oct. 25 after comments that went on for six hours. Members ended up voting 5-1 to stand in solidarity with Palestinians and to condemn Israel’s “campaign of ethnic cleansing.”
The Oakland City Council will consider a resolution on Nov. 27 that calls for a cease-fire, the release of hostages and unrestricted humanitarian aid for Gaza. The JCRC Bay Area is asking the Oakland council to add a condemnation of Hamas to its resolution.
One incident near the end of the Nov. 14 Berkeley City Council meeting raised concerns about antisemitism after a woman began throwing paper money toward the dais.
Riley Cooke, a reporter at UC Berkeley’s Daily Cal, posted a video of the incident online.
JCRC Bay Area reposted the video on X and Instagram and described the protester’s action as antisemitic. (Two of the Berkeley council members are Jewish.)
“Throwing money at Jewish councilmembers and chanting that money causes support for #Israel is blatant antisemitism,” JCRC Bay Area said on Instagram. “Politics aside — this action underscores escalating hate impacting the local Jewish community in #Berkeley and across the Bay Area. We thank our allies on the Berkeley City Council for standing up against hate and not giving in to these inflammatory actions.”
However, the student reporter insisted on X that the woman was complaining about her tax dollars funding the deaths of Palestinians.
“Throwing the cash represented her disagreement with where her money was going. ‘Have it! I don’t want it!’ she says in the video,” the reporter said on X. “I acknowledge that it could appear antisemitic when removed from that context. But I was there, and her previous actions and public comment do not indicate her intentions were antisemitic.”
The Berkeley City Council’s next meeting is set for Nov. 28.