Updated April 16
Demonstrators for a “free Palestine” shut down both directions of the Golden Gate Bridge during Monday morning’s rush hour, creating a dramatic spectacle on a global day of protest meant to “block the arteries of capitalism” on U.S. Tax Day.
Twenty-eight people were arrested on the bridge, the California Highway Patrol said in a statement, after traffic was blocked for nearly five hours. Photos and video showed protesters sitting inside or standing beside parked cars, holding signs and waving Palestinian flags. Some were linked together using a “sleeping dragon” maneuver, in which protesters connect their arms inside PVC piping that must be cut through to separate them.
Demonstrators also blocked northbound Interstate 880 near downtown Oakland, causing traffic to halt as riot police responded. Demonstrators chained themselves to barrels, video from the protest shows, and seven people were arrested.
“Officers had to contend with eight (8) 55-gallon drums filled with cement, rebar and heavy-duty chains attaching protesters to the drums,” CHP said in its statement.
Another five people were arrested for blocking southbound I-880, police said, bringing the total taken into custody across the Bay Area on Monday to 40.
The protests followed a similar demonstration on the Bay Bridge in November that led to 78 arrests.
Monday’s demonstrators said on social media and websites that they sought to raise awareness about what they see as a genocide of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and what they argue is the complicity of the “global economy.”
The demonstrations came six months after the start of Israel’s military campaign targeting Hamas that has killed tens of thousands in Gaza following the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre that killed 1,200 in Israel. Though the fighting has slowed, a cease-fire agreement with the terrorist group continues to elude Israel. Hamas still holds an estimated 133 hostages, though it’s unknown how many remain alive.
The rush-hour shutdowns also came less than two days after Israel fell under an unprecedented missile and drone attack by Iran, though it was almost entirely repelled. The protests were organized by A15 Action, a newly formed initiative seeking a “coordinated economic blockade to free Palestine.” A website associated with the protest named “participating cities” across the world, from Mexico City and Bogota to Seoul and London. In the U.S., protests took place in multiple cities, including Chicago, New York City and Philadelphia.
Lauded by demonstrators as a success, the blockade of the iconic Golden Gate Bridge, which connects Marin County and San Francisco, also annoyed many commuters and drew rebukes from some on social media.
“I caught the 150 bus to go to work in San Francisco,” @Horace_Austin posted on X (Twitter). “We got about a 1/5 of the way on the Golden Gate Bridge. Then a complete stop. This was 8:10am. At 9am, I got off the bus and walked back to downtown Sausalito.”
The post continued: “I guess being rude to a professor at his home isn’t enough,” an apparent reference to a highly publicized protest at Berkeley Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky’s home earlier this month.
Marc Levine, director of the Anti-Defamation League’s regional office San Francisco, criticized the demonstration and aspects of the media coverage.
“A day after Israel is attacked by Iran, the media continues to get it wrong. These are not pro-Palestinian protestors. They’ve always been anti-Israel,” he wrote on X.
By 1:15 p.m. Monday, all lanes on the bridge and I-880 were reopened, according to CHP.