Updated June 3, 2024 at 4:55 p.m.
San Francisco police arrested 70 protesters on Monday afternoon on charges of trespassing after they staged a sit-in protest in the lobby of the office building that houses the Israeli Consulate.
Many of the pro-Palestinian protesters wore kaffiyehs and disposable medical masks. They carried signs denouncing Israel’s war against Hamas and unfurled a “Zionism kills” banner decorated with black rockets and red blood drops. Video circulated on social media of protesters delivering speeches and chanting “Free, free Palestine!”
Police arrived at the building in San Francisco’s Financial District around 9 a.m. but didn’t begin detaining protesters until just after noon.
“Officers announced multiple warnings to the individuals to disperse and exit the private property on their own accord,” SFPD Officer Paulina Henderson wrote in an email sent to J. around 4 p.m. “Officers developed probable cause to arrest 70 suspects who refused to vacate the building.”
Officers were seen zip-tying the wrists of dozens of protesters and loading them into police vans, according to the Associated Press.
There were no reported injuries, Henderson said. The protesters were cited for trespassing and released from San Francisco County Jail later in the afternoon, she said, except for one who was cited and released at the scene.
Marco Sermoneta, Israel’s consul general to the Pacific Northwest, told J. in a phone interview on Monday morning that he and all employees were safe in their 21st floor offices.
“Judging by what we see and what they are wearing and the signs, it’s not like they came in to offer us moral support as we fight a terrorist organization,” he said.
In a written statement, Sermoneta said, “We are appalled, but not surprised, at the attempt by a handful of pro-Hamas rioters to violently compromise our ability to operate as a diplomatic mission. They will not succeed.” He added that the “people who entered the lobby of the building where the Consulate is situated are the same people who have celebrated the rape, maiming, burning alive, and murder of hundreds of Israelis barely a day after October 7th.”
S.F. District Attorney Brooke Jenkins did not respond to J.’s request for comment.