The California Highway Patrol has launched an investigation after two pro-Palestinian advocates say they were attacked while holding banners over Highway 101 on the Peninsula.
On Monday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) released a video showing the alleged hate crime being committed on May 5 on a Menlo Park pedestrian overpass.
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WATCH HERECAIR said a man seen in the video tore down one of the banners put up by two volunteers with the Northern California Islamic Council, calling for peace in Gaza, and then tried to throw it onto the highway.
The banners read, “Stop Using Taxes To Bomb Children” and “Americans Struggle, Israel Gets Billions."
CAIR also claims the man grabbed one of the demonstrator's backpacks and threw it onto the highway before doing the same with their hat and later with a pair of their sunglasses.
"We are very concerned that these incidents are continuing and, in some cases, escalating," CAIR - San Francisco Bay Area Executive Director Zahra Billoo said.
Billoo said this was the third such incident in the Bay Area since the Israel-Hamas war began.
"It’s important that CHP and other local law enforcement investigate and move quickly," she said. "That is, in fact, how our community will feel safer."
The CHP confirmed officers responded and interviewed the man involved along with witnesses before ultimately letting the man go. They did take a police report and are investigating.
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