A large group of people protested outside the San Francisco Federal Building Thursday, calling for a cease-fire in the Middle East.
There were actually two protests at the same location that folded into one because people in two groups said they were demanding the same things.
The protest at the Federal Building on Seventh Street near Mission brought out at minimum hundreds of people with police having to divert traffic as people took over the street.
Many protesters like Suzanne Ali have family in Gaza, and they are concerned about every minute of the day.
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“It’s been difficult for me to eat. I have not been eating like many people that I know. I end up crying all night for the basically out of fear and worry,” she said.
By the night’s end, the Federal Building had been defaced with messages like “Free Palestine” and across the street, protesters climbed a building to erect the Palestinian flag.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi has an office inside the Federal Building.
Violette Mansour was one of a handful who chained themselves to the entrances of the building earlier in the evening, with demands shared by the people who showed up.
“Nancy Pelosi has shown her unconditional support for the Israeli military, and we are here to demand that she sign on to the cease-fire resolution that’s in Congress right now,” she said.
Pelosi has yet to sign onto a resolution introduced Monday that would urge the president to push for a cease-fire and de-escalation of the Israel-Hamas war and send and facilitate humanitarian assistance in Gaza.
Additionally, the protesters want the U.S. to stop sending money to Israel. Numbers from the State Department indicate the U.S. provides more than $3 billion annually to Israel’s military.
This as the protesters say a genocide of Palestinians is and has been happening even before the latest war.
NBC Bay Area reached out to Pelosi’s office for comment Thursday and officials there referred to comments she made on a national media outlet Thursday morning.
Pelosi said the U.S. has to stop Hamas. Then she was asked if people calling for a cease-fire was premature, and she said she didn’t know the nature of the cease-fire but that they have to protect the civilians of Gaza, though she admitted that’s hard to do.
