SAN FRANCISCO, CA  11/11/24 – On Veterans Day hundreds of people, including many war veterans, marched from Harry Bridges Plaza at the foot of Market Street to the office of California Senator Alex Padilla.  Marchers demanded that he and Senator Laphonza Butler support a ceasefire in Israel’s assault on Gaza.  More than 43,600 people have been killed in the last year, mostly women and children, and over 102,900 others injured, according to local health authorities.  Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.

Senator Bernie Sanders called for a vote in the Senate to block further military aid to Israel.  “The war in Gaza has been conducted almost entirely with American weapons and $18 billion in U.S. taxpayer dollars,” he said.  The demonstration was sponsored by Veterans for Peace, the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, Jewish Voice for Peace, and others.  Speeches called for meeting the election of Donald Trump without fear, demonstrating in the streets popular opposition to war and repression.

The march stopped to support striking hotel workers outside the Palace Hotel, one of five in San Francisco which have been on strike for weeks.  Marchers and strikers both spoke of seeing the close connection between the working class demands for a decent life and a union, and the demands for an end to military support for Israel.  At the end of the march San Francisco activist artist David Solnit led many in painting a colorful protest on the pavement of Bush Street, while others chained themselves together, blocking the doors of the building housing Senator Padilla’s office.

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Demonstrators march from the Ferry Building to the office of Senator Alex Padilla, protesting the Israeli bombing of Gaza and demanding that Padilla support a ceasefire.  The actions were organized by veterans groups, on Veterans’ Day, and the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity.

All photographs copyright David Bacon.
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