‘Don’t forget about us’: Thousands march in Mission on eve of Israel-Gaza war anniversary
Thousands of pro-Palestine protesters gathered at 16th and Valencia streets on Sunday to march through the neighborhood commemorating one-year since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and Israel's bombardment and invasion of Gaza that followed.
The protest, titled "One year of genocide, one year of resistance," began at 1 p.m. andsnaked through the Mission with demonstrators chanting "Free, free Palestine!" and "Long live the intifada" before ending up at Dolores Park.
At Dolores Park, several speakers took the mic and in a particularly poignant moment, a young woman gave an account from her cousin, who survived an Israeli airstrike.
"Without any warning or expectation, I woke up to find myself under the rubble," said Rawan Eldadah, reading testimony from her cousin Abd AlRahman Rafat Lubbad. Eldadah's cousin, who lives in Sheikh Radwan in northern Gaza, lost two sisters in the bombing.
"I'm not able to breathe, I'm not able to move. I can barely see around me," Eldadah read. Her two sisters, six and eight years old, had their heads and bodies smashed in.
"I wasn't able to do anything, I could not save my two sisters," Eldadah read through tears, before admonishing the crowd: "Don't forget about us. Please don't forget about us."
The protest was heavy on themes of resistance and honoring Palestinians and Lebanese killed in the last year. "We are here today to honor one year of genocide, to honor our martyrs, and to honor one year of resistance," said Violet, a member of the Palestinian Youth Movement, speaking from the back of a rented pick-up truck near the beginning of the protest.
"We are here, because we know that though their bodies fall, their ideas do not, and for every martyr that falls, another will rise and our struggle will continue."
There were no counter-protesters.
At 16th and Valencia streets, at least one protester vandalized the cafe Manny's on the corner. Manny Yekutiel, the owner of his namesake spot, is Jewish and has been a frequent target of pro-Palestine protests and vandalism since 2018, when he opened on the corner. Those protesting Yekutiel say it stems from his celebration of Israel's independence day in 1948 — which Palestinians consider the "Nakba," or "catastrophe."
Yekutiel and others say that the singling out of a Jewish American-owned business is textbook antisemitism. On Sunday, the graffiti on Manny's cafe read "Zionists out of Frisco" and "Dems fund murder," among other tags. Several bus stops and other businesses were also graffitied, and posters were plastered across the neighborhood reading "Israel is the terrorist state."
The march was called by a coalition of groups, including the Palestinian Youth Movement, the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, the Party of Socialism and Liberation Bay Area, Arab Resource and Organizing Center, Jewish Voice for Peace Bay Area, and the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network.
Those marching chanted "Resistance is justified," and "Not another nickel, not another dime to Israel for their crimes," calling for an end to the American arms supply to Israel. Others held up large signs in the shape of white kites, a Palestinian symbol of freedom and liberation associated with the poem "If I Must Die" by Refaat Alareer, the prominent Palestinian writer who was killed when Israel bombed his house in December.
"If I must die, you must live to sell my things, to buy a piece of cloth and some strings (make it white with a long tail)," read one of the kites, an excerpt from Alareer's famous poem.
The faces, names and ages of Palestinians killed since the war began were held aloft on signs in the shapes of red poppy flowers soaring above the crowd.
Since Oct. 7, when Hamas and other militias streamed across the border from Gaza and killed some 1,200 Israelis, Israel has retaliated in force. More than 41,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Gaza health ministry, and another 700 have been killed in the West Bank, according to the United Nations.
In late September, Israel escalated a bombing campaign against Lebanon to the north, and health authorities there say over 2,000 people have been killed since last October.
Protesters replaced a bus stop ad on Valencia street with another, "Stop Bombing Lebanon, Stop Arming Israel." Another held a sign: "Hands off Lebanon and Palestine, Arms Embargo on Israel NOW."
The protest ended by late afternoon. The crowd went through cases and cases of water bottles, while others distributed popsicles. The few hundred left at Dolores Park by the end dispersed without incident while police opened the streets back up to traffic.
