Seven individuals who face a raft of felony and misdemeanor charges stemming from a Tax Day demonstration in 2024 that shut down the Golden Gate Bridge for several hours are facing trial starting this week.

The trial of the Golden Gate Seven, who used to be the Golden Gate 26, kicked off Wednesday in San Francisco Superior Court, and it will be a battle between the perception of need for protest action, and the real-time impacts such actions can have on innocent bystanders whose lives are disrupted — as well as the need for a major piece of infrastructure to remain unobstructed.

The San Francisco District Attorney’s office has charged these seven individuals with felony conspiracy, along with multiple counts of false imprisonment, unlawful assembly, and willful restriction of free movement, the latter three of which are misdemeanors. If convicted, they could face up to 14 years in prison.

The group was part of a larger group who shut down the southbound lanes of the Golden Gate Bridge on April 15, 2024, 26 of whom were arrested and initially charged with felony false imprisonment and a slew of other charges — many of which were subseqently dismissed by a judge that November.

The entire bridge ended up remaining closed for about four hours, after CHP officers shutdown the northbound lanes as they worked to address the protest on the southbound side.

The group became known as the Golden Gate 26, or GG26, but as KQED explains, 18 of them had their charges reduced to misdemeanors and ultimately dismissed, and one other individual who faced felony charges saw those charges dismissed for lack of evidence.

A judge in the case ultimately declined to reduce the charges for the final seven in the group, partly in light of the $160,000 in restitution of toll money that was being sought by the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District. That sum has since been reduced to $5,300 for all 26 involved, or about $330 apiece.

As the trial begins, attorneys for the Golden Gate Seven are laying out arguments for why their clients believed that shutting down bridge traffic that day was necessary to stop the ongoing genocide and war in Gaza. Their protest action was part of a nationwide, coordinated effort on Tax Day 2024 to shut down major freeways which also included a similar human-chain protest on I-880 in Oakland.

In both the SF and Oakland protests, a tactic known as "sleeping dragon" was employed, which makes a human chain harder to break apart by law enforcement. In the Oakland protest, concrete was poured into buckets over the protesters' interlocked hands, and in the Golden Gate protest, demonstrators locked hands inside of metal tubes.

Per the Chronicle, "Many of the defense attorneys  — each representing a separate defendant — said their clients had already tried more conventional calls to action. They had written to Congress, called their representatives, marched in permitted protests and attended events where politicians were speaking."

But, as Deputy Public Defender Nuha Abusamra said in court, "nothing changed. The death toll was increasing because of our tax dollars funding the genocide... It was time for civil disobedience."

Another attorney, trying to argue for why jurors should set aside harms that were done to commuters and those trying to travel across the bridge into San Francisco, reportedly made the analogy of a good Samaritan pushing a child out of the way of an oncoming car, which causes the child to be minorly injured.

"Technically, your act of shoving that kid out of the way is what caused him the injury, but at the time you dove into the street, you didn't have the criminal intent to hurt him, you had the intent to save his life," said attorney Jac Lyons, per the Chronicle.

As Mission Local reports, defense attorneys also highlighted their clients media consumption as a reason for their actions. Attorney EmilyRose Johns, who represents defendant Rocky Chau, told the jury, "The information that they were ingesting day to day was relentless. What is someone like Mr. Chau supposed to do, when no one will listen, and when the news is relentless and when the suffering is relentless?"

Meanwhile, the prosecution presented an opening argument centered on the significant delays and inconveniences that were caused to hundreds of drivers on the bridge that day. Those included a surgeon who was forced to cancel all of their operations that day, and a person with a brain tumor who was forced to miss a medical appointment.

"People missed doctors’ appointments, nurses were missing from their jobs, children were forced to defecate in bags, people had little to no water,” said Assistant District Attorney Angela Roze. “Because these seven individuals decided that their cause, their message, was more important."

"While you may agree with their cause, and it may be an important one, it does not excuse breaking the law," Roze added.

The trial is expected to last until late July.

Related: Protesters Gather at SF Hall of Justice as Golden Gate Bridge Gaza Protesters Appear In Court

Top image via CommonSenseiSF/X

A San Francisco supervisor made an emergency trip to SFO late Wednesday night after learning that two Palestinian men with valid visas who had traveled here to speak at interfaith events around the Bay were being denied entry to the US.

SF Supervisor Bilal Mahmood posted his "urgent message out of SFO" at 11:55 pm Wednesday, with a video standing beside two Palestinian men, whose names are being withheld out of fear of retaliation. The men reportedly flew from the West Bank and landed in San Francisco at 1 pm Wednesday, with plans to speak at several Christian churches and at the progressive Kehilla Community Synogogue in Piedmont, all of which have supported their village, which has been under attack by Israeli settlers.

Kehilla had sponsored the men's trip, and put out an alert that the men had been detained, were being denied entry to the country by US Customs and Border Protection, and their visas were being invalidated. As Mission Local reports, the men were still in custody at SFO as of 8 am Thursday and were told they were being sent back to the Middle East.

"If people are coming here with valid visas and immigration papers and even they are being turned away … what does this mean for the rest of the residents who live in San Francisco and the country?" Mahmood tells Mission Local in an interview. "This is another example of an escalating constitutional crisis in our country."

Kehilla Community Synogogue had a meet-and-greet with the men planned for Friday. Their homepage includes instructions for immigrants encountering ICE agents and a statement about being a Synogogue for Ceasefire pushing for the "unrestricted entry of humanitarian assistance in Gaza."

"Say hello to two Palestinians from the West Bank who have spoken at Kehilla services via Zoom," the event listing says. "An artist and an English teacher, they are cousins. Hear their stories of loss and steadfastness in Masafer Yatta in the hills south of Hebron."

The situation at SFO has attracted protesters, with the Chronicle reporting that around two dozen had arrived as of 10 am Thursday.

"Everything about their visit was straightforward above-board,” says immigration attorney Peter Weintraub, a member of the synogogue who was helping coordinate the visit, speaking to Mission Local. "Cultivating relationships between Christians and Jewish and Palestinian community, which seems to be a rather laudable, wonderful thing."

As Weintraub adds, in a statement to the Chronicle about the men, "They’re known, wonderful folks, coming over to connect, promote interfaith connection between Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities. They’re trying to survive and live in peace."

Per the Chronicle, Bay Area faith leaders are calling on the State Department and Department of Homeland Security to "stop targeting Palestinian travelers" and to release the men so they can continue on their interfaith exchange mission.

Ironically, a cafe called Jerusalem Coffee House kicked out a patron wearing a Star of David hat last October. Now Trump's Department of Justice has taken note, and is suing that Oakland cafe.

We noted above the irony of a cafe called Jerusalem Coffee House kicking out a Jewish patron, considering the cafe is named after Jerusalem, a majority-Jewish city. But you can see this incident in the seven-month-old video below, where the owner of the cafe in Oakland’s Temescal District, Fathi Abdulrahim Harara, kicks out patron Jonathan Hirsch for wearing a Star of David ball cap. The two argue at length as partisans in the Israel-Palestine conflict, and KRON4 reported in March that Hirsch sued the coffeehouse over the incident, in a lawsuit brought for him by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law.

That lawsuit is still meandering its way through the courts. But now there is a much bigger lawsuit looming over the same incident, as KTVU has the news that Trump’s Department of Justice is suing the coffeehouse, alleging that the establishment “discriminated against Jewish customers through policies and practices that denied them the full and equal enjoyment of the Jerusalem Coffee House’s services, accommodations, and privileges.”

The suit also dredges up that the coffeehouse served drinks on the anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israelis with the names “Iced in Tea Fada” (a play on the word “Intifada”) and “Sweet Sinwar” (an alleged reference to Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar). The suit additionally alleges that a second Jewish man in a similar hat was told by an employee, “You’re the guy with the hat. You’re the Jew. You’re the Zionist. We don’t want you in our coffee shop. Get out.”  

“It is illegal, intolerable, and reprehensible for any American business open to the public to refuse to serve Jewish customers,” Justice Department Civil Rights Division assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon (yes, her) said in a Monday press release. “Through our vigorous enforcement of Title II of the Civil Rights Act and other laws prohibiting race and religious discrimination, the Justice Department is committed to combatting anti-Semitism and discrimination and protecting the civil rights of all Americans.”

These incidents have already been pretty well-litigated in the local media. Though the SF Standard did some digging around the time of the coffeehouse incident, and found Hirsh has quite a lengthy record of public shouting matches. Some of these are unrelated to his faith or the Israel-Palestine conflict, and Hirsch was even able to pull up a couple more argument videos on his phone when asked about his frequent disputes. Whether Hirsch seeks out conflict or not, it sure finds him with unusual frequency.

But it also seems that coffeehouse owner Fathi Abdulrahim Harara was the instigator in the cafe video (though the video is edited , and may not tell the full story). At the same time, Hirsch now finds himself a poster boy for the Trump administration, which will not make one a particularly popular person in the Bay Area. It seems Hirsch and Harara both have a penchant for public fights and grandstanding, and both may now find themselves getting more public scrutiny than they mght like.

Related: Doctor Says UCSF Fired Her Due to Pressure From Wiener, Dillers Over Pro-Palestinian Speech [SFist]

Image: Jim G via Yelp

California State Senator Scott Wiener and UCSF’s largest donor, the Diller Foundation, are named in new allegations by Dr. Rupa Marya, prominent physician, activist, and musician, who is suing UCSF over her recent termination stemming from public criticism of Israel.

According to the Chronicle, in two lawsuits filed last week, Marya accused the university of colluding with political allies and donor networks to smear her reputation, destroy her career, and silence her advocacy for Palestinian rights.

In an interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! last week, Marya said her termination at UCSF is tied to a coordinated network that includes Senator Scott Wiener—who has been outspoken against pro-Palestinian speech—and the billionaire Diller family. The Diller’s foundation has made major donations to UCSF, supported Wiener’s political campaigns, and funded Canary Mission, a controversial website known for doxxing pro-Palestinian activists, as reported by The Intercept. She adds that Canary Mission has reportedly been used by the Trump administration to justify student deportations.

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“When UCSF, in coordination with Scott Wiener, started publishing defamatory statements about me across multiple social media sites, I received horrific threats—death threats, rape threats,” Marya told Democracy Now!. “Faculty members told me they were being asked to submit false reports of my clinical behavior, which, in 23 years of practice, I’ve had no incidents of patient safety issues.”

While her termination was made official in May, the tension surrounding Marya’s pro-Palestinian stance traces back to last year. As reported by SFist, UCSF had become a flashpoint for controversy over protest and free speech surrounding Gaza—despite being a medical campus with no undergraduate body. A public conflict erupted after Marya called a colleague’s internal UCSF email—one that questioned a ceasefire and suggested it could embolden Hamas—“an expression of anti-Arab hate.” That colleague, Dr. Avromi Kanal, filed a complaint with the university, which was ultimately dismissed on First Amendment grounds. Kanal said he felt unsafe and unsupported by UCSF leadership, while others, like longtime Palestinian American faculty member Dr. Jess Ghannam, defended the right to protest and criticized the conflation of discomfort with harm.

When we say demonizing “Zionists” easily tips into antisemitism, this is what we mean: This UCSF MD is saying “Zionist doctors” harm patients.

“Zionist” means supporting Israel’s existence as Jewish homeland. ~90% of Jews support this.

Criticize Israel but stop attacking Jews🧵 pic.twitter.com/yEkKnQTgMy

— Senator Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) January 4, 2024

Marya was suspended and subjected to a months-long faculty conduct process before being officially fired on May 20 of this year, which she says was retaliatory. She alleges that UCSF administrators attacked her medical license and suspended her without cause, while ignoring her earlier reports of racist, Islamophobic remarks made by colleagues in internal communications. Those complaints, according to her lawsuit, were quietly closed without serious inquiry.

Before her recent outspoken support for Palestinian rights, Marya had long been a respected figure in the medical community. Named one of Nature’s 20 most influential women in biomedicine, she served on multiple national advisory boards and co-authored the book Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice, a study of how colonialism and structural racism affect health outcomes. Her research often focused on care disparities among Black, Indigenous, and unhoused patients—work she says also drew backlash inside the university.

“UCSF leadership repeatedly characterized Dr. Marya’s advocacy for marginalized patients as ‘unprofessional,’ ‘aggressive,’ and ‘harmful,’” the complaints read. As a woman of Indian descent raised in a Sikh household, Marya says she was targeted with “racist tropes” meant to discredit her both personally and professionally.

Her lawsuits—one filed in federal court for First Amendment violations, the other a state civil rights complaint—seek damages for loss of income and psychological distress. They name UCSF Chancellor Sam Hawgood and other university officials, and come at a time when the UC system has faced criticism for disciplining faculty and staff who have spoken out against Israel’s military campaign.

Marya says her comments—most notably “stop bombing hospitals”—should never have put her career at risk. “It is our moral and professional obligation to speak out about children being harmed in the ways that they are in Gaza, about hospitals and the whole healthcare structure being destroyed in Gaza,” she told Democracy Now! “and about our healthcare colleagues who have been abducted, tortured and killed in Gaza.”

Her firing has since galvanized a growing coalition. More than 1,000 healthcare workers and students have signed open letters demanding her reinstatement and denouncing UCSF’s crackdown on political expression. Meanwhile, the university has continued to promote speakers with close ties to Israeli lobbying groups, including Elan Carr of the Israeli American Council—despite vocal objections from Jewish, Arab, Muslim, LGBTQ+, and Palestinian members of the campus community.

Marya hopes the lawsuits will spark public awareness and systemic change. “Solidarity is the only thing we have. It’s our superpower to fight authoritarianism, fascism and this kind of racist repression,” she said. “So, I ask for all healthcare workers around the world to stand in solidarity with me, because my fight is our fight, and our fight is for the liberation of Palestine and our collective liberation.”

Image: © pitpony photography / Wikimedia

Previously: Doctors at UCSF Battle Over Opinions of the Gaza War, Question Whether Protest Should Happen at a Hospital

Local organizer and activist Nadia Rahman wrote about a recent anti-Arab hate incident she experienced in front of City Hall on her way to speak to the Board of Supervisors about the rise in anti-Arab hate in San Francisco.

In some recent Instagram posts, local Palestinian Pakistani American organizer and activist Nadia Rahman shared details about a hate incident she experienced on the steps of City Hall, in which an older woman insulted her keffiyeh, calling it “trash” and telling her to "go back to your country." Rahman had been on her way to speak during public comment at the Board of Supervisors meeting in support of a resolution recognizing Arab American Heritage Month and to emphasize the sharp rise in anti-Arab hate fueled by the U.S.-funded Israeli genocide in Gaza.

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She immediately reported the hate incident to the Mayor’s office, her district Supervisor Connie Chan, CAIR, AROC, the California Civil Rights Department, and the City Hall Sheriff’s department. In an email to Supervisor Chan and Mayor Lurie's administration, Rahman called for stronger public support for San Francisco’s Arab community, emphasizing that this wasn’t an isolated event.

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Rahman shared other recent examples of hate incidents reported by Palestinian American residents, including harassment for displaying Palestinian flags and wearing cultural symbols:

Two days ago, a district 8 resident reached out to me to share a series of hate incidents that happened to her due to her Palestinian American identity and Palestinian flag hanging outside her home and asked for advice on where to go and what to do.”

One month ago, a district 1 resident reached out to me to share that she and her partner experienced a hate incident at a Jack in the Box here in the district because her partner was wearing a keffiyeh.

Rahman is now calling on San Francisco’s leaders to publicly and explicitly condemn both anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian racism. She emphasized that public support is critical for the Arab American community, especially as many feel invisible and abandoned amid escalating violence at home and abroad.

My ask to these public officials since this hate incident occurred is to publicly condemn both 1) anti-Arab racism and 2) anti-Palestinian racism in San Francisco. Name it and condemn it explicitly. The community needs a public condemnation of these forms of hate to feel seen, and to be called in to report these incidents.

Public officials base their policymaking on data and a majority of hate incidents and crimes against Arab and Muslim people go unreported. They will not take action unless we force them to; the data helps immensely in that regard.

Image pulled from Instagram video

• 34-year-old Jeremy Pakyin Yeh, a former elementary school teacher in San Bruno who was found guilty earlier this year of molesting four of his students, was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Friday. A lawsuit filed by the parents of one of the victims says that the student was called a liar when she tried to tell school administrators, and other students were disciplined for “spreading rumors.” [KRON]
• Kehlani, who was born and raised in Oakland, was removed from Cornell University’s Slope Day lineup due to her their pro-Palestine stance and criticism of Israel. This hasn’t stopped the artist from continuing to speak out, including calling out celebrity silence. [Chronicle]
• Assemblymember Matt Haney introduced a bill that would extend existing Good Samaritan laws to protect state university and community college students who call 911 for drug overdoses. The bill would require that institutions connect students to harm-reduction resources, including counseling and overdose education, rather than disciplining them. [KRON]
• A person who entered the BART trackway was fatally struck by a train at the Warm Springs BART Station in Fremont on Thursday evening. [Chronicle]
• A cybertruck driver ventured a little too far into Lake Tahoe Boca Reservoir using “Wade Mode.” [@CHP Truckee]

National:

• Amazon has strategically scheduled its own major book sale at the same time as the annual Independent Bookstore Day, which is the biggest day of the year for many non-chain bookstores. The event is taking place nationwide on Saturday, including a variety of Bay Area bookstores. [Vulture]

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• After backlash, the Trump administration reinstated funding for the Women's Health Initiative. The decades-long project has been critical in tracking over 40,000 women for groundbreaking research on aging, chronic disease, and women's health. [NPR]
• Additionally, Trump faced several court losses this week, with judges blocking parts of his orders on voting, immigration, and DEI programs—even some by judges he picked. [U.S. News & World Report]

Video of the Day:

• Blast from the past: Early to mid-00s “electrocknic” band Pants Pants Pants, whose flyers were often affixed to every telephone pole in town back in the day, recreated the intros to seasons 1 and 5 of Full House in hilariously absurd detail.

Image: Vesuvio Cafe, North Beach; Leanne Maxwell/SFist

The Trump Justice Department is attempting to use an accusation of tolerating an "antisemitic hostile work environment" for Jewish faculty and students to claw back hundreds of millions in federal funding promised to UC Berkeley and other schools.

The Justice Department made an example on Friday of Columbia University, which had been the most prominent school making headlines during the height of pro-Palestinian protests last spring, saying that it would be canceling $400 million in federal funding for the school. And now, as the New York Times reports, nine other schools are on a list being circulated at the DoJ of schools that will be "investigated" for similarly allowing an "antisemitic hostile work environment" by tolerating student protests and anti-Israel rhetoric last year.

Republicans in Congress had already, last spring, made examples of a handful of university presidents, and forced the resignation of Harvard University President Claudine Gay. Now, representatives from the DoJ will reportedly be making "visits" to Harvard, UC Berkeley, UCLA, and six other schools make final determinations about whether their funding will be cut.

The Department of Education put out its own release Monday saying that 60 universities were sent letters "warning them of potential enforcement actions" if they don't prove their commitment to protecting Jewish students from harassment.

A press release from the DoJ last Wednesday announced that the University of California at large was under investigation for violations "under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964."

"This Department of Justice will always defend Jewish Americans, protect civil rights, and leverage our resources to eradicate institutional Antisemitism in our nation’s universities," said Attorney General Pamela Bondi in a statement.

And the release adds that the DoJ "has the authority to initiate investigations against state and local government employers where it has reason to believe that a 'pattern or practice' of employment discrimination exists."

The 10 schools nationwide are collectively being accused of "continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students," despite these protests largely having ended, and despite the fact that many of the protesters — particularly at Columbia — were Jewish themselves.

Anticipating these actions, UC Berkeley put out a statement in early February saying it "has an unwavering commitment to confronting antisemitism as part of our support for a campus community where all can feel safe, respected, and welcome regardless of their origins, identities, beliefs, or perspectives."

The university put out an additional statement Saturday saying, "We will respond to any complaints or allegations through the process prescribed by the DOJ."

Last April and May, a tent encampment at UC Berkeley grew to 175 tents, with students pushing the UC Regents to commit to divesting from any of its investments linked to Israel, in solidarity with the Palestinian people. The protesters disbanded and removed the final tents in mid-May, ahead of the university's commencement ceremonies.

While the Department of Education's list of 60 universities sent warning letters has the veneer of covering both public and private institutions across the country, the DoJ's reported list of 10 schools under serious investigation is pretty concentrated to high-profile liberal instituations in blue states. Other schools on the list include George Washington University, Johns Hopkins University, NYU, Northwestern University, the University of Minnesota, and USC.

The Trump administration escalated its attack on Columbia over the weekend with the ICE arrest of a prominent Palestinian activist, Mahmoud Khalil, attempting to deport him despite his having a green card. As ABC News reports, a federal judge blocked that effort.

Trump made an example of Khalil in a Truth Social post, referring to him as a "Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student," and vowing, "We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country -- never to return again."

Previously: East Bay 'Scholar-Activist' Pleads Guilty to Firebombing UC Berkeley Police Car

Photo: Jeremy Huang

The day before the one-year anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, and the now-year-long response of sustained Israeli counterattacks, a Sunday Mission District protest drew 1,500 people but left the event space Manny’s coated with malicious graffiti.

Today is the one-year anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel that killed 1,200 Isrealis and took another 250 hostage. In the year since, the prolonged Israeli response has killed an estimated 42,000 Palesitinians. While we do not see any further Bay Area Gaza protests listed for today on the Arab Resource and Organizing Center event page where such things are typically listed (and there are events listed every day for the rest of this week), it seems likely there will be some form of action today.

And there was on Sunday, as KTVU reports that around 1,500 pro-Palestine protesters took to the Mission District Sunday afternoon. (This video of the march suggests it was larger.) While it was largely peaceful, the SF Standard notes that the event space Manny’s was thoroughly tagged with graffiti by the protesters. This is not the first time we’ve seen anti-Semitic graffiti on the Manny’s storefront.  

The above video shows one tagger explaining (from behind a mask) that “Manny supports Kamala. Manny supports bombing Palestine.” Other photos from the SF Standard show the graffiti also said “Manny is a rich murderer” and “Zionists out of Frisco.”

“I’m deeply troubled and saddened to have our community attacked like this,” Manny’s owner Manny Yekutiel told the SF Standard. “Vandalizing a Jewish-owned business on the eve of the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust is disgusting and has no place in the city of Saint Francis.”

But per KTVU, the protest otherwise went without notable incident. It started at 1 pm at Valencia and 16th streets — where Manny’s is located — and continued around the Mission on Sunday afternoon.

"We’re mourning for all who have lost their lives,” Jewish Voice for Peace member Alice Robinson told KTVU. “And we’re also here to fight for those who are still living who could still be saved.”

KTVU has video from Sunday’s protests, though the segment starts with a Palo Alto gathering honoring those that are still being held hostage, before chronicling the much larger Sunday Mission District protests.

Meanwhile, the Jewish News of Northern California notes that there are several commemorations to mourn the October 7 victims on Monday throughout the Bay Area, including one in SF on Ocean Beach.

Related: Berkeley Protesters Have Broken Into and Occupied Empty Building In Renewed Pro-Palestine Protest [SFist]

Image: @domestic415 via Twitter

A 34-year-old man was arrested Monday in connection with multiple arson incidents and the firebombing of a campus police vehicle at UC Berkeley, and these may have been acts of protest over the university's treatment of pro-Palestinian protesters.

Casey Goonan, a 34-year-old with a doctorate in African American Studies, has been accused of multiple arson attacks on the UC Berkeley campus in the past three weeks. As the Berkeley Scanner reported following an announcement by Cal Fire, Goonan was arrested Monday "in connection with the firebombing attack of a UC Berkeley Police Department vehicle and three other arson attacks on UC Berkeley campus during the month of June."

The campus police vehicle on Barrows Lane was reportedly firebombed on June 1, as KPIX reports, and a male suspect in dark clothing was seen fleeing the scene east on Bancroft Avenue toward Piedmont Avenue. Other arson incidents occurred on June 1, and on June 13 and 16.

On June 13, campus police posted to X about an arson outside Koshland Hall just after noon. The Berkeley Scanner subsequently linked this to an anonymous posting on the activist website Indybay, which is titled, "UCLA Students Were Attacked Last Night So We Retaliated With a Firebomb on UCB Campus."

The poster, with the byline "student intifada," writes in all caps, "NOT SURE WHAT BUILDING IT EVEN WAS. HONESTLY DONT REALLY CARE. EVERY SINGLE BUILDING ON THE UC BERKELEY CAMPUS DESERVES TO BE INCINERATED FOLLOWING THE UC SYSTEM'S TREATMENT OF STUDENT PROTESTORS." And, the poster adds, "LONG LIVE THE STUDENT INTIFADA FOR PALESTINE LIBERATION. STOP THE GENOCIDE NOW. UC SYSTEM MUST DIVEST FROM ISRAEL OR FACE OUR WRATH OF REVENGE."

A separate posting on Indybay after the incident on Sunday, attributed to "marilyn's daughters," bragged of the previous acts of arson and a "successful looting of a u.c.b supply building of thousands of dollars," and it mentioned a Father's Day arson of "mostly construction materials, wood pallets, and massive dry bush area."

UCB Police subsequently posted to X about an act of arson at the Dwinelle Annex Construction Site around 1:37 pm Sunday.

The Indybay post makes repeated reference to the "u.c.b. kkkampus," and refers to UC police attacks on student protesters at UCLA and UC Santa Cruz. It concludes, regarding the most recent arson, "this was done on father's day for all the palestinian fathers who have lost their children at the hands of the zionist and amerikkkan settler states."

While Goonan does not seem to have a social media presence himself, he comes in in a tweet from last fall after his arrest in San Francisco — where he was apparently among the protesters who gathered outside that anti-trans (TERF) feminist convention that, bizarrely, decided to have its meeting at the Chinatown Hilton in San Francisco. Arrest records show Goonan was arrested September 18, 2023 for vandalism ($5000 or more) and resisting arrest.

For the current arson charges, Goonan was booked into Santa Rita Jail and his bail was set at $1 million.

The SF Standard reports that Goonan "lives with his parents" in Pleasant Hill, which is where he was arrested on Monday.

Among Goonan's published work online is this 2017 academic article about the Black Panthers' newspaper, The Black Panther, which, he writes, "offers a blueprint for U.S.-based radical organizations experimenting with the scientific, premeditated, and necessarily methodical artistry of social revolution."

In a bio, Goonan described himself as an "scholar-activist" who is seeking a professorship.

An attorney for Goonan, Jeff Wozniak, tells the Standard that the FBI were part of the raid on Goonan's home on Monday. And, Wozniak says in statement, "It is an investigation focused on Mr. Goonan’s political beliefs in a free Palestine and against the ongoing genocide in Gaza. If charges are filed, Mr. Goonan’s legal team will aggressively fight the charges."

Wozniak adds, "It is my hope, however, that [District Attorney Pamela Price] does not engage in this political persecution, does not file charges and that Mr. Goonan is released from jail."

Photo via Alameda County Sheriff's Office/Berkeley Scanner

Is a tent encampment really the best form of protest in San Francisco regarding the situation in Gaza? A few dozen protesters figured so on Monday, but were quickly driven off by police with something resembling rubber bullets.

The “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” phenomenon has died down for the moment here in the Bay Area, though we have seen similar large-scale efforts this week at UCLA and in Washington DC. Your Bay Area protest types attempted to form another encampment Monday afternoon at the Phillip Burton Federal Building at 450 Golden Gate Avenue, according to the Chronicle, with tents at first being strewn right on the street in the car traffic lanes.

Around a dozen tents showed up shortly after 3 pm Monday, with some on the street, while the bullhorn-wielder led chants of “Free, free Palestine.” The encampment eventually moved out of traffic and onto the sidewalk in front of the Federal Building.

At that point, some 50-80 protesters continued their chants and set up their tents on that sidewalk. But it did not take long for police to move in. (Note: The video below contains an F-bomb if you have the sound on.)

Judging by the badges, these appear to be Federal Protective Service officers and not SFPD. An apparent eyewitness claimed that “riot police shot [the protesters] with rubber bullets and pepper balls,” and indeed, these officers were certainly firing something. The protesters used tables and whatever else was at their disposal in an attempt to shield themselves.

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That said, the cops apparently won this round pretty quickly. About an hour after the above video was posted, an update from the original poster said, “all have been dispersed. Stay tuned for jail support.” Similarly, a livestream link on the rabble-rousing site IndyBay is defunct.

Per the Chronicle, “It was unclear if any arrests were made.” We will update this post if any information on arrests associated with this incident comes available.

Related: USF Starts Clearing Gaza Encampment, Protesters Mad Because They Claim They Said They’d Leave Willingly [SFist]

Image: spirit.ofthelion via Instagram

Both entrances to UC Santa Cruz were blocked Tuesday, and classes moved online, as that school becomes the latest UC campus flummoxed by the disruptions of pro-Palestine protesters.

Pro-Palestine protests have been popping up at colleges across the country over the last month-plus, but most of these universities have benefited from classes ending, and the students simply heading home for the summer. No such luck for UC Santa Cruz, where classes run through June 13, and the commencement ceremonies go through that weekend.

So, the protest headaches are just ramping up for UC Santa Cruz's administrators, and KQED reports that protesters have blocked the entrances to the campus, forcing administrators to move all classes online through Thursday.  

As seen above, this is not so much of a blockade as it is a human shield. And it must be frustrating for school leadership, as the school had just resumed in-person instruction on Tuesday after an academic strike last week. That strike was related to the violent handling of some protesters at other UC schools, and then this particular blockade popped up around 1 pm Tuesday.  

And yes, those are a whole bunch of “UAW On Strike” signs hoisted about the academic protest at UC Santa Cruz. What does the United Auto Workers have to do with any of this? Because for some reason, United Auto Workers Local 4811 represents graduate teacher assistants and researchers at UC schools. Whatever their involvement, that union's signs are all over this protest.

Either way, the school is not happy.

“Blocking entrances is unlawful and infringes on the rights of our students, faculty, and staff, who are trying to learn, teach, and go about their lives,” UC Santa Cruz Chancellor Cynthia Larive said in a Tuesday statement. “From about 1-5 pm, members of our community were unable to leave campus to pick up their children, to access medical care off campus, to show up to off-campus jobs, to leave campus after an early morning shift or to come onto campus for an afternoon or evening shift.”

Larive added that the school would be “switching to remote instruction on Wednesday and Thursday.”  Similar academic strikes are also underway at UCLA and UC Davis, seemingly with more UAW signs than signs expressing support for Palestinians.

Related: Berkeley Protesters Have Broken Into and Occupied Empty Building In Renewed Pro-Palestine Protest [SFist]

Image: SANTA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA - MAY 20: U.C. Santa Cruz workers who are union members of U.A.W. 4811, which is part of the United Auto Workers, and pro-Palestinian protesters carry signs as they demonstrate in front of the U.C. Santa Cruz campus on May 20, 2024 in Santa Cruz, California. Academic workers at the University of California, Santa Cruz walked off the job Monday morning to strike in protest of the U.C. system’s handling of pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Organizers say the walkout will not last beyond June 30. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

There is a clear difference of opinion between the University of San Francisco and the last remaining Gaza encampment protesters there, as the protesters agreed to move out on Monday, but the university started hauling their tents anyway.

If you’re interested in what’s going on with the Gaza protest encampment at the University of San Francisco, and you search on “USF Gaza protest,” you’re likely to see results showing a different USF Gaza protest some 3,000 miles away at the Tampa campus of the University South Florida, which also goes by the initialism “USF.” That Florida protest brought violent skirmishes and police using tear gas, whereas the University of San Francisco encampment has been far more peaceful over the course of the past couple weeks.

(There was, simultaneously, a separate encampment at San Francisco State University, which also seemed to resolve peacefully two weeks ago.)

But that uneasy peace seems to have broken Monday. While the remaining protesters with tents pitched at the university’s Welch Field say that told university officials that they agreed to leave Monday, the university disputes this. The Chronicle reports that school employees started clearing the tents Monday morning, before the protesters could pack things up themselves.

“We had just woken up,” student organizer Susu Steyteyieh told the Chronicle. “The camp was still full. … They didn’t give us a warning.”

For their part, the university claims that the some 50 remaining tents were “abandoned property,” and the people staying in them had left. (USF is now officially on summer break.) The university said the tents would be stored for the students to pick up, or they would be donated if not picked up.

The USF protest was not as large or long-running as the UC Berkeley Gaza encampment, but had grown to about 100 tents earlier this month. School officials offered the protesters an amnesty deal if they left by 3 pm last Tuesday, prior to last Saturday’s graduation ceremony, but many protesters defied that deadline and remained camped at Welch Field.  

Yet this whole thing may be moving toward a peaceful resolution, perhaps as early as today. University spokesperson Kellie Samson told the Chronicle that the protesters “agreed to pick up their remaining belongings by Tuesday morning."

Update: Samson reached out to SFist to clarify that "The protesters did not notify university officials that they were moving out. USF staff began packing unoccupied tents and abandoned property [on Monday] with the intention of storing all items for pickup or donation. When staff was approached by a few students who arrived at the field, they informed staff then that they intended to remove the encampment and vacate the field that day. They had not informed staff of this until that moment."

Related: Berkeley Protesters Have Broken Into and Occupied Empty Building In Renewed Pro-Palestine Protest [SFist]

Image: @monishabajaj via Twitter

*This post has been updated with comments from university spokesperson Kellie Samson.

Just after UC Berkeley had successfully cleared the large tent encampment that was protesting the university's military- and Israel-related investments, another renegade group has occupied the school's empty Anna Head Hall, though their anti-semitic graffiti may not be helping their cause.

That UC Berkeley “Gaza solidarity” tent encampment that had grown to nearly 200 tents was just finally cleared on Tuesday afternoon, with the school making some fairly minor concessions to the demonstrators. Yet just one day after the protesters packed up their tents, a rogue, offshoot protest group occupied an empty building on the Berkeley campus Wednesday, as KTVU reports.

That building is called Anna Head Hall, which has been closed off for safety reasons since a 2022 fire, and is still boarded up and in some degree of disrepair. It is now surrounded by tents, couches, and a few Palestinian flags, with at least a couple dozen protesters inside.

According to the Daily Cal, about 30 protesters took to the building at around 3:15 pm Wednesday afternoon, and set up tents outside the building shortly thereafter.

But their anti-semitic graffiti might not help win sympathy for their cause, as images circulating on social media show a ‘Star of David equals swastika’ graffiti imagery, and the message “Zionism is Nazism.” The university says they don’t know who these protesters are, and they may not be affiliated with the previous tent encampment.

The school now considers the building to be an “active crime scene” per KTVU. The Chronicle notes that as of Thursday morning, there have been no arrests.

“We are occupying the hall because saying ‘free Palestine’ is not enough,” one unnamed protester told the Daily Cal. “You have to put action behind your words.”

In a statement KTVU, UC Berkeley spokesperson Dan Mogulof said, "Today is the 55th anniversary of People's Park and action was first announced on platforms controlled by People's Park activists. They are vandalizing an unsafe boarded-up, fire-damaged building next to People's Park."

Meanwhile, many of the protesters who were involved with the encampment are heading to UC Merced for the school’s Board of Regents meeting. They’re calling for the UC system to divest from companies that have provided support to Israel during the war, which the school has indicated it will not do.

Related: UC Berkeley Gaza Solidarity Encampment Grows to 175 Tents; Violence Breaks Out at UCLA Protest [SFist]

Image: Google Street View