OAKLAND – Protesters in Oakland escalated their calls for a ceasefire in Gaza on Monday with a mostly Jewish-led sit-in at the city’s federal building that led authorities to arrest and cite what appeared to be hundreds of people.
By Tuesday afternoon, officials from the Department of Homeland Security still had not provided an estimate of how many people were arrested, many of them for unlawful assembly.
It was the most directly confrontational ceasefire demonstration so far in California, where urgency among progressive voices is growing for an end to Israel’s extended retaliation in Gaza to the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.
The sit-in could also signal more direct action in the days and weeks to come as the death toll of Palestinians on Tuesday climbed past 11,200 people, along with 2,700 others who are missing, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah.
Of the roughly 700 participants, the vast majority were Jewish, with the sit-in having been organized by two anti-Zionist groups: Jewish Voice for Peace and If Not Now.
“My grandmother and grandfather didn’t die in Germany for our history to be exploited to kill other people,” one demonstrator said as she was led away by officers. “Not one other time, for any people.”
Wearing black t-shirts that declared “Jews Say Ceasefire Now” and “Not In Our Name,” the protesters packed the historic Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building, filling the iconic rotunda with songs for peace and chants of “Free Palestine.”
Many of the protesters said they would not leave the building until the sit-in was dispersed by police or U.S. leaders declared their support for a ceasefire — something that most members of Congress, as well as President Joe Biden, have declined to do.
By 8 p.m., DHS officers were out in full force arresting the demonstrators, almost all of whom did not resist as they were escorted out — a deliberate tactic by organizers to protect the physical safety of the sit-in’s older participants.
“This was very intergenerational,” Liv Kunins-Berkowitz, a Jewish Voice for Peace spokesperson and Oakland resident, said in an interview. “There were a lot of elderly people arrested with their walkers and canes, which goes against the idea that it’s only young Jews who are criticizing Israel.”
Although no religious organizations were formally attached to the sit-in, the event drew several rabbis who joined the chorus of demonstrators singing for peace in Gaza, where “four-hour daily humanitarian pauses” to Israeli airstrikes have given Palestinian families some time to flee.
The sit-in drew a high-profile name: the Oakland rapper and filmmaker Boots Riley, who by nighttime was sitting cross-legged on the floor of the south wing as officers cleared the room.
“A bunch of us are only leaving if its in handcuffs,” Riley wrote in a social media post earlier in the night, though it’s unclear if ultimately he was arrested.
As large crowds of demonstrators cheered, DHS officers photographed the ID cards of those arrested and told them citations would arrive by mail in the coming days, before releasing them. It’s unclear how many demonstrators were booked into jail, if any.
“No comment on any federal law enforcement activity that may have occurred at the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building,” Abraham Simmons, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, said of the sit-in, which was documented widely online.
The building re-opened for business Tuesday morning, though with limited access. Mary Simms, a spokesperson for the federal General Services Administration, said visitors would “need to be listed on an access memo or escorted into the building.” She did not say how long the new setup would last.
The action was part of a national week of Jewish-led protests calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, according to organizers. It also came the same day President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were set to arrive in the Bay Area for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation 2023 forum.
Tuesday’s sit-in illustrated growing urgency among pro-Palestine groups to receive some show of solidarity for a ceasefire among elected leaders.
“Having Jews take action makes it clear that (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu does not speak for us,” David Solnit, a longtime Berkeley resident, said in an interview. “We are against this violence.”
Similar demonstrations took place in the past week at New York’s Grand Central Terminal and the Statue of Liberty, and organizers in California said Tuesday to “keep your eye on L.A” next.
Very few cities in the country — and no major ones — have formally supported a ceasefire in Gaza since Israel began its retaliation to the Oct. 7 massacre by Hamas of 1,400 Israelis, many of them citizens, as well as the capture of 239 hostages. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S., Canada and the European Union.
Richmond became the first city nationwide to formally extend support to Palestinians, and in the weeks since calls for ceasefire have been approved in Rhode Island, as well as Easton, Pennsylvania and the tiny Southern California town of Cudahy.
Individually, several members of the Oakland City Council, including its president, Nikki Fortunato Bas, have issued statements supporting a ceasefire.
“It is unconscionable that the federal government would consider giving an additional $14.3 billion in military aid to the state of Israel while our own communities lack access to these basic needs,” Bas wrote in a letter to Biden and other White House officials.
“The U.S. must instead use its power and resources to immediately pursue diplomatic efforts to end the violence against the people of Gaza and the West Bank and to free all the hostages,” she added.
Staff writer Harry Harris and the Associated Press contributed to this story.
