SAN FRANCISCO– San Francisco prosecutors on Monday began charging 80 protesters who blocked traffic on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge for hours last month while demanding a ceasefire in Gaza.
The protest came as San Francisco hosted President Joe Biden and other world leaders for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
Seventeen people appeared in court Monday on charges of false imprisonment, refusing to comply with a peace officer, unlawful public assembly, refusing to disperse and obstructing streets, sidewalks or other places open to the public. Their charges were continued until February.
Hundreds of protesters held signs reading “Biden: Ceasefire Now” and “Liberate Free Palestine” and “Drop the Charges!” held a press conference outside the court before the indictment of the defendants began.
Aisha Nizar, from the Palestinian Youth Movement, said she was among those arrested and charged but has no plans to stop demonstrating.
“We are more determined in our demands for a ceasefire than ever,” Nizar said outside the court.
About 200 protesters took part in the demonstration during the world trade summit, blocking all lanes to San Francisco on the bridge's upper deck, with some drivers throwing their keys into the bay. Dozens of them were arrested and 29 vehicles were towed. Protesters demanded that Biden call for an immediate ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas.
The indicted protesters will be charged in batches throughout the week, prosecutors said.
“While we must protect the opportunities for free speech, the exercise of free speech cannot jeopardize public safety,” San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said in a statement announcing the charges. “The demonstration on the Bay Bridge, which clogged traffic for hours, had a huge impact on those stuck on the bridge for hours and required enormous public resources to resolve it.”
Protesters calling for a ceasefire have also blocked major roads in cities including Los Angeles, New York, Boston and Philadelphia.
Myles Snyder, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Police, said Monday that 32 protesters were arrested by state police in Philadelphia after a ceasefire protest Thursday that blocked a highway. Before being released, they were prosecuted on charges of disorderly conduct.
A spokesperson for the city of Minneapolis said Minnesota State Patrol troopers arrested six people after protesters blocked traffic on a Minneapolis highway last week. Five were booked for alleged traffic obstruction offenses. The Minneapolis city attorney is investigating charges against five of them and declined to file charges against the sixth.
A temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which Qatar helped broker, was announced on November 21, but the war resumed on December 1 after talks to extend the ceasefire collapsed.
The war began after Hamas breached Israel's high-tech “Iron Wall” on October 7 and launched an attack that killed more than 1,200 Israelis. Hamas also took nearly 240 people hostage.
According to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry in Gaza, more than 19,400 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, about two-thirds of them women and minors.
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Associated Press writers Mark Scolforo in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Summer Ballentine in Jefferson City, Missouri, contributed to this report.