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.
Right now: large rally at 16th and Valencia protesting one year of Israel’s genocide in Gaza and recent attacks on Lebanon. #SanFrancisco #breaking pic.twitter.com/gutmDvVNPg
— Christopher Alam (@_chrisalam) October 6, 2024
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.
Impunity 101 pic.twitter.com/I62tExZtAO
— Domestic Terrorist 🐺 (@domestic415) October 6, 2024
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.”
Today in San Francisco, THOUSANDS came out to protest a year of genocide against Palestinians
— Jewish Voice for Peace Bay Area (@JVPBayArea) October 7, 2024
Chanting “Free free Palestine!” w/signs reading “Hands off the Middle East,” & kites w/quotes from Refaat Alareer
It’s been a year, the Bay isn’t stopping#CeasefireNow pic.twitter.com/iNFm3I7rJ5
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.
Image: @domestic415 via Twitter