Hundreds of protesters led by Jewish peace activists calling for a cease-fire in Gaza staged a sit-in inside of the federal building in Oakland, California, leading to multiple arrests.
People wore T-shirts reading “Jews Say Cease-fire Now” and carried banners that read “Not in Our Name” and “Let Gaza Live” in the rotunda of the Ronald V. Dellums Federal building on Monday evening.
Jewish Voice for Peace, one of the protest organizers, posted online that dozens of people had been taken into custody by 9 p.m.
“There is no other choice,” Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb of Berkeley told KNTV-TV when explaining why she was at the sit-in. “How many people do we have to kill before we arrive at a cease-fire?”
On Monday, hundreds of Jewish peace activists and their allies converged at a major train station in downtown Chicago during rush hour blocking the entrance to the Israeli consulate and demanding U.S. support for an Israel cease-fire.
Jewish Voice for Peace led a similar sit-in in New York City’s Grand Central Station on Oct. 27, where a sea of protesters filled the main concourse during evening rush hour, chanting slogans and unfurling banners demanding a cease-fire as Israel intensified its bombardment of the Gaza Strip. At least 200 demonstrators were detained by New York police officers.
___
The story has been updated to correct a typo in the name of the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building.
