OAKLAND — Protesters opposed to the war in Gaza shut down an East Bay freeway and the Golden Gate Bridge early Monday, causing ripples of chaos through Bay Area traffic, the California Highway Patrol said.
The CHP began moving some of the protesters off one northbound lane of Interstate 880 by 11 a.m., CHP spokesperson Officer Andrew Barclay said via email. It was not immediately clear how long it would take to remove all of the protesters and reopen the freeway.
The protesters blocked all four northbound lanes of I-880 south of 5th Street and Embarcadero starting around 6:30 a.m., officials said. CHP Oakland area spokesperson Officer Adib Zeid said some of the protesters attached themselves to large barrels, which were dropped off by a truck that later left the scene.
About 90 minutes later, the Golden Gate Bridge was closed in both directions to vehicular traffic and sidewalks were closed to pedestrians as another group of protesters moved into the lanes of the span. Barclay said the CHP was working to clear that scene but that some protesters were chained through the cars.
Just before noon, the CHP said they had detained many protesters and had begun to remove them from the bridge.
The CHP did not have an estimate for when either northbound I-880 or the Golden Gate Bridge would have all lanes open again. They remained closed at midday Monday.
On northbound I-880 in Oakland, the CHP had approximately 40 officers on the scene and was waiting for more. Zeid said he could not estimate how long it would take to clear and reopen the roadway.
“We’ve probably got about 200 to 300 protesters,” Zeid said. “So we’re waiting for additional units. We need transport vans. We want to be logistically ready to do it as quickly as we can once we’re ready to move them off the freeway.”
The protests backed up northbound traffic on I-880 about six miles, past the Oakland Coliseum. The length of the traffic eased after one lane was opened, with traffic later flowing at the Coliseum.
Zeid said protesters in Oakland also gathered at the 7th Street on-ramp to southbound I-880 and blocked that entrance for at least an hour, though the southbound lanes of the freeway remained open. Officers at that scene had arrested one person as of about 10:30 a.m., according to Zeid.
“If there are any type of obstructions, they’ll be going to jail,” Zeid said.
The protesters were there to voice their support for the Palestinian people, authorities said; it appeared that a similar protest in the Chicago area had blocked freeway access to Chicago O’Hare International Airport. A statement from a group calling itself A15 Action said the 880 blockage was “part of a series of economic blockades on April 15 in dozens of cities around the world … (targeting an) economic artery through which capital and labor flow every day.”
The statement added that the action was meant to “target the global economy and the US economy specifically due to its complicity in the genocide of the Palestinian people.”
Monday marked the second major freeway disruption by pro-Palestinian demonstrators since Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups in Gaza attacked neighboring Israel Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 mostly civilian Israelis and taking more than 200 others hostage. Israel has responded with a massive military counterattack in Gaza aimed at freeing the hostages and destroying Hamas, which has governed Gaza since 2007. Palestinian organizations say the Israeli counteroffensive has killed some 30,000 people.
Tyler Gregory, chief executive of the Jewish Community Relations Council, a coalition of 53 synagogues and Jewish organizations around the Bay Area, said Monday that the freeway shutdown demonstrations were ill-timed coming after Iran’s attacks on Israel over the weekend.
“We’re in some ways reliving the trauma of Oct. 7, not knowing our relatives were going to be OK over there,” Gregory said. “You had 9 million people in bunkers and shelters, including 2 million Palestinian Israelis. Do Israeli civilians get the same attention as Gaza civilians?”
Gregory said Monday’s traffic disruption isn’t persuasive and that Israelis want peace, too, but are dealing with an existential threat from neighbors who want to destroy their country.
The CHP said it was preparing for possible protests in other parts of the Bay Area, but officials did not specify any particular areas of concern.
On Nov. 16, pro-Palestinian protesters shut down the Bay Bridge leading into San Francisco where world leaders were gathering for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit for hours before the California Highway Patrol moved them and reopened the span. Authorities have since charged 78 demonstrators for violations relating to the shutdown.
All lanes on southbound I-880 were open at midday but traffic was moving slowly. Big rigs were being allowed on westbound I-580 while I-880 was blocked.
This is a developing report. Please check back for updates.
