Bridge demonstrators have right to protest
Regarding “Chronicle readers denounce protests that block Golden Gate Bridge and I-880 freeway” (Letters to the Editor, SFChronicle.com, April 17):
Disruption is worth it
Having been impacted by delays many times across Bay Area transportation, I understand frustrations.
However, I’m struck by the outrage over the recent protest, which seems ultimately about being inconvenienced.
Extraordinary inconvenience is having your homeland decimated, your people (including children) killed by the thousands and trying to survive famine, all while U.S. aid by the billions is earmarked for the country attempting to annihilate your people.
To do nothing, in the face of such human rights violations, is to condone the horrific actions.
Take a moment, please, to consider your “aggravations” while praying for peace and justice the world over.
Pam Hefferman, Oakland
Dissent is American
The San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the National Lawyers Guild stands with all those protesting what they view as a genocidal war and repression in Gaza and Palestine.
It is in the grand tradition of the Bay Area to stand up for human rights, here and around the world. Dissent and protest are both a right and a duty in the face of U.S. support for what is arguably genocide. Protests of this kind should never be criminalized.
Many of the protesters who were arrested are being threatened with felony charges that would have potentially lasting implications for their lives, livelihoods and families.
More protests are expected during the next few days, with equivalent dangers of mass repression. These courageous activists urgently need our solidarity and legal support.
These protests come as the war in Gaza continues with U.S support, resulting in tens of thousands of Palestinians dead, injured, detained and forcibly displaced, in open defiance of a resolution from the United Nations Security Council calling for a cease-fire and decisions by the International Court of Justice that seek to hold Israel accountable, along with cases brought
in U.S. courts and in courts around the world.
Camilo Perez-Bustillo, executive director, San Francisco Bay Area chapter, National Lawyers Guild
Way to get attention
The flood of letters critical of citizens blocking freeways protesting Israel’s demolition of Gaza raises the question: What can a citizen do to stop their government from funding a war, especially when most agree there should be an immediate cease-fire?
Confronting the decision makers at every opportunity is one approach and a protected right of free speech. As
Code Pink founder Medea Benjamin, a frequent evictee from congressional hearings, told me, “We don’t have highpaid lobbyists and can’t afford massive political donations and therefore must speak with our bodies.”
At some point, the interruption of daily life is the only alternative.
Tom Miller, Oakland
Have a solution?
Regarding “Gov. Gavin Newsom: Gaza protesters should be ‘held to account’ for blocking Bay Area highways” (Bay Area, SFChronicle.com, April 16): The story presents Gov. Gavin Newsom’s blame of protestors uncritically, ignoring the reason they were protesting in the first place.
More than six months into Israel’s siege of Gaza, protesters around the world are trying to prevent the astronomical death toll from rising.
When Newsom says, “I think there’s a better way of expressing it than denying people the ability to get to work, someone in an emergency that can’t get to their destination,” he ignores two important facts.
Gaza residents have been prevented from working or receiving emergency care for more than half a year. Activists have employed a myriad of other tactics, from calling their representatives in Congress to passing cease-fire resolutions in their schools, unions and local governments, to economic boycotts of Israel, and yet the killing continues.
If Newsom has a better idea about how to achieve an immediate and permanent cease-fire, he should lead the way. Stevie Schwartz, Berkeley