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People across the Bay Area have been watching in horror at the war between Israel and Hamas. Today, we bring you voices from three different rallies and gatherings that took place over the weekend.
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Ericka Cruz Guevarra: I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra, and welcome to the Bay. Local news to keep You Rooted. Over the past week, people across the Bay Area have been watching in horror at the war between Israel and Hamas, and they are responding with sadness, anxiety, fear and outrage. On Friday, hundreds dressed in blue carrying Israeli flags gathered outside San Francisco City Hall, calling for the release of hostages still being held by Hamas.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: On Saturday, an estimated 3000 people marched from the ferry building, an upmarket street demanding that Israel stop bombarding and blockading Gaza. And at least married in Oakland, Jewish groups calling for the end of Israel’s occupation of Palestine. Held a vigil on Sunday to mourn those killed in the war. Today, we’re going to take you to those actions and we’ll hear from the people here in the Bay Area about how they’re feeling in this moment and how they’re processing the events in Israel and Gaza. Stay with us.
*audio from protest*
Speaker 6: Would you mind just stating your first and last name?
Speaker 8: Yes. My name is Arthur Zico. I I’m Israeli born and an American citizen now. So at a time like this. You want to feel that you are part of a community who is feeling what you’re feeling. And of course, as a sign of solidarity and support. It’s a sad day for all of us.
Speaker 9: Do you mind saying your first and last name for mme?
Speaker 10: NEARY. HASAN I’m here because this girl on the poster is a neighbor of my mother. I was raised and born in Kibbutz Nicholas. And on last Friday night, we were celebrating with friends. And someone all of a sudden said, there are rockets over Israel. And we tried to ignore. But then someone said, oh, my terrorists have crossed the border in Gaza. And immediately I felt like, oh, this is so serious. This is like the one worst nightmare I had as a child. I called my mother. She didn’t really know. And I told her, shut off the TV, go into the Mahmoud secure room and close the door, closed the TV, everything. And so we were we are five siblings, so we were following her the entire day until at midnight she was rescued.
Speaker 10: She’s physically fine, but she’s part of a shattered community. My good friends, his mother was kidnaped. She’s 84. She’s barely walking. We know of Eliakim family, the parents of this beautiful girl who were kidnaped and so many. I don’t know if we have enough synonyms. Just nightmare. All that is just. There are no words anymore. There are no words You don’t liberate by kidnaping, abducting people, slaughtering them. Stop with the equation that Hamas is Palestinian. It’s actually hurting the Palestinians. In my humble opinion, the Hamas is the sole responsible for these atrocities, and this is regardless of any political argument or conflict.
Speaker 7: Would you mind stating your first and last name real quick, and your title?
Josh Becker: Sure, Josh Becker California State Senator, District 13. This rally is about bringing home the hostages and communicating very clearly to Hamas and to the world that they must release the hostages now. And vice chair of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus. We’ve been in touch with our U.S. senators, our State Department. We are working every angle. And this rally is one of those. No matter how you feel about Middle East politics, we can all agree that kidnaping women and children and the elderly is wrong. It’s a violation of international law. We need them released now.
Speaker 12: Do not mistake this as a fight for freedom. Freedom can never be stopped through brutal, inhumane and barbaric actions. As a citizen of Israel, I stand united with my country in our fight against Hamas. I call on the local, local and global community to stand with Israel as we fight for our lives, our homes and our future. I call on mothers and fathers to voice their horror and rage against these brutal crimes. I call all mothers and fathers to help Israel get our children back alive and safe with no negotiations right now.
Speaker 9: Where people are connected by businesses, by what people are still deciding that nothing that’s golden. Step up.
Suzanna Ali: My name is Suzanne Ali. I’m an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement Bay Area. This week has been personally so difficult. You know, it’s not a new issue for us. Of course, the mainstream media has been portraying it as if this is something that just a war or a war that broke out like two or three days ago. But this is something that’s been ongoing for us. And having family in in Palestine, specifically me having family in Gaza, in Khan Yunis, which was bombarded last night, as I saw, is really difficult. I’ve lived here my whole life. I’ve gone to school here and I’ve always been faced with, you know, teachers telling me that Palestine doesn’t exist. And that’s horrifying to hear, you know, And to it in this day and age when we’re seeing another genocide.
Speaker 5: Would have you believe that this race, this notion that we want this violence to happen, that we want to bury close to 600 of our children in the last seven days. But the only thing we want is an end to the occupation and then through colonialism, an end to ethnic cleansing, an end to the siege of Gaza and honest reporting. That is the cruelty. And I think that this is the truth and stop with the propaganda and lies. The year is 2023 when it looks like the headlines read this 2001.
Maysa Al-Sharif: My name is Maysa. Al-Sharif. I’ve been protesting since I was a kid, and unfortunately I’m here today with my kids now, maybe in the past year. Sure. He’s nine and she’s five. I’ve been telling them the truth that their lives would it matter if they lived there? And it’s not fair that we get to live here and our people got to our family got to leave and we’re safe and they’re not. So I’m letting them know without traumatizing them as much as I could. But I’m definitely letting them know the way that I grew up knowing. We do live in India. They last heard of them days ago. Yeah, they’re not sure where. They know their houses were bombed and they’re not sure where they are.
Speaker 9: Right. Palestine. Palestine, Palestine.
Speaker 14: Thank you all so, so much for joining us today. It’s so powerful to be here in community with all of you, with other Jews who know that Jewish safety can only come through ending apartheid and ensuring Palestinian safety and freedom.
Suzanna Ali: Can I get your first and last name?
Sidney Levy: Yes. Sidney Levy. I’m Jewish, Jewish, American. I’m in solidarity with Palestine. I have family that’s in the Israeli army, family in Israel. I have friends in Palestine on both sides of the border. Everybody is concerned. Everybody is upset and fearful, But nothing justifies what is happening now in Gaza. Last week has been very heavy, has been in mostly despair because so many things that we have been building as a movement of solidarity with Palestine at the beginning seem to be collapsing. What you hear from the U.S. government with all of the support, with all of that, it’s just incredible. But I think that people are waking up from their grief, which is still real into action. So one of the ways to deal with the despair is not to fall into the oppression, which I was depressed last week.
Sidney Levy: And it’s just moving into action and just saying, we’re here, we’re opposed to what is happening, and we want a different world, a world without apartheid. It’s not that hard. A friend of mine was saying that in order to move from A to B, from the violence to action, you have to pass through the grief. And somebody was commenting here, it’s very hard to pursue the grief because the violence and the killing is still happening is taking place. So you’re grieving not only for the people that have died, but for the people that will continue to die, unfortunately. And that’s why you have to be able to hold both the community and the grief, but also the action, because there are things that we can still stop. We cannot stop the people that were killed yesterday. We can stop the killings. That will happen tomorrow.
Speaker 7: We’re all grieving for so, so many people right now. And I think we’re also all grieving for something that’s beyond people or values or a Jewish community that we can trust. I mean, on our Mardi Gras day, the higher ground, your man on fire the whole day. It’s like a gala, man. You. I mean, the whole schmear. Rabbi McGrath Well, I’m on my.
Unidentified: On my, on for a number of.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: The audio you heard in this episode was gathered by KQED’s Sidney Johnson and Analise Finney. This episode was cut down and edited by Maria Esquinca and me. Allan Montecillo is our senior editor. By the way, I’m going to leave you all a link in our shownotes. It’s a story from NPR about how to talk to children about the violence in Israel and Gaza. I know much of what is happening right now. It can feel hard to explain. So in case you need it, it’s there. The Bay’s a production of member supported KQED. I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra. Talk to you next time.
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