A group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators tried to disrupt Christmas weekend shopping in San Francisco’s Union Square on Saturday in the latest attack on the Christian holiday, seen by radical leftists as an example of bourgeois complacency.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported:
Hundreds of protesters gathered among holiday crowds in San Francisco’s central shopping district Saturday to call for an end to hostilities between Hamas and Israel, as well as for charges to be dropped against demonstrators who shut down the Bay Bridge last month.
Chanting “free Palestine” and “cease-fire now” while holding yellow protest signs that read “No Xmas as usual in a genocide” and “DA Jenkins drop all charges on the Bay Bridge 78,” the protesters — many of them representing the Party for Socialism and Liberation — stood outside the former Westfield mall on Market Street as holiday shopping was underway with Christmas just two days away.
By 1:30 p.m., protesters had blocked traffic on Market Street between Powell and Ellis streets. About 30 minutes later protesters marched down Market Street and confronted police, leading to the arrest of one demonstrator. It was not immediately clear why the protester was arrested. Later, protesters marched to Union Square and surrounded the Christmas tree and ice skating rink.
The “Bay Bridge 78” refers to the 78 people who were arrested for blocking the San Francisco Bay Bridge last month during an anti-Israel protest. As Breitbart News later noted, that protest temporarily blocked a number of ambulances from delivering organs to waiting transplant patients.
The Union Square protest is only the latest attempt by pro-Palestinian protesters to disrupt Christmas across the nation. Past efforts have included disrupting the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting in New York City, and forcing California’s state Christmas tree lighting to be moved indoors, to a “virtual” format.
The San Francisco protest is also another blow to retail shopping in Union Square, which has been hit hard by crime and has seen a recent exodus of retailers.
