Protesters rally outside of Israeli consulate in San Francisco against Netanyahu speech
Dozens of activists blocked streets around the Israel Consulate General in San Francisco Wednesday to protest the address of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to a joint session of the U.S. Congress.
Protesters blocked the intersection of Montgomery and Sacramento Streets in the city's Financial District beginning at about 7 a.m., police said. They dispersed by about 9 a.m.
Organizers of the protest said the activists called for the U.S. to end funding for what it called Israel's genocide in Gaza and occupation of Gaza and the West Bank. The protest was in solidarity with protests in front of the White House and at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.
Netanyahu delivered a speech to both houses of the U.S. Congress on the state of the war against Hamas he launched in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack that killed some 1,200 people across southern Israel and took about 240 others hostage.
Ten months later, the war has killed almost 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza and left thousands of others suffering from disease and famine, health officials in Gaza said.
Last month, another protest at the San Francisco Israel Consulate General resulted in the arrests of more than a dozen protesters after they occupied the first floor of the consulate.