More than 100 protesters gathered on Valencia Street between 18th and 19th streets on Wednesday afternoon amid Vice President Kamala Harris’ appearance for the Biden Victory Fund fundraiser at the Chapel, a live music venue located on the block.
Around 12:30 p.m., the crowd started to gather in front of Yasmin, a Middle Eastern eatery at the corner of 19th and Valencia streets. Its owner, Eiad Eltawil, has been outspoken in his opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza; a parklet outside the restaurant reads “Free Palestine.” The protesters amassed shortly before Harris was supposed to show up at 1 p.m. for the campaign fundraiser four doors down from Yasmin.
“It’s kind of insulting and disingenuous to come here and raise money when you are funding a genocide,” said Reem Assil, a Palestinian-Syrian chef and owner of Mission restaurant Reem’s California. Assil recalled that at the peak of the protest, the entire block was filled with hundreds of people.
Around 1 p.m., when the vice president was supposed to arrive, police started to put up barricades by the sidewalks, and closed the stretch of Valencia Street between 16th and 20th streets.
Harris arrived about an hour late, around 2 p.m.. She was delayed by an earlier pro-Palestine protest outside a separate noon fundraiser in Oakland’s Rockridge neighborhood, according to social media. Harris is visiting the Bay Area on a one-day fundraising trip.
Avalon Edwards, a campaign organizer for Jewish Voice for Peace, entered the venue with a ticket to the event, and then began protesting inside the Chapel when Harris spoke. Edwards said Harris came on stage at around 2:15 p.m., and they soon disrupted her, shouting about the deaths of Palestanians. Edwards was then pulled out of the venue.
“Vice President Kamala Harris and the Biden administration [should] know they are not welcome in our backyard, so long as they’re funding a genocide,” said Lara Kiswani, executive director of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center, the main organizer of the protest. “We are going to show up, we’re going to disrupt, we’re going to make our demands known.”
The crowd dispersed at around 3 p.m., soon after Harris wrapped up her visit. Kiswani said she did not know of any arrests or injuries. The San Francisco Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
If they’re going to campaign to get Trump elected, they should at least be honest and wear red MAGA hats.
Will they also protest the Trump fundraising event? If not, then they can just take all the seats, as the kids used to say last year. I’m severely tired of the war in Gaza being somehow all the fault of President Biden, when Republicans are even more rabidly pro-Netanyahu. Gratuitous ad hominem: the one time I ordered from Reem’s, the food was overpriced and mediocre, and they tacked on a mandatory 20% surcharge for a to-go meal that I picked up myself. I’m not a fan.
“we’re going to make our demands known”.
How about without being rude and obnoxious, at the ballot box, just like the rest of us.