On Monday the 17th, there was yet another protest in front of the Israeli consulate, which is housed in the heart of the financial district, in a skyscraper on Montgomery Street beetween California and Sacramento next door to Wells Fargo's corporate headquarters.
Usually, the police put up metal barricades along the one-block stretch, and the anti-Zionist protestors set up shop on one side of Montgomery...
...while the pro-Zionist counterprotestors stand on the other side of the street.
Usually, they just stand there and shout epithets at each other for an hour.
Today was blessedly different, however.
Firstly, most of the protestors against Israel's actions were explicitly Jewish organizations, such as "Jewish Voice for Peace" (click here to get to their website).
I heard a couple of "self-hating Jews" epithets from the other side of the street...
...but the anti-semitism cudgel was effectively taken out of the counterprotestors' hands.
Secondly, there was no stupid chanting of slogans.
Instead, there was a band playing beautiful, mostly minor key music...
...that conveyed a jaunty hope and sadness at the same time.
They were also just a plain joy to listen to.
Frank Chu (click here for his Wikipedia bio) was there with his own signage...
...and of course it goes without saying that the entire event was grotesquely overpoliced by the San Francisco Police Department because there is no real crime in this city.
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