Muslim advocacy group calls for investigation of Menlo Park assault on pro-Palestine activists

As seen on a YouTube video, the unknown man pulled down one of the banners while accosting the volunteers, yelling, grabbing one person and throwing a backpack onto the freeway.

A Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization is calling on law enforcement to investigate a reported assault last week on two pro-Palestine advocates in Menlo Park.

On May 5, two pro-Palestine volunteers with the Northern California Islamic Council were hanging banners calling for peace in Gaza on the Ringwood highway overpass over U.S. Highway 101 in Menlo Park. An unidentified man approached them and began physically and verbally harassing the activists and throwing their belongings over the fence on the bridge, according to a statement by the Bay Area chapter of the Council for American-Islamic Relations.

As seen on a video published on the organization’s YouTube channel, the unknown man pulled down one of the banners while accosting the volunteers, yelling and shaking his finger in their faces. The man grabbed the shirt of one of the volunteers and pushed them, the took one of the volunteers’ backpacks and threw it off the bridge onto the highway below. The man also attempted to throw down one of the banners — easily more than 10 feet long — onto the highway.

A spokesperson with the California Highway Patrol said that they have no comment at this time due to the the ongoing investigation.

CAIR’s Bay Area chapter said that this was the third assault against Bay Area pro-Palestine banner-hangers reported to them since the start of the war in Gaza. According to the organization’s 2024 civil rights report, the organization received the highest number of complaints of anti-Muslim hate in 2023, with almost half the complaints coming in the last three months of the year.

“This violent assault on pro-Palestine activists is an affront to their basic rights and a troubling manifestation of the rising anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim rhetoric heard across the state and nation since Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza began,” said CAIR-SFBA Executive Director Zahra Billoo.

“No individual should ever face such aggression and violence for peacefully expressing their beliefs,” she added in the statement. “We demand swift and decisive action from law enforcement, including arrest and hate crime charges, to ensure that the alleged perpetrator is held accountable for his reported actions.”