Bay Area Jewish Leader Calls for Investigation Into Pro-Palestinian Group Over SF Protest Sign

Updated at 4:45 p.m. March 24.

Amid hundreds of protesters calling for a ceasefire outside the Israeli consulate in San Francisco on Tuesday, one sign stood out: “Israel deserves 10,000 Oct. 7ths.”

Now, the Jewish Community Relations Council, a prominent Bay Area Jewish organization, is urging an investigation into one of the more than 20 sponsors of the protest, even as organizers have since distanced themselves from the sentiment expressed by the sign.

“They must be investigated for their support for Hamas to see if they are coordinating with foreign terror organizations,” JCRC CEO Tyler Gregory wrote on the social media platform X, adding that the protester was “openly calling for a Holocaust.”

The Arab Resource and Organizing Center is the group that Gregory singled out in a post Wednesday. AROC Executive Director Lara Kiswani wrote to the Board of Supervisors and the mayor that Gregory “appears to be appealing to the Trump Administration’s openly repressive domestic policies targeting Palestinian organizations.”

“I don’t think that everybody at those protests believes that, and I don’t think any reasonable person would think that,” said AROC member Samer Araabi, referring to the sign. “It feels super disingenuous to try to use one sign among literally thousands and associate it with the organizers of the event.”

It’s not the first time that AROC and JCRC have exchanged inflammatory remarks over pro-Palestinian protests.

Kiswani said she wrote to city officials about a similar incident in 2023, when Gregory characterized her organization as “pro-terrorism.” Soon after that, she said a Palestinian was assaulted in San Francisco’s city hall — an attack that activists say was encouraged by Gregory’s rhetoric.

Gregory did not respond to multiple requests for comment, but JCRC spokesperson Jeremy Russell said he hopes “any organization would want to distance itself from explicit calls to violence.”

Other organizers of Tuesday’s protest have also come to AROC’s defense.

“We had nothing to do with the sentiment that was expressed in that sign,” said Zahra Billoo, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “That sign was brought by some individual of unknown affiliation.”

Billoo said the JCRC’s decision to single out AROC — and not the more than 20 other organizers of the event — was motivated by anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian racism.

Seth Morrison of Jewish Voice for Peace said his organization condemns all calls for violence, including that sign.

Billoo also echoed a sentiment of Kiswani’s letter, saying that JCRC appears to be aiding the Trump administration’s plan to arrest and deport pro-Palestinian activists across the country.

“We have no choice but to interpret their call for an investigation as a call for government targeting, a call for immigration consequences and a call for vigilante violence,” she said. “They are fomenting anti-Palestinian racism at a time when Palestinians — and those mistaken for Palestinians — are facing violent hate crimes in our streets.”

Tuesday’s protest drew hundreds in response to Israel’s escalating airstrikes in Gaza after nearly two months of a ceasefire resolution. Israel’s attacks early Tuesday morning killed over 400 people and injured several hundred more.

Demonstrators in San Francisco and in other cities across the country marched for a ceasefire, an arms embargo and the release of Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder who was detained over a week ago for organizing pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University while he was a student.

“We can’t control, surveil, or be aware of anyone who shows up,” Billoo said. “JCRC has intended to project ownership of that onto AROC.”

Editor’s Note: This story was updated to clarify the condemnation of a protest sign seen outside the Israeli consulate in San Francisco on March 18.