Making Noise to Stop Starving Gaza

SAN FRANCISCO (07-25) – The Northern California office of Congressman Alex Padilla (D-CA) was the scene of a large and exceptionally noisy protest as activists armed with pots and pans from the Palestinian Youth Movement along with other human rights activists loudly called attention to the ongoing genocide and the starving of the people in Gaza.

Using pots and pans to create noise, the “Stop Starving Gaza, Noise Demo” could be heard several blocks away as sound bounced off the massive skyscrapers’ stone and glass walls that make up the downtown Financial District’s canyons where the office is located.

On this International Day of Action, protesters charged Padilla with complicity for his nonwavering support of Israel, of shutting out his constituents who wish to have their voices heard, and for his having remained silent in the face of the forced starvation in Gaza.

The group is demanding Padilla immediately engage in helping bring about the unlimited and unobstructed entry of humanitarian aid and to end the siege and starvation, saying, “Gaza is starving. We will not let Padilla, or the world look away.”

After a rally and chalking of the sidewalk with messages to Padilla outside the building, the protesters marched to the offices of BlackRock the largest asset manager in the US. There the group accused the company of complicity for its investments and financing of the defense industry that is providing support and equipment to Israel including fighter jets and munitions in their ongoing genocide in Gaza.

The company has an infinite portfolio of investments in major industries and corporations including healthcare and AI, among many others, all controversial for their profit-above-all-else stance. On its website, BlackRock proudly proclaims that “We help millions of hardworking Americans experience financial well-being” without divulging how some of that wealth is created.

One company in its massive portfolios, the multibillion-dollar and world’s largest defense contractor Lockheed Martin, one speaker noted, produces both the F16 and F35 jets that are being used by the Israeli military to drop bombs on Gaza. Another is Palantir, the American data analysis software company whose “spy tech” is being used by the Israeli Ministry of Defense to supply “technology to help the country’s war effort [Gaza].”

She went on to say that the multibillion-dollar defense companies “run the politics of this country” and have greater sway over the US government and foreign policy than AIPAC has in Washington.

The genocide in Gaza she described as “being subsidized by our tax money, as our tax money flows out of our pockets without any representation, without any say of where our money is being used” and as such goes against what “the majority of Americans want.”

The flow of those defense monies to Israel she characterized as a “gift card,” as the funds are in turn spent buying weapons from American companies. “We are subsidizing the genocide and the costs of Israel’s slaughter and occupation, and we are the ones making the billionaires rich. And then they have the nerve to have a big sign board with their name on it.”

Report and photos by Phil Pasquini

© 2025 nuzeink all rights reserved worldwide