About 125 pro-Palestinian protesters disrupted the December Nights tree-lighting ceremony at Balboa Park Friday night.
The protest started as Mayor Todd Gloria began making comments at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion. Demonstrators waved Palestinian flags, carried signs and chanted “cease-fire now” as they milled in front of the pavilion.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators protest during the tree-lighting ceremony at December Nights in Balboa Park Friday night.
(Rob Nikolewski/San Diego Union-Tribune)
Gloria and other speakers during the proceedings made no reference to the demonstration, which continued through the lighting of the tree and a performance of holiday songs by a U.S. Marine Corps jazz band.
San Diego Police Department personnel stationed around the apron of the pavilion monitored the situation. There was no violence and no arrests were made. The protest started at 6:12 p.m. and by 6:30 p.m. demonstrators had begun to disperse.
Although a few people in the crowd yelled at the protesters, most in the audience remained quiet during the demonstration.
December Nights, the annual festival that kicks off the holiday season in San Diego, opened at 3 p.m. Friday and will run through 11 p.m. Saturday.
After a weeklong truce, fighting between Israel and Hamas resumed Friday with Israeli airstrikes hitting buildings and houses in the Gaza Strip and militants in Gaza firing rockets into Israel.
