Hours after the United States and Israel launched joint military strikes on Iran Saturday morning, dozens of protesters rallied outside Santana Row to voice their opposition to a U.S. war in the Middle East.
Organizers led chants of “No boots on the ground, no bombs in the air, U.S. out of everywhere” and held signs that read “Silicon Valley has blood on their hands.”
Cars passing the busy intersection of Winchester and Stevens Creek boulevards honked their horns in support of the protest, while a few passersby jeered or cast looks of disapproval.
Josiah Berryhill, a San José resident who participated in the protest, said the public’s response was “mostly positive.”
“We’ve had a couple of people driving by that have been a bit more outspoken, sharing adverse opinions, but a lot of honking, a lot of smiles, a lot of peace signs,” Berryhill said. “It generally seems like the community is on board with (us).”
The U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was at his Tehran office when the attacks began, according to a Saturday article by The Mercury News.
Some in the Bay Area Iranian community celebrated Khamenei’s death, according to NBC Bay Area.
Emer Martin, a member of Vigil4Gaza, a local grassroots organization fighting to end genocide in Palestine, said her partner saw one such group of Iranian-Americans “waving Israeli flags, holding pictures of Netanyahu and chanting, ‘Thank you, Trump!’” in downtown Palo Alto.
“These vile people see nothing wrong with siding with a genocidal state in order to further their own aims,” Martin said. “If (Iranians) want regime change at all, that’s up to the Iranians to do it themselves in Iran. What country has the U.S. ever bombed into democracy? Iraq? Afghanistan? Libya? The last thing the U.S. and Israel want is a stable, democratic, secular Iran.”
Khamenei ruled as Iran’s supreme leader for nearly four decades, cracking down on anti-government protests through mass arrests, killings and torture, according to a Saturday article by NBC News.
His most recent crackdown killed more than 7,000 people, with an additional 11,744 cases “under review,” according to a Feb. 23 report by Human Rights Activists in Iran.
President Donald J. Trump has justified his latest strikes on Iran with claims that it is developing long-range missiles that could “soon” reach the continental U.S., according to a Saturday article by Politifact.
A May 2025 missile threat assessment by the Defense Intelligence Agency found that such capabilities are still years away.
Berryhill, who grew up during the Iraq War, said he has seen “the same thing play over and over again” in U.S. foreign affairs.
“We were told that we had bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities, basically completely decommissioned them and here we are bombing them again eight months later because they’re an imminent threat to our safety,” Berryhill said. “I just really wish we would keep our business to ourselves.”
Last summer, U.S. bombers struck three Iranian nuclear sites within 48 hours of Trump announcing a public two-week deadline for Iran to return to the table for nuclear deal negotiations, according to a June 22, 2025 article by CNN.
Trump had called the strikes in June a “spectacular military success.”
Berryhill said Trump’s latest attack was a show of recklessness and government overreach.
“Aside from it being an unethical war, it’s an unlawful war,” Berryhill said. “And I feel like the more people that get out here and the more that (the administration) can see people disapprove – I mean, it worked in Vietnam – we’ll find ourselves … headed in a better direction.”
Trump did not seek congressional approval for the military action, citing Article II of the Constitution – which designates the President as “Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy” – to assert broad control over U.S. military forces, according to a Saturday article by CNN.
Arif Abdullah, a San José resident who has been fasting from sunrise to sunset since the start of Ramadan, said he came out to Saturday’s protest for “selfish” reasons.
“It gives me mental sanity,” Abdullah said. “When I see the news – for example, last night I saw that the school was bombed – I couldn’t sleep. But when I see people (sharing) the same mindset, actually doing something, it gives me hope and peace … And I come here for that.”
A strike on a girl’s elementary school in southern Iran killed more than 100 children Saturday, according to a Sunday article by Time.
Four U.S. soldiers have been killed since the start of the operation against Iran, according to a Monday article by The Mercury News.
Abdullah, who became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2018, but has been living in the U.S. for more than two decades, said he realized how little power the general American public has over its elected leaders.
“Our politicians are all corrupt,” Abdullah said. “They’re creating chaos throughout the world and the American people are not actually a part of it … Our politicians are not the voice of the people of America.”
Martin of Vigil4Gaza echoed Abdullah’s sentiment.
“We are not afraid of the Iranian government, we are afraid of our own government,” Martin said. “We are here today to show the people in Iran that we in California, we love them … We are here to support Iran. We are here to free ourselves.”
