Richmond Mayor Eduardo Martinez stands with a pro-Palestinian meeting attendee outside a Richmond City Council meeting in 2023. Jewish leaders called on the mayor to resign Thursday after he reposted what they called antisemitic comments about Sunday’s fatal mass shooting in Australia.
Noah Berger/Special to The Chronicle
Bay Area Jewish leaders are calling on Richmond Mayor Eduardo Martinez to resign after he reposted several LinkedIn posts promoting conspiracy theories that blamed Israel for the mass shooting at Bondi Beach in Australia.
Screenshots captured by the Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area show Martinez reposting content from a Palestinian activist and professor who speculated that an Israeli soldier might have committed the Bondi attack, claiming that “paid actors have a history of carrying out false flag, anti-Jewish attacks in Australia and then blaming others.”
Another repost featured an image of a Star of David alongside the caption: “The root cause of antisemitism is the behaviour of Israel & Israelis.”
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Martinez later deleted the posts.
“I want to apologize for sharing my previous posts without thinking,” he wrote in a LinkedIn post Wednesday. “Of course we know that antisemitism was here before the creation of the state of Israel. As I’ve said many times before, we should not conflate Zionism with Judaism. They are two separate beliefs.”
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In an open letter sent Thursday, the Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area urged Martinez to resign.
“Such rhetoric is dangerously antisemitic, deeply offensive, and wholly unacceptable — particularly coming from a sitting mayor,” the group wrote. “Words from public officials carry weight and when those words echo antisemitic tropes they place people at risk.”
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A call to Martinez on Thursday afternoon was not immediately returned.
Martinez also was criticized by Jewish organizations this fall when he spoke at a pro-Palestinian conference in Detroit and wore a hat reading “DDTTIDF,” which stands for “Death, Death to the Israel Defense Forces.”
“Taken together, these actions reflect a consistent and deeply troubling disregard for the safety and dignity of Jewish people,” the Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area wrote. “They erode public trust and send a chilling message to Jewish residents that they are neither protected nor respected by their own mayor.”
Richmond was one of the first Bay Area cities to pass a ceasefire resolution related to the war in Gaza, just weeks after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. The ordinance called for “an end to Israeli apartheid and the occupation and blockade of Palestinian land by Israeli military forces.”
A retired Richmond schoolteacher, Martinez was elected to the Richmond City Council in 2014 and became mayor in 2022. He is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and the Richmond Progressive Alliance.
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The Sunday shooting at a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, left 15 people dead. Police shot two suspected gunmen, a father and son, killing the father. Authorities have said the shooting was linked to the Islamic State terrorist organization.
Martinez’s posts drew condemnation from both faith leaders and former elected officials around Richmond.
“He seems incapable of expressing the most minimal compassion or empathy for Jews that have been murdered, or their families,” said Dean Kertesz, who served as rabbi for 40 years at Richmond’s Temple Beth Hillel. “If you can’t condemn the murder of innocent people because they’re Jews, then you’re not qualified to be a public servant.”
Former Mayor Tom Butt said he believes Martinez “has crossed a line in his criticism of Israel and support for Hamas.” Still, he said he doesn’t expect Martinez will resign over his comments.
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Richmond City Council member Sue Wilson said that while she disagreed with Martinez’s posts, she thinks the mayor should get a chance to make things right.
“I let him know about my disapproval as soon as I was made aware,” Wilson wrote in a statement. “He has started the process of making public apologies and reaching out to Jewish community leaders to try to make amends. I think he deserves a chance to do that.”