Over 70 local officials and community leaders have signed a letter calling on Richmond Mayor Eduardo Martinez to take corrective actions following his promotion of antisemitic conspiracy theories regarding a terrorist attack in Australia.
On December 14, two gunmen opened fire on a group of people during a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney’s Bondi Beach, killing 15 people and wounding dozens more. The men also intended to set off explosive devices, but the devices failed to detonate. Australian officials said the shooting was an act of terror motivated by antisemitic hate.
In the aftermath of that attack, Martinez shared a person’s post on his LinkedIn page that referred to the incident as a “false flag” operation carried out by Israel. Another post he shared featured a large image of the Star of David and read: “The root cause of antisemitism is the behavior of Israel & Israelis.”
The public letter calls on Martinez to take the following steps or resign from his role as Mayor:
- Engage in private dialogue with community rabbis and Jewish elected officials
- Issue “a truly restorative, public apology” explaining why the statements were harmful
- Host new antisemitism education and training for city leadership
- Support a resolution formally condemning his remarks and affirming “that hateful rhetoric has no place in Richmond”
Signatories include the mayors of Brentwood; Concord; El Cerrito; Moraga; Martinez; Pinole; Pittsburg; San Pablo; and Walnut Creek.
The Richmond City Council voted 5-2 to postpone a possible censure vote against Martinez last week. Some council members complained that they didn’t have time to review the resolution. Another vote will take place on January 20.
Martinez has deleted the offensive posts from LinkedIn, and says he was not trying to promote any conspiracy theories.
“What I wrote with the reposting of an article about the Bondi Beach incident was: ‘What do you think about this?’,” Martinez told the New York Post. “The issue is about my posting it being conflated to my believing it and ‘amplifying’ it.”
However, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater San Francisco says this is part of a pattern for Martinez.
“Earlier this year, Mayor Martinez spoke at a conference in Detroit where he compared himself to Hamas and wore a hat that read “DDTTIDF,” an acronym calling for ‘Death, Death To The Israel Defense Forces (IDF),’” JCRC wrote in a news release calling for his resignation. “Only two weeks after the atrocities of October 7th, he led Richmond to become the first city in the United States to pass a resolution calling for a ceasefire without including any condemnation of Hamas."
Martinez is up for re-election in November.