Richmond, Calif., mayor escapes censure after spreading anti-Jewish conspiracies

In response to the mayor’s antisemitic posts, dozens of local officials from nearby towns and cities, as well as the Bay Area Jewish Community Relations Council, signed a petition calling for Martinez to resign.

By Dinah Bucholz, Jewish Breaking News

A city council meeting in the Bay Area town of Richmond, Calif., ended late Tuesday night amid shouts and angry condemnations after the council failed to secure enough votes to censure the city’s mayor, Eduardo Martinez.

In a since-deleted post on social media, Martinez wrote the following about the Bondi Beach massacre:

“RIP to all the victims of Israel’s false flag attack. The hero that disarmed the attacker was a Syrian born Muslim man. That really doesn’t help the narrative that Israel is trying so hard to push. The same images that is shown in the Google video are the same as what happened prior to Charlie Kirk and the two National Guards in DC. Israel is trying to manufacture fear and hate. Don’t let them.”

The Richmond mayor managed to squeeze three deranged anti-Jewish conspiracies into this short paragraph. But he is not new to making controversial statements.

In fact, he regularly posts inflammatory criticism of Israel, sometimes multiple times a day, that often crosses the line into blatant Jew hatred.

He recently posted, then deleted, a meme saying, “the root cause of antisemitism is the behaviour of Israel & Israelis.”

He even called the celebration of Chanukah in public at Bondi Beach “deeply provocative and very un-Jewish,” an event whose intent was to intimidate Muslims.

Martinez followed up those posts with apologies.

But two members of the city council wanted to formalize their opposition to such comments with a censure, arguing that future political leaders should not be able to say whatever they want and then issue pro forma apologies.

“What my colleagues might not realize is that by not voting to censure him, they voted to allow future councilmembers to pretty much get a get-out-of-jail-free card if you say bad stuff about our community, whether they’re antisemitic or racist or homophobic, whatever it may be,” said Vice Mayor Cesar Zepeda, one of the council members who put forward the censure resolution.

“You can post three or four things online, say a couple of things here and there, and just do a semi-apology, and you’re good to go.”

Councilmember Jamalia Brown, who also put forward the resolution, said as she left the meeting, “This is a complete embarrassment as a city council. We will stand in solidarity and say that this was antisemitic conduct and behavior, yet we don’t want to formalize it and put it on record. It’s very cowardly behavior.”

In response to the mayor’s antisemitic posts, dozens of local officials from nearby towns and cities, as well as the Bay Area Jewish Community Relations Council, signed a petition titled “Unity Letter in Response to Richmond Mayor Eduardo Martinez’s Antisemitic and Hateful Rhetoric,” calling for Martinez to resign.

“We call on Mayor Martinez to take immediate, concrete steps to repair the harm and restore trust, including” meeting with local rabbis to engage in dialogue, issuing a public apology, taking antisemitism training and “adopting a resolution condemning these remarks and affirming that hateful rhetoric has no place in Richmond,” the letter read.

“Should Mayor Martinez be unwilling or unable to take these steps, he should step down from his role as mayor in the best interest of the community,” the letter concluded.

But Martinez has so far refused to step down, although he has issued public apologies and agreed to meet with a local rabbi.

At the start of the meeting, Martinez began his apology by complaining about “people who are not ready to accept an apology.”

“I failed to meet the responsibility that my position requires,” he went on.

“I reposted content online that included antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theories, which have long been used to dehumanize Jewish people and justify violence against them. I was wrong to share them.”

“I regret that I compromised the integrity of the Palestinian solidarity movement here in Richmond,” Martinez added. “We must be clear that we will not allow antisemitism in our movements, nor will we allow antisemitism to be weaponized against progressive causes.”

But one local Jewish leader was having none of it. “We’re still angry,” he said.

“His apology did not feel genuine. It was sort of like a ‘sorry that my opponents are coming after me’ kind of apology, and so we’re maintaining the position that he should step down.”

Antisemitismmayor