The Jewish Community Relations Council of the Bay Area is calling for the resignation of a local mayor who reposted to his LinkedIn account a claim that the Bondi Beach attack on a Chanukah celebration was a “false flag” perpetrated by Israel.
Eduardo Martinez, 76, is the mayor of Richmond, Calif., a city north of Berkeley that is home to a Reform congregation, Temple Beth Hillel. Elected in 2022, he has been a longtime and vocal critic of Israel.
It is unusual for a Jewish group to call for the resignation of a local elected official. But Martinez’s rhetoric about the Bondi Beach attack, the JCRC said, was “dangerously anti-Semitic, deeply offensive and wholly unacceptable.”
Following the attack in Sydney that left 15 killed and dozens injured, Martinez reposted several anti-Semitic sentiments on his LinkedIn page.
“The root cause of antisemitism is the behaviour of Israel & Israelis,” read one since-deleted post shared by Martinez, according to J. The Jewish News of Northern California.
Another post shared by Martinez compared the Bondi celebration with hypothetical Chanukah displays at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, writing that both should be seen as “performative assertions of dominance.”
“Chanukah, traditionally a time of personal and private reflection, has in recent years been appropriated by Jewish Zionist organisations and weaponised as a political tool.” In his repost, Martinez commented, “What are your thoughts?”
Martinez appeared to issue an apology for the post about Israel on Dec. 17, as a backlash grew.
“I want to apologize for sharing my previous posts without thinking.
“Of course we know that antisemitism was here before the creation of the state of Israel,” he wrote on LinkedIn. “As I’ve said many times before, we should not conflate Zionism with Judaism. They are two separate beliefs.”
On Dec. 18, Martinez distanced his rhetoric from his role as mayor.
“I want to assure everyone that these postings are my opinions (or my mistakes) and mine only. They are not statements from my office or the city of Richmond. If I make a mistake, that mistake is mine only.
“Once again, I apologize for posting in haste without full understanding of the posting.”
Following the attack on Sunday, the online anti-Semitism watchdog Cyberwell said that it had seen a “surge of hatred and incitement” on social media. Australian officials said the two attackers were motivated by “Islamic State ideology.”
“We are also seeing a dangerous denial narrative online that blames the Jewish community itself, falsely labeling the attack a ‘false flag’ or ‘Mossad’ operation, orchestrated to divide Australians,” said CyberWell founder and CEO Tal-Or Cohen Montemayor.
The latest controversy was not the first time the Richmond mayor has landed in hot water over his commentary on Israel.
In August, while speaking at the People’s Conference for Palestine, Martinez compared Hamas to a child bullied on a playground and, asked whether he supports Hamas, called this a “complicated question,” according to J.
“If Palestine were a schoolyard playground, I would be a Palestinian, and that part of me that couldn’t endure the abuse anymore would be Hamas,” Martinez said at the time.
While there, he also wore a hat with the letters “DDTTIDF,” an acronym calling for “death, death to the IDF.”
The JCRC also noted that under Martinez’ leadership, Richmond had passed a resolution two weeks after Oct. 7 condemning Israel and “affirming Richmond’s support and solidarity with the Palestinian people of Gaza.”
Martinez’ rhetoric following the Bondi attack, regional director of the ADL Central Pacific, Marc Levine, said in a statement to J.:
“There’s no excuse for an elected leader to be amplifying warped anti-Semitic conspiracy theories that seek to blame the victim. The Australian community has already faced enough tragedy over the last few days. We hope Mayor Martinez will reconsider his hurtful words, which have absolutely no place in public discourse.”
