Updated Jan. 22
A motion to censure Richmond Mayor Eduardo Martinez for “engaging in conduct that reinforced antisemitic narratives” failed late in the evening on Jan. 20 in the Richmond City Council. Initiated by Councilmember Cesar Zepeda, the motion was defeated 4-3 in the final moments of a five-hour public meeting.
Martinez, who sits on the council, voted against it.
While the council rejected the formal rebuke, it approved a separate plan for a “restorative process with the mayor and the Richmond Jewish community” that was proposed by Martinez himself.
The mayor faced widespread criticism and national attention over posts from his LinkedIn account that shared false theories about last month’s Bondi Beach massacre. One repost claimed the assault, which killed 15 Jews in Sydney, was a “false flag” operation to benefit Israel, another suggested it was committed by a “former IDF soldier,” and a third said the victims, who were gathered to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah, were engaged in “performative assertions of dominance” over a public space.
The scandal surrounding the posts, which were first reported by J., spurred calls for the mayor’s resignation and provoked two lengthy, bruising city council meetings. Allies of the mayor rallied around him, pointing to his progressive bona fides and his vocal support for the Palestinian cause. Many in the Jewish community described what they said was a pattern of antisemitic statements by the mayor, who last year equivocated on whether he supported Hamas and wore a hat stating “DDTTIDF,” an acronym for the chant “Death, death to the IDF.”
Five days after the Bondi Beach posts surfaced, J. published several additional LinkedIn posts shared by the mayor that echoed antisemitic tropes about Jews and money.
At the council meeting, which required overflow seating, dozens of people held signs that supported or opposed the mayor, and speakers were frequently interrupted by shouting, applause and jeers. Many attacked the Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area, which has called on Martinez to resign and encouraged people to show up to speak at the meeting. At one point the mayor instructed police to escort a disruptive, cursing protester out of the room.
Martinez read an apology statement at the meeting just before the council took up the matter. Before he started reading, he shared frustration at having to deliver a number of apologies that he said didn’t satisfy everyone. “It’s like making apology, after apology, after apology,” he said.
“To the Jewish community members of Richmond and to our broader community, I owe you a sincere and unambiguous apology,” he said. “Antisemitism is real, it is not abstract or theoretical.”
“My words carry weight,” the mayor continued. “In this instance, I failed to meet the responsibility my position requires. 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 and I take full responsibility for the harm I caused.”
The “restorative process” approved by the council requires Martinez to undergo antisemitism training, to visit with Rabbi Julie Saxe-Taller of Temple Beth Hillel in Richmond, and to issue public apologies at the city council and “in a local newspaper.” Martinez said at the meeting that he had already met once with Saxe-Taller.
Scores of people who spoke at the meeting had waited for three hours while the council conducted regular business. About 70 more who had signed up to speak weren’t allowed to because the council ran out of its allotted meeting time. The meeting ended near 11 p.m.
Some speakers pointed to Martinez’s history of what they described as troubling, conspiratorial and antisemitic statements.
“I truly do want to believe in a restorative process for Mayor Martinez,” said Itamar Landau, a Stanford University researcher and organizer with the Jewish Coalition of Berkeley. An observant Jew, Landau wore a kippah and tzitzit. “But I have to stand here and share deep skepticism that this is possible. This wasn’t a one-time mistake…. This is a deep pattern of conspiratorial antisemitism that would make any white nationalist, racist proud.”
Said a Richmond resident named Debbie, “This is not about Zionism. This is not about Palestinians or oppression or a bad Israeli government. This is about Jew-hatred.”
A woman named Elizabeth who identified herself as a member of Temple Beth Hillel said she appreciated the mayor’s apology but still supported a censure.
“A harm was done by your actions,” she said, noting recent acts of antisemitic violence in the U.S., including a Jan. 10 arson attack on a Mississippi synagogue. The mayor’s posts, she added, “made me personally consider how safe I am going to my synagogue.”
Councilmembers Doria Robinson, Jamelia Brown and Zepeda voted in favor of the censure motion. Councilmembers Soheila Bana, Sue Wilson, Claudia Jimenez and Martinez voted against it. Everyone except Brown voted in support of the “restorative process” that includes antisemitism training.
Brown, the only member of the council to call for Martinez’s resignation since the antisemitic posts surfaced, slammed her colleagues, saying they were engaged in “coward behavior” and that the restorative process had been put in place to “avoid” a censure.
“This is a complete embarrassment,” Brown said at the meeting. “We will stand in solidarity and say this was antisemitic conduct and behavior. Yet we don’t want to formalize it and put it on record.” She added, “Obviously, it’s very strategic.”
Supporters of the mayor inside the city council chambers held posters reading “JCRC does not speak for me” and “Richmond Jews support our mayor.”
“Out-of-town JCRC Zionists don’t care about Richmond,” said a speaker named Karen wearing a Palestinian flag pin, referring to the JCRC Bay Area, which has mobilized opposition to Martinez. She said that the mayor is doing “amazing things” and that she was satisfied by his apology.
It’s “important we not conflate antisemitism with anti-Zionism,” another speaker, Vanessa, said to applause. She wore a kaffiyeh and said she was there to show her support for Martinez.
Along with Brown and the JCRC, elected officials including U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Castro Valley) and state Sen. Henry Stern (D-Los Angeles) have called on Martinez to resign. A group of 80 current and former elected officials penned a “unity letter” in December condemning the mayor’s posts and calling on Martinez to take “immediate, concrete steps to repair the harm” he caused or “step down from his role as mayor.”
Saxe-Taller, the rabbi who is helping to educate Martinez on antisemitism and Jewish issues, told J. that she supported the censure motion.
“I think if they would censure him, it would show not weakness but strength and leadership, and would reflect well on Richmond,” she said in a text message.