A video of state Sen. Scott Wiener has gone viral, after an anti-Zionist activist recorded himself grilling the politician about Israel at a San Francisco Mission District restaurant and bar.
The three-minute video, filmed and posted by photographer and activist Jesus “Frisco Lens” Coba, shows Coba berating Wiener and demanding he leave The Napper Tandy Irish Restaurant and Sports Bar during the Mexico and Czechia World Cup game on June 24.
The original Instagram post had more than 198,000 views and nearly 17,000 likes within a day, though at least one repost of it on X has crossed 850,000 views.
“Wiener, you gotta get the f*** up out my hood, bro,” Coba said. “It’s free Palestine here, you already know what it is — we against the genocide.”
Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat and one of the most prominent Jewish elected leaders in California, is the frontrunner in the race to replace former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in Congress.
Coba did not respond to J.’s request for comment.
In the video, Coba repeatedly calls Wiener a “Zionist” and demands that he say “Free Palestine” for the camera.
“There’s innocent children being killed in Palestine, and you gonna come here like it’s good but you pushing that genocidal agenda as a Zionist bro,” he said.
Wiener, who is now regarded as an enemy of Israel on the right and a defender of Israel on the left, generated turmoil and consternation in the mainstream Jewish community when he released a Jan. 11 video on social media labeling Israel’s actions in Gaza as a “genocide.” He had harshly criticized Israel’s government in the past but had never explicitly called the war in Gaza a genocide.
“For those of you who saw the debate clip from last week, I want to clarify that I do believe Israel has committed genocide in Gaza,” Wiener said his social media post. “To me the Israeli government has tried to destroy Gaza and to push Palestinians out. And that qualifies as genocide.”
In the new video, Coba continually records and shouts while Wiener sits at a table with his back against a wall, a blank face and nearly no response. A spokesperson for Wiener said on June 26 that the state senator acted in a way intended to keep the situation from escalating.
In the video, Wiener breaks his silence only to deny accusations from Coba that he has taken money from AIPAC, the pro-Israel advocacy group.
Joe Arellano, Wiener’s campaign spokesman, reiterated the point in an interview.
“The senator has never received any AIPAC money in his previous races and has not and will not accept any AIPAC money for this race,” Arellano said.
According to Arellano, after the video ended, Coba and a group of six “associates” continued to harass Wiener for 30 minutes by yelling and banging on the wall behind him and were eventually forced to leave by the bar’s owners.
Many of the most-liked comments on the video praised Coba.
“Pressing Scott Wiener is a San Francisco tradition that should be upheld,” a user named Abraham Woodliff commented, garnering more than 2,000 likes.
Woodliff is a well-known local social media personality and writer who regularly contributes to Broke-Ass Stuart, the independent news website run by Stuart Schuffman.
Woodliff was alluding to a long-standing pattern of public confrontations targeting Wiener over hot-button issues, especially his stance on Israel and advocacy for LGBTQ rights.
Wiener, who is gay, has experienced unusually intense personal attacks, coming from members on both sides of the political spectrum, from QAnon conspiracy theorists to people making direct threats of violence.
Following the introduction of California Senate Bill 145 in 2020, Wiener became the subject of a widespread misinformation campaign backed by QAnon, which claimed the bill legalized pedophilia and protected child predators. In reality, SB 145 changed how California’s sex offender registration law applies to offenses involving teenagers close in age.
Wiener reported receiving thousands of abusive messages, including homophobic and antisemitic slurs, death threats and doxxing, as a result.
The San Francisco Chronicle once reported that Wiener received a message saying, “I’ll come cut your head off and deliver it to your mom if you even consider continuing with introducing your ‘bill.’ Got It?”
In 2022, a San Ramon man threatened Wiener over Covid vaccination policies via the senator’s constituent website, writing, “Vax my kids without my permission and expect a visit from me and my rifle.”
That same year, Wiener received two bomb threats targeting his home in the Castro District, one in June and the other in December, the latter falsely referring to him as a pedophile who groomed children and threatening to shoot up his Sacramento office.
In fact, this week’s incident was not the first time the senator has encountered Coba.
In 2024, Coba filmed and posted a video of himself confronting Wiener on a flight from San Francisco to Phoenix. In the video, Wiener is seen sitting in a plane with an inverted red triangle inserted above his head, a symbol used by Hamas to identify their targets.
The subsequent clip shows Wiener being followed out of the plane and through the airport, with Coba calling him a “weak-ass Zionist” and telling him his “whole bloodline’s cowards” before a bystander intervenes and attempts to stop Coba from recording.
Coincidentally, the Mission District restaurant and bar where Weiner was accosted is located a few blocks away from a bar that became the site of another viral incident tied to anti-Zionism.
A widely circulated photo outside of El Rio, which caters to LGBTQ customers, shows a sign, apparently posted by El Rio, that reads, “Death to Zionism, Hindutva, YT supremacy.”
Hindutva is a nationalist political ideology that argues India’s primary identity should be rooted in Hindu culture and values, with a goal of establishing India as a Hindu nation-state. “YT supremacy” is slang for white supremacy.
El Rio did not respond to J.’s request for comment.
The Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area said on June 25 that “calls targeting Zionism with eradication represent deeply entrenched forms of antisemitism and hate speech. El Rio’s rhetoric crosses the line.” Commenting ahead of San Francisco’s annual Pride Parade this weekend, JCRC also urged “LGBTQ+ Jews and our allies to celebrate Pride elsewhere than at El Rio.”