San Francisco Mayor London Breed took the rare step on Friday of speaking out against a cease-fire resolution by the Board of Supervisors, criticizing the body for taking up “complex matters over which we have absolutely no jurisdiction.”
Breed’s statement, which her office sent to J., came after the supervisors passed a cease-fire measure in an 8-3 vote on Tuesday during a highly contentious public meeting that saw frequent interruptions and was gaveled to order many times.
Breed’s statement also came one day after she received a stark and pained letter from an Israeli mayor with whom she has close professional ties — Einat Kalisch-Rotem, the mayor of Haifa.
Kalisch-Rotem, who in 2018 became the first woman elected mayor of a major Israeli city, sent a Jan. 11 missive to Breed criticizing the resolution’s “one-sided nature” and asking Breed to veto it. The mayor’s office did not say whether she would do so. But eight votes from the Board of Supervisors can override a mayoral veto.
Since 1973, San Francisco and Haifa have maintained a sister-city relationship. In 2008, then-Mayor Gavin Newsom visited the northern port city on a mayoral delegation, as did Mayor Ed Lee in 2016. Last year, Breed spent two days touring Haifa on a diplomatic mission and described Kalisch-Rotem, who was elected with a broad coalition that included Israel’s left-wing Meretz party, as a “thoughtful, compassionate leader.”
Let me be clear: what happened at the Board of Supervisors does not speak for or on behalf of the entire city.
Haifa has in recent months been targeted in missile launches from militants in southern Lebanon, and Kalisch-Rotem wrote that two of her family members were “brutally murdered” in the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre and one was taken hostage.
“I am compelled to express our profound disappointment with our sister city, San Francisco, for passing a resolution that critically targets Israel but glaringly omits to condemn the sexual violence against women by Hamas on October 7th, and the continuing violence against hostages held for almost 100 days by Hamas,” the Haifa mayor wrote.
“It is imperative to address and denounce all forms of violence and human rights violations,” she continued. “As sister cities, our joint commitment should be towards promoting peace, justice, and equality for all.”
Breed said she has set up an upcoming Zoom meeting with Kalisch-Rotem “to explain what happened,” adding that the “resolution in no way reflects the official view of the entire city of San Francisco.”
The resolution passed Tuesday calls for a “sustained ceasefire,” condemns antisemitism and Islamophobia, calls for the release of all hostages and condemns both Hamas and the “Netanyahu government’s attacks resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians.” It calls for “new leadership” on both sides.
The supervisors’ meeting drew international attention less for the content of the resolution than for the conduct of attendees in the room. In one video that went viral on X and has been viewed more than 2.6 million times, a Jewish man shares his personal story: that multiple family members were murdered during the attack on Kibbutz Be’eri and that two female cousins were taken hostage (and later released). Members of the audience audibly groan while he speaks, and several stretch to get their thumbs-down gestures into the frame.
At other points in the meeting, audience members interrupt the proceedings with cheers and ovations at condemnations of Israel, and with grumbles when speakers mention atrocities committed by Hamas. When Supervisor Matt Dorsey references a New York Times investigation presenting evidence of widespread sexual violence, the audience jeers and someone shouts “Liar!”
Board President Aaron Peskin, whose mother was born in Tel Aviv, was credited for revising an original, lengthier draft of the resolution into a shortened compromise that the majority of members could get behind. Among the eight supervisors who supported the measure were four of the board’s five Jewish members.
Still, even as Peskin supported the resolution, he criticized the process by which it came to pass, saying it had “failed” by not bringing people together.
Myrna Melgar, another Jewish supervisor who voted for the resolution, also criticized the process.
“All of us have tried our darndest to get him not to do it,” she said in early December, speaking of Dean Preston, the staunchly progressive board member who introduced the measure. Melgar said others wanted to avoid the hostile environment they had seen in Oakland and other cities when similar measures were brought up.
Among the arguments made by the three supervisors who opposed the resolution were that it didn’t go far enough in condemning Hamas and that it was beyond the purview of the board. Though the measure condemned “Hamas’ attack on Israeli civilians,” it did not describe the attack as an act of terrorism, nor did it go into detail about Hamas’ specific crimes, such as rape and torture.
Public supporters of the measure described it as an urgent humanitarian gesture that would reverberate in cities across the country.
Breed addressed the Haifa mayor’s letter and broader issues surrounding the supervisors’ vote in a lengthy statement to J.
She is running for re-election this year against Ahsha Safaí, a member of the board who spoke passionately in support of the cease-fire call, and Daniel Lurie, a Jewish philanthropist and member of the Levi-Strauss family.
“Like my recent predecessors in this office, I almost never comment or take action on non-binding resolutions from the Board of Supervisors. This one warrants an exception,” Breed said in her statement. “What happened at the Board of Supervisors during this last month did not reflect our values. While I support the need for community members to be heard, the process at the Board only inflamed division and hurt.”
She continued, “People verbally attacked and degraded individual members of the public. Legislators were targeted for attempting to offer their views. Many outside San Francisco do not draw the distinction between eight district supervisors and the official view of San Francisco. So let me be clear: what happened at the Board of Supervisors does not speak for or on behalf of the entire city.”
Breed also shared sympathy for civilians in Gaza, and expressed support for the federal government’s response.
“What the innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza are undergoing is also heartbreaking,” she said. “I support the Biden Administration’s efforts to reach a peaceful resolution, to release the hostages, and deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza.”