Updated Feb. 22
A San Francisco Democratic Party leader who heads an influential housing coalition is on temporary leave from work amid controversy over a social media post that defended aggressive pro-Palestinian protesters.
John Avalos, a former two-term member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and executive director of the Council of Community Housing Organizations, weighed in on Feb. 12 on a dramatic video showing pro-Palestinian activists in public places repeatedly hounding state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-S.F.), who is Jewish.
“Ppl have the right to call out elected leaders’ complicity w/genocide,” Avalos wrote in part, while sharing the video on X (Twitter). His post has since been deleted.
The controversy reflects national debates about when, where and in what manner it is appropriate to target public figures with protests. Amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, pro-Palestinian groups have used the strategy, often called “birddogging,” in an effort to influence public opinion and political decision-making, according to a toolkit from the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights.
“Birddogging is a strategy used by activists who repeatedly seek out elected officials, pin them down with specific questions or information, and retrieve their views,” the toolkit states. “Typically activists follow up by promoting a public video and/or asking for a private lobby meeting.”
But the Feb. 12 video, which consisted of clips compiled by the Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area, showed what the JCRC called an “onslaught of harassment” against Wiener for his support for Israel, particularly since the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre and subsequent war.
Targeted harassment of our Jewish elected officials is wrong, dangerous and antisemitic.
Wiener is a progressive politician who has been outspoken about his support for the Jewish state and has expressed anger at activists who have justified the Oct. 7 terrorist attack as an act of “resistance.” At the same time, Wiener has condemned violence from extremist settlers in the West Bank and challenged Israel’s right-wing government, saying it “needs to be replaced,”
JCRC’s introduction to the compilation video states that Wiener has been “harassed by anti-Israel activists for weeks due to his support for Israel’s right to exist.”
The video shows someone following and filming Wiener in an airport as the person says “Free Palestine,” calls him a “weak-a** Zionist” and states that his “whole bloodline’s cowards.” The video displays a social media post where someone filmed Wiener sitting on an airplane, superimposing a red triangle over his head and the words “Is that Scott Wiener?” Hamas has used a similar red triangle to identify military targets. The video also shows Wiener slowly driving his car while demonstrators surround him. “You’re killing babies, Scott!” someone shouts through a megaphone while demonstrators chant: “Wiener, Wiener, you can’t hide! We charge you with genocide!”
“Targeted harassment of our Jewish elected officials is wrong, dangerous and antisemitic. It must stop,” the JCRC said in its X post.
The Council of Community Housing Organizations (CCHO) is a nonprofit that advocates for affordable housing development in the city. CCHO, colloquially known as Choo Choo, is a coalition of 22 developers and housing advocates, according to its website.
Avalos also holds a seat on the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee, the governing body of the local Democratic Party.
In his X post sharing the Wiener video, Avalos referenced the Holocaust.
“Never again means never again for anyone. Never again also means ppl of conscience have a responsibility to prevent the past fear & indifference to Jewish suffering from ever happening again to anyone anywhere,” Avalos stated.
Some activists defended the strategy of the pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
“It’s not antisemitic to protest each & every politician who refuses to call for a ceasefire wherever & whenever you see them,” Jewish Voice for Peace Bay Area, the anti-Zionist activist group, said on X in response to the Wiener video.
While Wiener has stated that Israel should “be more surgical” in its operation targeting Hamas in Gaza, he and the California Legislative Jewish Caucus have opposed a cease-fire resolution in Sacramento. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Wiener said at a press conference in January that such cease-fire resolutions “have at times gone off the rails in terms of dredging up a lot of anti-Jewish hate. And that causes a lot of fear in our community for a nonbinding resolution.”
The San Francisco Standard, a news outlet, was the first to report about Avalos’ social media posts. In its article on Feb. 15, the Standard said Avalos had been placed on administrative leave from CCHO. However, the reason for his administrative leave was unclear.
Charlie Sciammas, CCHO’s interim executive director during Avalos’ absence, said in a Feb. 15 email to J. that Avalos “is on temporary leave” and added that the organization is “focused on the Prop A Affordable Housing Bond.”
Karoleen Fang, CCHO’s chief real estate officer, emailed an official statement to J. the following day addressing the incident.
“We understand that John Avalos, CCHO’s Executive Director, recently posted personal, social media comments that appear to condone antisemitic and hateful actions directed at State Senator Scott Weiner and other Jewish leaders,” the statement said. “As an organization, we do not condone or support the targeting of, nor hate speech towards, any individuals or groups of people based on their identity.”
The statement, which did not say why Avalos was on leave, added, “We strongly believe that political debate must recognize reasonable limits of behavior, and we condemn all political actions that are based on violence, physical intimidation, and misinformation.”
An out-of-office message from Avalos said that he would be “on administrative leave from February 14, 2024 to February 23, 2024.”
Avalos told J. in a text message on Feb. 16 that he declined to comment. But on Feb. 18, he apologized in a series of X posts, saying he had reposted the video “without reviewing it,” and adding, “I am sorry for my mistake & apologize for the confusion and hurt it caused.” He deleted the original posts.
“It was not at all my intention to amplify the antisemitism that JCRC was pointing out,” he wrote. “I stand in solidarity with people of conscience against antisemitism, Islamophobia, & racism; and for peace & justice in Palestine.”
Wiener, who returned last week from Israel where he was traveling with lawmakers on a trip co-sponsored by JCRC, sharply criticized Avalos’ original posts in a statement to the Standard.
“Avalos’s argument is that because Jews have been persecuted and killed, it’s therefore appropriate behavior to physically harass and intimidate a Jewish elected official and his staff,” Wiener said, adding it showed “pretty bizarre and unhinged logic.”
Tye Gregory, CEO of the JCRC, rebuked Avalos’ posts in a statement to J.
“CCHO was correct to place Avalos on leave given his targeting of Jewish leaders and antisemitic commentary since the October 7th attacks,” Gregory said. “We question whether he is capable of resuming his duties.”
The San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee did not respond to a request for comment.
This story has been updated to include Avalos’ apology on Feb. 18.