The mayor of Richmond is facing a call to resign after sharing conspiracy theories about the Bondi Beach massacre on social media, including a post that said the mass shooting was a “false flag” operation, and another that suggested it was committed by a “former IDF soldier.”
The mayor, Eduardo Martinez, routinely posts criticisms of Israel on LinkedIn, often multiple times per day. Some of his recent posts drew rebukes online. The mayor has since deleted some of the most inflammatory posts and issued an apology.
The statements about Bondi Beach were reposts of theories shared in some corners of the internet. They suggested the shooting targeting a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney was a political operation to benefit Israel. Martinez also shared a post comparing Bondi Beach, where hundreds came to celebrate the holiday’s first night, to Israeli settlers storming Al-Aqsa Mosque, a Muslim holy place in Jerusalem. The post said both are “performative assertions of dominance.”
“What are your thoughts?” Martinez wrote alongside the Al-Aqsa repost.
Martinez also reposted, then deleted, a meme that said “the root cause of antisemitism is the behaviour of Israel & Israelis.”
Martinez appeared to address that post in an apology on LinkedIn Wednesday.
“I want to apologize for sharing my previous posts without thinking,” Martinez wrote. “Of course we know that antisemitism was here before the creation of the state of Israel. As I’ve said many times before, we should not conflate Zionism with Judaism. They are two separate beliefs.”
In another apology post, Martinez distanced himself and his actions from his role as mayor.
“I want to assure everyone that these postings are my opinions (or my mistakes) and mine only,” he wrote. “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.”
Australian police say the killings at Bondi Beach, which left 15 people dead and dozens injured, were committed by a father and son who were motivated by ideologies linked to the Islamic State. Police say they found two black ISIS flags along with improvised explosives in their vehicle.
The Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area condemned Martinez’s posts on its official X account.
The posts “appear to blame Jews for the Bondi Beach terror attack,” JCRC wrote. “This sadly is a clear example of where toxic social media and the constant dehumanization of Israel and Jews leads.”
Martinez, elected in 2022 to lead the city of 115,000 residents, is a staunch and vocal critic of Israel. Earlier this year he spoke at the People’s Conference for Palestine in Detroit, where he drew criticism from Jewish leaders for statements that compared the Oct. 7 Hamas attack to the actions of someone victimized on a “schoolyard playground.”
The city of Richmond, located north of Berkeley, has shown support for Palestinians since the Israel-Hamas war began. The city council passed a resolution affirming its “support and solidarity with the Palestinian people of Gaza” in October 2023. Earlier this year, the Palestinian flag was raised outside City Hall.
Martinez did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
JCRC Bay Area senior director of government affairs Jonathan Mintzer shared strong words in a phone call with J. Thursday, condemning the LinkedIn posts and calling Martinez an “antisemite” and a “disgrace” who is “unfit to hold office.”
“JCRC is calling on the mayor of Richmond to resign and for the city council to censure him for his comments,” Mintzer said.
The local office of the Anti-Defamation League also spoke out against the posts.
“There’s no excuse for an elected leader to be amplifying warped antisemitic conspiracy theories that seek to blame the victim,” the ADL said in a statement to J. from regional director Marc Levine. “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.”
Rabbi Julie Saxe-Taller, the rabbi at Temple Beth Hillel, the only synagogue in Richmond which also serves the surrounding area, seized upon the repost that the Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach was an act of “dominance” similar to right-wing Israeli settlers storming Al-Aqsa.
The post is “deeply irresponsible,” Saxe-Taller wrote in a statement shared with J., adding that it “suggests that Jews celebrating our holiday in a public space causes harm to others.”
She also addressed the claims that the Bondi Beach attack was a “false flag” or linked to Israel.
“It is shockingly cruel in the days after Jews have been massacred in Sydney and terrorized all over the world to then blame us for it,” she wrote.