Updated Dec. 24: After the publication of this article, Richmond Mayor Eduardo Martinez removed his LinkedIn account from public view. However, J. had already taken screenshots of the controversial posts.
J. has identified additional social media posts with antisemitic tropes shared over the past year by Richmond Mayor Eduardo Martinez, who is resisting growing calls for his resignation.
Last week, J. wrote about a repost on Martinez’s LinkedIn account that claimed the Dec. 14 massacre of 15 Jews on Sydney’s Bondi Beach was a “false flag” operation and another repost that suggested the mass shooting was committed by a former Israeli soldier.
Australian police have identified the shooters as a father and son motivated by Islamic State ideology. Police say that two ISIS flags were found inside a vehicle registered to the son and that the suspects recorded a video in front of an ISIS flag explaining their motivation.
A slew of misinformation and conspiracy theories has spread online since the attack.
The Bondi Beach reposts and other reposts from Martinez, including one that stated “the root cause of antisemitism is the behaviour of Israel & Israelis,” prompted immediate and fierce blowback from Jewish community leaders and local, state and national politicians, including calls for his resignation. The issue has also reached the national press.
Martinez, a former teacher, was elected to the Richmond City Council in 2014 and was elected mayor in 2022. A founder of the Richmond Progressive Alliance and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, Martinez has for years been an outspoken critic of Israel, a fierce opponent of Zionism and a supporter of the Palestinian cause. He has in recent statements sought to differentiate Jews from Zionists, whom he considers to be pernicious and supportive of violence.
Martinez apologized for the Bondi Beach reposts and other reposts — and also deleted them — writing on Facebook on Saturday that he had “inadvertently spread content that was factually inaccurate, conspiratorial, and portrayed Judaism in a negative light.”
“I want to sincerely apologize to those who were hurt by my actions,” Martinez added. “That was never my intention, but intent does not erase impact. As Mayor, I have a responsibility to represent all of Richmond and to bring people together. In this instance, I fell short of that responsibility.”
Among those who have called for Martinez’s resignation are the Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area, Richmond councilmember Jamelia Brown and U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Castro Valley), who recently announced a bid for governor.
Martinez said Friday in a television interview that he does not intend to step down as leader of the East Bay city.
“I see no need to resign. I acknowledge my mistakes. I apologize for them,” he said.
Pressure has continued to mount against Martinez this week, after several members of the Richmond City Council sharply criticized his actions and dozens of Bay Area elected officials signed a letter demanding Martinez take additional steps to rectify his actions, or resign.
The JCRC launched an email campaign calling on members of the public to demand that Martinez resign and for the city council to formally censure the mayor. The email template had been used “over 1,000 times” by Tuesday, according to Jonathan Mintzer of JCRC. The next Richmond City Council meeting is set for Jan. 6.
Meanwhile, even as they criticize his actions, some councilmembers have defended the mayor against calls to step down.
“He has started the process of making public apologies and reaching out to Jewish community leaders to try to make amends,” councilmember Sue Wilson said last week, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “I think he deserves a chance to do that.”
“The upcoming June 2026 election will be the opportunity for residents to weigh in on his leadership,” councilmember Doria Robinson said Friday in a statement to J., adding that “my understanding is the Mayor is in the process of answering for his reposts and is attempting to apologize and make amends with Richmond’s Jewish community.”
Neither Wilson nor Robinson responded to a follow-up request for comment from J.
Rabbi Julie Saxe-Taller of Temple Beth Hillel, the only synagogue in Richmond, told J. that Martinez sent an apology to her and requested a meeting; it is scheduled in the new year.
“In the meantime, there is a lot of fallout from what he has posted over time, and plenty he can do to listen, learn and act to counter that damage,” Saxe-Taller said in a text to J. on Tuesday.
Martinez deleted at least four inflammatory social media posts when they drew attention last week.
On Tuesday, J. identified a handful of other reposts on Martinez’s on LinkedIn account that echo antisemitic tropes. The mayor is extremely active on the social media site, sharing a steady stream of content sharply critical of Israel and Zionism, including gruesome images of injured or starving children, photos and video of rubble in Gaza, headlines from outlets such as Middle East Eye and Al Jazeera and statements from anti-Zionists like Greta Thunberg, Francesca Albanese and Naturei Karta.
Some of the reposts wade into antisemitic conspiracy theories about Jews and money. Others suggest, or state outright, that Israel, Israelis and their supporters are bloodthirsty, revel in violence and are less than human.
One is a poem added above a repost four months ago and titled “Our Brothers Blinded.” It describes money-driven evil and references Israeli currency.
Money, the “devil’s propaganda leaflet,” the poem states, “fills the mouth with shekels.”
“So the words coming out / give death the sound of snipers,” the poem continues. Unlike many of Martinez’s other posts, which are direct reposts of content created by other accounts, the uncredited poem was added atop the repost as commentary from Martinez.
In May, Martinez reposted a post by Ossama Afifi, an Egyptian businessman, calling for a boycott of an unspecified group referred to as “they,” ostensibly Zionists, describing the group as one that “people in the West” have “woken up” to.
“They revel in the destruction of Gaza, emboldened by the Western Governments full support,” the post states. “Money is their only language—so strike where it wounds them most.”
Another repost from Martinez on Oct. 6 describes “barbaric politics” of those who support Israel.
“They can organise themselves freely to oppress, repress, and exterminate communities and individuals who are considered a barrier to further accumulation of capital,” the post states. Martinez reposted it with his own comment: “This has been true since before the Nakba,” the Arabic word for “catastrophe,” which is used to describe the displacement of approximately 700,000 Arabs during Israel’s War of Independence in 1948.
On Nov. 29, Martinez reposted an Australian cartoon portraying a man eating a starving Palestinian child. The cartoon is called “Gaza.”
Martinez has not responded to multiple requests from J. for comment.
The letter signed by more than 70 current and former elected officials this week — described as a “unity letter” — includes 12 current mayors as well as former mayors, councilmembers and other elected officials in Contra Costa County and surrounding counties.
Among the signatories are Gabe Quinto, mayor of El Cerrito; Kevin Wilk, mayor of Walnut Creek; and Brianne Zorn, mayor of Martinez.
“We are deeply troubled by recent public statements from Richmond Mayor Eduardo Martinez that have harmed local residents and undermined public trust,” the letter states.
It calls on Martinez to engage “privately” with Jewish community leaders, issue a “truly restorative” public apology that “acknowledges why his statements were harmful” and host antisemitism education for city leaders.
“Should Mayor Martinez be unwilling or unable to take these steps, he should step down from his role as mayor in the best interest of the community,” the letter states.
Martinez’s rhetoric has drawn criticism from segments of the Jewish community prior to the LinkedIn controversy.
In August, Martinez spoke at the People’s Conference for Palestine in Detroit, delivering remarks in which he declined to condemn the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre in Israel and compared it to the actions of a child who had been bullied.
Six months ago on LinkedIn, Martinez reposted a video of retired U.S. military officer Lawrence Wilkerson saying “the Palestinians had every right to what they did on October 7th.”
“The IDF is no better than Hamas,” Martinez commented atop another LinkedIn repost.
Martinez has expressed his support for the Palestinian cause at city hall, too. In the early weeks of the Israel-Hamas war, Martinez spearheaded a resolution in the city council “affirming Richmond’s support and solidarity with the Palestinian people of Gaza,” amid a bruising and contentious public meeting. Recognition of the Oct. 7 invasion of Israel and a call for the release of Israeli hostages was added as an amendment to the resolution.
Earlier this year, Martinez announced that Richmond had raised the Palestinian flag outside city hall in honor of its sister-city relationship with Sebastia, a West Bank village.