This story was updated Saturday to include a new statement issued by Richmond Mayor Eduardo Martinez.
Elected officials and potential candidates in Richmond and west Contra Costa County are weighing in on the political storm involving Mayor Eduardo Martinez’s social posts about the Bondi mass shooting, with some saying the Richmond City Council should censure him.
Martinez has apologized for reposting now-deleted LinkedIn posts spreading conspiracy theories about Bondi Beach, telling Richmondside Thursday that he has been ill and his “head hasn’t been clear.” On Thursday a Bay Area Jewish advocacy group called for his resignation, as did several dozen people on social media sites.
He told Richmondside that he misread one post suggesting “the actions of Israel and Israelis is causing antisemitism” before reposting it and said that he interpreted it as stating that Israel’s actions were causing an “increase” in antisemitism.
A number of Martinez’s colleagues on the Richmond City Council and Richmond’s representative on the county Board of Supervisors commented on the controversy Friday. And it’s drawing national attention, with coverage including an op-ed in the New York Post by a rabbi calling for Martinez to step down.
District 1 city council member Jamelia Brown posted a statement to her personal Facebook calling for Martinez to step down and suggesting that the public could “pursue a recall.”
“I will not be silent or ‘wait for things to blow over’ ” while members of our community say they are hurting,” Brown wrote.
“Some have said the mayor deserves an opportunity to correct his mistakes,” Brown added, seemingly referencing a statement shared with the San Francisco Chronicle from District 5 council member Sue Wilson.
Wilson told the San Francisco Chronicle Thursday that while she disagreed with Martinez’s posts, she thinks the mayor should get a chance to make things right.
“I let him know about my disapproval as soon as I was made aware,” Wilson was quoted as saying. “He has started the process of making public apologies and reaching out to Jewish community leaders to try to make amends. I think he deserves a chance to do that.”
Richmondside reached out to Wilson on Friday but did not hear back by publication time.
Another council member, District 6 representative Claudia Jimenez, told Richmondside on Friday that Martinez’s posts “missed the mark” and that she believes he is trying to make things right by apologizing.
“Sharing things without the full understanding is a mistake and those posts were careless and they caused real harm to people,” Jimenez said.
Jimenez, however, cited the mayor’s accomplishments since taking office in 2022, saying that the city has “improved” and that calling for Martinez’s resignation is “overreaching.”
“Yes he made the mistake but he is trying to apologize,” Jimenez said. “I think the importance of the process is that you own your mistakes and reach out (to those you’ve offended). In those discussions, you start building bridges … instead of just calling for his head.”
“The truth is, he’s had ample time — time to educate himself, to lead with respect and dignity for all people, and to stop engaging in rhetoric that harms members of our community,” Brown wrote in her post. “Instead, he has continued to make choices that deepen the wounds. That is not a lack of opportunity; that is a choice.”
Brown added that although voters can decide to vote Martinez out in next year’s 2026 primary election, those affected by his words shouldn’t be forced to wait months for him to leave his position.
“We would never tell another marginalized community to wait after they’ve been violated, or in this case repeatedly,” she wrote. “We have acted with urgency when immigrant families were being targeted. We have acted with urgency when Black communities faced discrimination. The Jewish community deserves that same urgency, clarity, and protection. An apology does not erase harm or give one the ability to conveniently move forward at their discretion.”
District 2 council member Cesar Zepeda told Richmondside Friday that Martinez’s social media posts have left members of the Jewish community feeling unsafe and unprotected by their elected officials.
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“If they’re calling me and saying, ‘I feel unsafe,’ how am I supposed to answer that?”
— Richmond City Council member Cesar Zepeda
“If they’re calling me and saying, ‘I feel unsafe,’ how am I supposed to answer that?” Zepeda said, describing conversations he’s had with Jewish residents upset by the mayor’s posts. He said that Martinez has not reached out to prominent Jewish leaders in Richmond, including the rabbi at the city’s only temple, Temple Beth Hillel, despite him saying he was contacting Jewish community members.
Zepeda said phrases like “from the river to the sea,” which Martinez has used previously, are interpreted by many in the Jewish community as calls for their eradication.
“So why use words that offend somebody?” he asked, arguing that elected officials should choose language that brings communities together rather than divide them.
Zepeda said that Martinez’s apology fell short because he only apologized for reposting content rather than acknowledging the harm caused.
“He says he wanted to have something in his personal (account),” Zepeda said. “We’re elected officials. There is no privacy.”
He confirmed he is looking into censure proceedings that would likely be considered at the council’s next meeting, which is Jan. 6, though he expressed skepticism about the effectiveness of such an action. He said regardless of potential censure or recall efforts, Martinez needs to reflect deeply on whether he can lead all Richmond residents fairly or whether he should step down to express his views as a private citizen. Later Friday he shared a full statement on social media.
Contra Costa County District 1 Supervisor John Gioia released a statement saying that Martinez’s reposts were “deeply offensive, disrespectful, anti-semitic and unacceptable.”
“In the aftermath of these murders, which traumatized many people, elected leaders must bring community together and make all of our residents feel safe and respected,” Gioia wrote. “Mayor Martinez’s posts did the opposite, fueling divisiveness, and contributing to feelings of unsafety and vulnerability.”
Gioia also said the city council should censure Martinez at the first council meeting of 2026 and said he should make a public apology at that meeting that “demonstrates he understands how his actions and words hurt and harmed others.”
Richmondside reached out to Districts 3 and 4 council members Doria Robinson and Soheila Bana but did not hear back by publication time.
Candidates eyeing council seats in 2026 share their opinions
Also on Friday, Ahmad Anderson, who has said he intends to run for Martinez’s seat, said that Martinez has made Jewish community members feel “unsafe and unsupported.”
“The hate speech that Mayor Martinez spread has no place in the City of Pride and Purpose,” Anderson wrote. “That’s not what leaders do, and there’s no excuse for it. Just as importantly, Mayor Martinez doesn’t seem to be able to tell fact from fiction when he’s posting material like this online. Our city should not be led by a mayor who reposts offensive and false misinformation without thinking about who it will hurt.”
Brandon Evans, who intends to run for the city council’s District 3 seat and who was Brown’s 2024 campaign manager, echoed Brown’s calls for the mayor to resign. He also encouraged his political allies, Districts 3, 5 and 6 council members Doria Robinson, Wilson and Jimenez, the latter two who belong to the Richmond Progressive Alliance, to condemn what happened.
“Words from leaders matter,” Evans wrote on Facebook. “When those words fuel division or make entire communities feel unsafe, public trust is broken. Richmond is a diverse city built on inclusion, dignity, and mutual respect. When a mayor’s conduct repeatedly contradicts those values, accountability is required.”
On Saturday, Jamin Pursell, who has said he intends to run for the District 4 council seat, also issued a statement condemning the mayor’s comments.
“I support the formal censure of the mayor,” Pursell wrote. “If he does not understand why spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories is dangerous or refuses to take full responsibility for the harm caused, then he should admit he is unfit to serve as mayor.”
On Saturday Martinez posted a comment on his mayoral Facebook page, where dozens of commenters are demanding he resign. It reads:
To the Richmond community,
I want to address several recent posts that I shared on my personal social media account. I failed to fully read and understand the meaning behind what I was reposting, and 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. 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.
I deeply regret my actions and am committed to doing better. This will include serious personal reflection and meeting directly with members of the communities I have harmed to listen, learn, and understand their perspectives firsthand. This is necessary, and I take it seriously.
I am committed to earning back trust through my actions and continuing to serve Richmond with humility, accountability, and respect for all who call this city home.
Sincerely,
Eduardo Martinez
The mass shooting at Bondi Beach in Australia was horrific as is the unending slaughter of thousands of innocent women and children in Gaza by Israel, funded by our tax dollars. Both should be discussed and condemned and Mayor Martinez should keep his job.
Both should certainly be condemned and I don’t know what to say about the mayors job. But to be clear, the posts he shared were not merely condemning Israel’s genocide – that would be fine (good). The posts suggest that antisemitism has roots in Israel (ie ignores and minimizes centuries of past antisemitism and also likely misrepresents the actual motives of the BB gunman who were associated with ISIS not a Palestinian group). And the other post suggests that Jews should not celebrate holidays in public and that it is a conniving way to “take up space” rather than a normal way that humans like to mark holidays. This is not about defending Palestine. If it were that would be great but no.
Unfortunately, antisemitism has been around for a long time but its flames have been fanned by the wanton slaughter of thousands of innocent women and children in Gaza. As for accountability, look to Netanyahu who has equated Zionism with Judaism ,and to our Congress who has unanimously and repeatedly appropriated our tax dollars to fund this massacre,
Dear Mr Martinez
Please walk away now and save us the embarrassment and expense of a recall.
Where can I sign the recall petition.
As rational adults, we are called to consider all aspects of complex situations. We do not react to one horrific act without taking into account the effect of similar horrific acts. We are faced with the Bondi mass shooting and the slaughter of women and children in Gaza. Who among us has the wisdom and understanding of human behavior to judge which is better and which is worse? When we look at public figures, our leaders, do we consider their history of service or do we judge on one incident of a life lived with honor and compassion for all people? I have known Eduardo Martinez for many years and served with him on the Richmond Library Commission. Based on his record of service to this diverse community, our Mayor deserves a chance to state his case, make amends and be forgiven for mistakenly reposting the comments of others in his time of personal stress. “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone … “
Mayor Eduardo Martinez’s social-media activity on LinkedIn was foolish and misguided. But in leaving out the larger context, this article does a disservice to its readership. Far from being an innocent response by “the Jewish community” to feeling “unsafe,” the letter from the JCRC is part of an organized and well-funded strategy by the Israel/Zionist lobby to stifle free speech and destroy the careers, livelihoods and even the lives of people – many of them Jews – who speak out publicly against Israel’s genocide in Gaza across the United States. In quoting only Martinez’s political foes and not progressive Jews who oppose the Israeli genocide, this article is one-sided and reads like a hit piece.
The playbook of the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC), the Jewish Defense League, StopAntisemitism and similar well-funded Zionist organizations is to cry “antisemitism” and claim that the statements of teachers, university presidents, health care workers, tech workers, service industry workers, journalists etc. make them feel unsafe, fearful and afraid. The goal is to stifle free speech and force people to self-censor lest they lose their jobs, be dismissed from public office or lose their funding.
The JCRC’s claim that it speaks for the Jewish “community” is false. The JCRC is not a membership organization, and only a minority of Jewish people or synagogues in the Bay Area are aligned with it. Without doing the necessary investigation into who is behind a smear campaign, and why, journalists can fall into a trap of becoming unwitting mouthpieces for nefarious players. There are several local progressive Jewish membership organizations that could easily have been contacted for context. Again, Mayor Martinez’s activities on his personal social media were misguided and wrong, but that is not the full story that is owed to Richmondside’s readership by a news outlet that purports to be independent.
Thank you Karen F for clearly pointing out one of the complexities of the situation:
The JCRC and the political activists who fan the flames of hatred and misinformation whenever the subject of the CONTINUING tragedy of genocide that is Gaza today is juxtaposed with the senseless tragedy of single incidents like the Bondi mass shooting.
In a way, Richmondside did the same thing Mayor Martinez did as our leader, react too quickly to a complex situation without including facts that permit us to examine reasonably the various reactions and permit us to examine reasonably our own reactions. As a credible news organization it has the capability to point out organized reactions from individual citizen reactions. Richmondside could help us, help its readership, because we are overwhelmed with the horror of it all.
Sorry, I need to clarify the 2nd last sentence of my last post. I meant to say:
“As a credible news organization, it has the capability and responsibility to point out organized reactions and show how they are different from individual citizen reactions.”
The RPA is the left-wing version of the Trump cult.
The power and control of Zionism over most means of communication confuses the masses. If you are well informed and educated, you’ll be able to understand clearly the whole issue. They are many members of the Jewish community whom support and would agree with the Mayor. How many times we have seen honest public figures, apologizing to the radical Zionists Jews, with fear of losing their positions or worst
We need to fallow honest and brave members of the Jewish community, Professors Norman Finkelstein, journalist Dennis Bernstein, reporter Max Blumenthal, Mikko Peled, son of an Israeli General , Amy Goodman, journalist from Democracy Now , economist Jeffry Sachs, they are all great Jews but they are not Zionist
The Jewish community, the honest and human, are against the disgusting GENOCIDE been perpetuated against women, children, the old, the sick and unarmed men of Palestine, by the Israeli regime
All this is connected, let’s support our Mayor
Hear, hear!
Right on!
Agree with the mayor on this? I am honest and human and completely against the genocide of the Palestinian people but lets dive into the honest portion you mentioned.
The Bondi wasn’t an attack on Israelis or Zionist. It was an attack on people who have nothing to do with Palestine or Gaza. Sick of this beating around the bush to justify killing anywhere. That is absolutely what you are doing.
The problem is our mayor thought it was a good idea to comment on this in the dumbest way possible? I mean he’s pushing that the people who were killed were paid actors. He definitely did – on LinkedIn which is crazy too. Also that the people killed were at fault for Israel’s actions. Or that Jewish people shouldn’t gather in public spaces. That is exactly and honestly what happened.
We are losing the information war and Gaza suffers because of idiocy like this. It is so easy for the right wing/Israel to turn this idiocy into clicks, money and control.
This mayor has no reason to push any of this – zero. I mean really think about the mayor of Richmond pushing a paid actors claim then saying he was sick and didn’t know what he was doing. Yeah – that happened too.
We are losing any chance to win the information wars because crap like this. Be better
The good Mayor should neither resign NOR grovel to the usual suspects of bullying and thuggery in defend of genocide.