Jewish Groups Demand Resignation Of California Mayor Over Antisemitic Bondi Beach Conspiracy Claims

A leading Jewish advocacy group in Northern California is calling for the resignation of a city mayor after he promoted conspiracy theories claiming the deadly Bondi Beach attack on a Chanukah celebration was a so-called “false flag” operation carried out by Israel.

The Jewish Community Relations Council of the Bay Area said Richmond Mayor Eduardo Martinez crossed a red line by reposting antisemitic rhetoric on his LinkedIn account in the aftermath of the attack.

“When an elected official’s words and actions make a segment of the community feel unsafe and abandoned by their government, that official can no longer effectively serve,” the organization said in a statement.

“For these reasons, Mayor Eduardo Martinez must resign,” the statement continued. “No community should be led by someone whose conduct contributes to fear, division, and exclusion. This is a stark example of where toxic social media, unchecked rhetoric, and the constant demonization of Israel and Jews can lead, and why it must be confronted.”

Martinez, 76, serves as mayor of Richmond, California, a city north of Berkeley. First elected in 2022, he has long been known as a vocal critic of Israel.

There is a small Jewish presence in the town; a Chabad House that is run by Rabbi Yitzchok Wagner, who is currently expanding operations, and a reform temple.

The JCRC said it is rare for a Jewish organization to publicly call for the resignation of a local elected official, but described Martinez’s comments about the Bondi Beach massacre as “dangerously antisemitic, deeply offensive, and wholly unacceptable.”

After the attack in Sydney that left 15 people murdered and dozens injured, Martinez reposted multiple antisemitic statements and conspiracy theories to his LinkedIn page.

“The root cause of antisemitism is the behaviour of Israel & Israelis,” read one since-deleted post that Martinez shared, according to J, The Jewish News of Northern California.

Another repost compared the Bondi Chanukah celebration to hypothetical Jewish displays at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Har Habayis, arguing that both should be viewed as “performative assertions of dominance.”

The post went on to state: “Hanukkah, traditionally a time of personal and private reflection, has in recent years been appropriated by Jewish Zionist organisations and weaponised as a political tool.” Martinez added his own prompt beneath the repost, writing, “What are your thoughts?”

As criticism mounted, Martinez appeared to issue an apology on Wednesday for sharing the posts.

“I want to apologize for sharing my previous posts without thinking. Of course we know that antisemitism was here before the creation of the state of Israel,” he wrote on LinkedIn. “As I’ve said many times before, we should not conflate Zionism with Judaism. They are two separate beliefs.”

He followed up with a second apology on Thursday, seeking to distance his online statements from his official role.

“I want to assure everyone that these postings are my opinions (or my mistakes) and mine only. They are not statements from my office or the city of Richmond. If I make a mistake, that mistake is mine only,” he wrote. “Once again, I apologize for posting in haste without full understanding of the posting.”

The controversy erupted amid a wider surge in online antisemitism following the Bondi Beach attack. The antisemitism watchdog CyberWell reported a sharp increase in hateful content and incitement on social media platforms in the days that followed. Australian authorities said the attackers were motivated by “Islamic State ideology.”

“We are also seeing a dangerous denial narrative online that blames the Jewish community itself, falsely labeling the attack a ‘false flag’ or ‘Mossad’ operation, orchestrated to divide Australians,” said CyberWell founder and CEO Tal-Or Cohen Montemayor in a statement.

The backlash over Martinez’s comments is not his first clash with the Jewish community. In August, while speaking at the People’s Conference for Palestine, he compared Hamas terrorists to a bullied child and described his own stance on the group as a “complicated question,” according to J.

Matinez defended Hamas terrorists.

“If Palestine were a schoolyard playground, I would be a Palestinian, and that part of me that couldn’t endure the abuse anymore would be Hamas,” Martinez said at the time. During the same appearance, he wore a hat bearing the letters “DDTTIDF,” an acronym calling for “death to the IDF.”

The JCRC also noted that under Martinez’s leadership, the Richmond City Council passed a resolution two weeks after Oct. 7 condemning Israel and “affirming Richmond’s support and solidarity with the Palestinian people of Gaza.”

Martinez’s Bondi Beach remarks were also sharply criticized by the Anti-Defamation League.

“There’s no excuse for an elected leader to be amplifying warped antisemitic conspiracy theories that seek to blame the victim,” said Marc Levine, regional director of the ADL’s Central Pacific office. “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.”