Richmond, California is across the bay from San Francisco. It is a working class city, most famous for the shipyards which produced the Liberty ships in World War 2.
Under the leadership of Mayor Eduardo Martinez, in late October 2023, Richmond California became the first city in the USA to pass a resolution calling for an end to Israeli ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and a ceasefire in Gaza.
The ceasefire resolution was popular but earned the emnity of the Bay Area Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) which believes in “unwavering support” for the state of Israel.
In December 2025, JCRC launched a campaign denouncing Eduardo and calling for his resignation. Similar to AIPAC at the national level, JCRC seeks to restrict and control public officials in the interests of Israel. Evidently, they want to make an example of Mayor Eduardo Martinez. Their claim that Eduardo’s actions are “antisemitic” are slanderous but typical of those who deny Israeli atrocities and conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism.
Some Christians as well as Jews have been indoctrinated to believe that Israel is superior and should be supported unconditionally. In contrast, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Israeli Bt’Selem have each independently determined that Israel is an apartheid state. The International Association of Genocide Scholars has denounced Israeli crimes against humanity and declared that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
Israel claiming to be the “Jewish state” while committing genocide and apartheid against Palestinians is oviously detrimental to Jews worldwide. Equating the state of Israel with all Jewish people or the Jewish faith is itself antisemitic. Judaism is thousands of years old; Israel is 78.
The innocent people killed in Bondi Beach, Australia and Gaza are both victims of terrorism. One difference is that there were 15 killed in Bondi but over 70 thousand in Gaza. Another difference is that the killers in Bondi Beach were deranged individuals while the killers in Gaza are from a nation state.
Jews, Christians, Muslims and all good people agree that genocide, ethnic cleansing and apartheid should be opposed and not supported.
We thank Richmond Mayor Eduardo Martinez for supporting human rights for Palestinians and opposing ethnic cleansing and genocide. We denounce his defamation and slander by JCRC.
On Tuesday night, January 20, the Richmond City Council will consider the JCRC inspired proposal to censure Mayor Eduardo Martinez. If you wish to comment, write before 1 pm on Tuesday January 20 to Richmond city council members at cityclerkdept@ci.richmond.ca.us with the subject line “Public Comment agenda item #Q4”.
