A California city that has long been a hub of progressive politics now appears to be a test of how the American left navigates issues of Israel and antisemitism.
In Richmond, Calif., a city led by Democratic socialist-aligned Mayor Eduardo Martinez, discussions about housing, crime and other local issues quickly became drowned out by discussions about Israel’s war in Gaza following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks. The debate spread into the Bay Area, as Jewish leaders and residents said Martinez had crossed the line between legitimate criticism of Israel and antisemitic rhetoric.
Stephen London, a Jewish Richmond resident who spoke to Fox News Digital, said that before Oct. 7 he had not paid much attention to local politics. However, once the city became the first in the country to pass a ceasefire resolution after the attacks, he began watching city politics closely, questioning why city leadership was focused on a war thousands of miles away.
“Whatever your politics are about the Middle East, what the hell does it have to do with Richmond?,” London told .
London said his family lives in Israel and that he has visited the country a few times, including volunteering on a kibbutz, but he has not been there in several decades.
The resolution, passed in October 2023, declared the city’s solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza and accused Israel of carrying out “a campaign of ethnic cleansing and collective punishment,” according to a page on the city’s website that appears to have since been deleted.
The resolution became a flashpoint for Jewish residents of Richmond, like London, and for Jewish leaders in the Bay Area, many of whom argued that it was aimed more at justifying Hamas’ attack than criticizing Israeli policies.
“We could understand a year or more [later] on how policy critiques of the Israeli government could lead folks to want to speak out. But this was really just glorifying Hamas and demonizing the Jewish state as Jewish residents of Richmond were grieving, grieving for the worst attack on the Jewish people since the end of the Holocaust with October 7th,” Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) Bay Area CEO Tyler “Tye” Gregory said.
In August 2025, Martinez participated in the People’s Conference for Palestine in Detroit, where he was seen wearing a hat that read “DD TT IDF,” an acronym for “death, death to the IDF.” The mayor also spoke at the conference, where he compared himself to Palestinians, saying that he understood the Palestinians’ struggle because he was bullied as a child.
“If Palestine were a schoolyard playground, I would be a Palestinian, and that part of me, that part of me that couldn’t endure the abuse anymore, would be Hamas,” Martinez said.
While the conference intensified criticism of Martinez, his actions following the Hanukkah attack in Bondi Beach, Australia, proved to be the tipping point for many Bay Area Jewish leaders.
“He’s made a lot of outrageous accusations and shared a lot conspiracies online. But the moment of Bondi Beach was so horrific. It was such a gut punch to all of us to see the leader in the East Bay of an important city really blame that on us as we were grieving was just the last straw,” Gregory told Fox News Digital.
After Martinez shared on LinkedIn what JCRC Bay Area saw as offensive posts ab
