San Francisco Mayor London Breed on Friday blasted the city supervisors’ resolution calling for an extended cease-fire in Gaza as divisive and fanning the flames of antisemitism, though she stopped short of issuing a veto.
The Democrat mayor, who is up for reelection this year, wrote in a statement online that the debate over the nonbinding resolution has left the city “angrier, more divided and less safe” as “abject antisemitism” had apparently become acceptable to a subset of activists.
“The antisemitism in our city is real and dangerous,” she wrote, adding that vetoing the resolution would send the issue back to the board, in whom she has “no confidence,” lead to more divisive hearings and “fan even more antisemitic acts.”
Breed said she had spoken to numerous Jewish residents “who tell me they don’t feel safe in their own city. … They are fearful of the growing acts of vandalism and intimidation.”
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Breed, who is up for re-election, said that vetoing the resolution would only lead to more division in San Francisco. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images, File)
A divided board approved the resolution earlier this month, which also condemned Hamas as well as the Israeli government and urged the Biden administration to press for the release of all hostages and delivery of humanitarian aid.
Breed wrote that the board members, and even herself as mayor, are not elected or qualified to weigh in on foreign policy.
View of San Francisco from the Golden Gate Bridge. The Bay Area was struck by a 5.1 magnitude earthquake (Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
“Their exercise was never about bringing people together,” Breed wrote in a statement. “It was about choosing a side.”
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Breed wrote that despite the board putting San Francisco in a “terrible position,” she “must choose unity.”
“When we advocate for people thousands of miles away, we should still care for the people who are right here in San Francisco … We are all San Franciscans,” she wrote.
Dozens of other U.S. cities have approved a resolution that has no legal weight but reflects pressure on local governments to speak up on the Israel-Hamas war, now in its fourth month.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
