At a November city council meeting in Oakland, CA, Christina Gutierrez, a program analyst in the city’s housing department, expressed disturbing and antisemitic views regarding the October 7th massacre carried out by Hamas against innocent Israelis.

Ms. Gutierrez not only defended Hamas, which had just weeks earlier carried out a well-documented campaign of mass murder, rape, and mutilation targeting innocent Israelis, she also falsely claimed that Hamas had not carried out any atrocities and instead “Israel murdered their own people on October 7.”

You can watch a clip of her speech here.

In defending Hamas following these atrocities, Ms. Gutierrez shows a disturbing lack of humanity towards innocent Jewish victims and aligns herself with an organization whose founding charter calls for the genocide of Jews. And in denying the atrocities of October 7, Ms. Gutierrez promotes dangerous antisemitic conspiracy theories akin to Holocaust denial. All of this comes at a time when our Bay Area Jewish communities are facing an unprecedented level of hatred and threats.

Despite condemnation of Ms. Gutierrez and her cohort from public figures like Gov. Gavin Newsom and coverage in national and local media, she remains in her taxpayer-funded role with the City of Oakland. This tolerance and normalization of antisemitism and misinformation by the City of Oakland is unacceptable and poses a threat to the wellbeing and safety of Jewish members of our community.

For these reasons, we demand that the City of Oakland remove Ms. Christina Gutierrez from her position and issue a statement denouncing antisemitism and reaffirming the city's dedication to upholding truth and defending our diverse Bay Area communities.