Comments
THE BOTTOM LINE - Many in West Hollywood and in surrounding neighborhoods may be familiar with that city’s “Jewish” problem from the last election.
In the lead-up to West Hollywood’s 2022 General Election, it was discovered that a high-profile candidate, now Vice Mayor Chelsea Byers, had kept hidden a uniquely obsessive and markedly antisemitic history of anti-Israel activism, all while being quietly supported behind the scenes by several prominent figures, including and especially Mayor John Erickson.
The presence of John Erickson and Chelsea Byers on the West Hollywood City Council has led to a marked departure from the City’s long history of recognizing the important role that Jewish people have played in the City’s vibrant history, including Russian Jews, Persian Jews, and Israeli immigrants. The City’s longtime vocal and substantive support for Israel and Jewish people has all but disappeared with Erickson and Byers on the council.\
Following the recent October 7th terrorist attacks in Israel, and with another West Hollywood election mere months away, new details about the City’s Mayor, and Vice Mayor spreading pro-Hamas propaganda and funding local protests, bring fresh scrutiny and concern.
Vice Mayor Chelsea Byers is a member of 'Beautiful Trouble', which provides materials on protest tactics to "create a world without capitalism and classism; Zionism, and colonialism."
The incoming West Hollywood mayor, who was elected by the Californian City Council on December 16, was the founder of a Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter and is a leading member of an anti-Israel and radical activist guidance group.
Vice Mayor Chelsea Byers, who was elected to serve as mayor as part of the City Council members’ annual rotation of positions and will be sworn in on January 13, is listed as a member of Beautiful Trouble, which provides materials and education on protest and activist tactics and best practices to create a world without “capitalism and classism; racism, white supremacy, Zionism, and colonialism; patriarchy, sexism, and heterosexism; ableism, ageism, sizeism, and other forms of oppression.”
“As a facilitator, Chelsea has led hundreds of hours of training and curated countless professional and leadership development programs,” reads her current Beautiful Trouble biography.
Incorporated anti-Israel activity
The activist tactics taught by Beautiful Trouble often incorporate anti-Israel activity as an example or use stories of pro-Palestinian protest to highlight strategies. One such story, shared on the day after the October 7 massacre, explained how activists would fly to Ben-Gurion Airport and unfurl “Welcome to Palestine” to draw attention to Israeli denial of entries to anti-Israel actors.
Beautiful Trouble recommends the tactic of flotillas like the one involved in the MV Mavi Marmara incident, in which activists attacked naval commandos when they were boarded. Nine activists were killed and several IDF soldiers were wounded in the clash. In another tactic, Beautiful Trouble advocated for activists to engage in “currency hacking” using the example of anti-Israel activists defacing Israeli currency with the slogan “free Palestine.”
For many of us, the morning of October 7th forever changed our lives. In what would be the worst attack on Jewish people since the Holocaust, our community here in West Hollywood was left reeling with the news and images coming out of Israel. After all, Los Angeles is home to the largest number of Israelis outside of Israel, and many make their home in and around West Hollywood.
On October 8th, the day after the Hamas attacks and before Israel fired a single shot in response, Vice Mayor Byers posted, “The Palestinian people have been enduring systematic repression, colonization, and ethnic cleansing since the occupation of Palestine in 1948. Historic Palestine has been torn into scattered pieces of land disconnected from each other. Free Palestine.”
Not one mention of the Jewish children and Holocaust survivors slaughtered by terrorists. Not one mention of the systematic and premeditated rape and sexual violence targeting Jewish women and girls.
For Vice Mayor Byers, then, there can only be one conclusion:
Rape is “resistance.”
Killing Holocaust survivors is “resistance.”
Cutting a fetus out of a pregnant Jewish woman and burning it alive in front of the mother is “resistance.”
Through her nonprofit, Vice Mayor Byers is offering grants of up to a thousand dollars for “disruptive and creative actions” to “end violence, apartheid and settler colonialism in Palestine/Israel.” Suppose you’ve been caught in traffic thanks to demonstrators blocking a road or a freeway or have been subjected to some other form of violence and vandalism surrounding a protest. In that case, it might have been sponsored by “Beautiful Trouble” and West Hollywood Vice Mayor, Chelsea Byers.
Residents and other stakeholders should make it clear to the Incoming Mayor Chelsea Byers and all our elected leaders at every level of government, that West Hollywood values authentic efforts to promote inclusivity, mutual respect, and representation. We must remain engaged and informed, rejecting divisiveness and working towards building a real community that upholds the dignity and rights of all its members.
(Mihran Kalaydjian has over twenty years of public affairs, government relations, legislative affairs, public policy, community relations and strategic communications experience. He is a leading member of the community and a devoted civic engagement activist for education spearheading numerous academic initiatives in local political forums.)
