BE BETTER, HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION

Two months into pandemic lockdowns, on May 19, 2020, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors established the Leon L. Williams San Diego County Human Relations Commission with the goal of promoting “positive human relations, respect and the integrity of every individual regardless of gender, religion, culture, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age or citizenship status.” Supervisors revived and renamed a dormant commission in response to a deadly shooting at a Poway synagogue in 2019 and after people wore or displayed KKK and Nazi symbols at stores in Santee earlier in May 2020. Disturbing events at the commission’s July 18 meeting show that this goal is not being met.

At the meeting, members were discussing an earlier controversy involving Commissioner George Khoury calling Israel a “racist, fascist state” at a meeting in May while detailing how his Palestinian family had been expelled from West Jerusalem during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Five local Jewish leaders wrote a letter to the commission denouncing Khoury for depicting “the creation of Israel as a war crime — language that goes beyond legitimate criticism of Israeli government policies.” The harsh description of the world’s only Jewish majority nation is understandably going to offend many Jewish people — even without the increase in antisemitic violence and rhetoric in the U.S. in recent years. But many Jewish people, including professor and former New Republic editor Peter Beinart in The New York Times and elsewhere, have also strongly denounced the Israeli government, especially under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Still, the purpose of the commission is to help the San Diego community come together. Making it one of the many forums for the airing of historical grievances is a recipe for dysfunction. Making this point is not taking a side in the complex May dispute. It is stating the obvious.

But on July 18, Commissioner Khaliq Raufi went far beyond criticizing the government of Israel to engage in hateful slander against Judaism. He falsely alleged that in Deuteronomy, the fifth book of both the Torah and the Christian Old Testament, “It states, ‘Go kill Palestinians. Wipe them all out.’ So it’s a teaching that they, on a daily basis, teach their followers in their synagogues.” On Wednesday, after media inquiries to his office, Supervisor Joel Anderson — who had appointed Raufi — announced that the commissioner had resigned. The Republican who represents East County and parts of North County called Raufi’s comments “hurtful” and “intolerant” — and said he believes they “came from a place of ignorance but without malice.”

Raufi’s departure won’t end profound questions about the Human Relations Commission. While Raufi’s remarks were horrific, so was the aftermath. The audience can be heard reacting in the video of the meeting; Sara Brown, the regional director of the American Jewish Committee of San Diego, says, “Are you serious right now?” But only one commissioner — Kate Clark, who works for Jewish Family Service of San Diego — took Raufi to task. While commission Chair Ellen Nash later said that she was upset and shocked by his comments, she had no response during the meeting. Nor did any county official on hand. “It was so unbelievably shocking in the moment — and even more shocking was the silence of every single commissioner and county staff,” Brown told a reporter after the meeting.

In a Wednesday phone interview with an editorial writer, Nash said it will take “a lot of work,” but that she remains confident that the commission can “get beyond this” and be the community resource it is supposed to be on crucial issues including the treatment of immigrants, jail deaths and school equity. She said a respected consulting group, Essential Partners, was working with members and staff to build a strong, constructive culture.

Alas, whether that’s possible is an open question. Raufi is gone, but Commissioner Dennis Hodges — who called transgender people “an abomination in the eyes of God” at a meeting last year — remains after surviving an expulsion vote. Hodges’ defenders — including Anderson, who also appointed him — said the commission shouldn’t try to make members conform to a rigid set of views. But conformity isn’t the issue. Do Hodges and his defenders believe in promoting respect for “every individual regardless of gender, religion, culture, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age or citizenship status” or not?

The question isn’t hypothetical. This month, San Diego police are investigating the attack on a Jewish man in the College Area as a possible hate crime, and after residents in Santee and the San Diego neighborhoods of San Carlos and Del Cerro found flyers on car windshields with antisemitic and antiLGBTQ messages, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria declared, “Hate has no place in San Diego and there will be consequences for those who spread it in our city.” The county Human Relations Commission, which needs better vetting and training, must take that to heart. Otherwise, what’s the point of it?