He’s gay, Jewish, pro-Palestine and pro-trans. Left-wing activists keep abusing him

Democratic politician Scott Wiener was returning to his seat at a crowded sports bar in San Francisco last week when a man, with his phone camera already recording, began berating him.

“You gotta get the f— out of my ’hood, bro,” the man told Wiener. “It’s free Palestine here; you already know what it is. We [are] against the genocide.”

Wiener sat and listened silently, at one point appearing to give a resigned nod, as the man kept yelling at him.

“You f—ed up. You f—ed up. It’s gonna be a problem. There’s innocent children being killed in Palestine, and you gonna come here like it’s good, but you pushing that genocidal agenda as a Zionist, bro.”

The World Cup was showing on the bar’s TV screens: the Czech Republic v Mexico. One member of Wiener’s party tried to defuse the situation. “We’re here to enjoy the game just like you,” he said.

But the man went on, calling Wiener a dog, motherf—ker and piece of shit, and demanding he say “free Palestine” and leave the restaurant. He warned that if Wiener didn’t leave now, he would be waiting for him outside later.

Wiener, 56, has represented San Francisco in the California State Senate for nearly 10 years and is running to replace Nancy Pelosi – the veteran former speaker of the House of Representatives – when she retires at the midterm elections.

He is also Jewish and a strong critic of the Israeli government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Wiener contends Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza – a charge Israel vociferously denies – and says he would vote against further US aid until the Israeli government changes its behaviour.

He is also gay and a strong advocate for the transgender community. But that did not stop anti-Israel activists from hounding him out of a trans-rights march on Friday, screaming that he was a “genocidal piece of shit”.

Video uploaded by one of the activists showed people crowding around Wiener and yelling in his face as he walked through San Francisco’s Dolores Park. Some wore keffiyehs and face coverings.

“You do not belong here,” one person told Wiener, accusing him of betraying the LGBTQ community because of his stance on Israel and Gaza. “We f—king hate you,” another person repeatedly shouted.

Last week a team of independent experts commissioned by the United Nations accused Israel of deliberately shooting children in Gaza and repeated its accusation that Israel had committed genocide.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry called the report a “libellous sham” and attacked the commission as “a fundamentally flawed mechanism whose very purpose is to single out and vilify Israel rather than seek the truth”.

On the broader political spectrum, Wiener is far to the left of mainstream America. Even within the Democratic Party, he sits on the progressive end of the scale. He excoriates those within his party who want to move to the political centre on immigration or transgender rights in response to Republican victories.

‘Original sin’

And on Israel, Wiener has moved left. His original sin, according to activists, came during a campaign event in January, when an audience member asked the candidates on stage whether Israel was committing genocide. Candidates on either side of Wiener held up their signs proudly: yes. He refused to answer.

Days later, Wiener recanted. “I want to clarify that I do believe Israel has committed genocide in Gaza,” he said in a video.

He noted he strongly opposed Israel’s escalation of its campaign in Gaza but had been reluctant to apply the word “genocide” because of its association with the Holocaust.

Despite that, “we all have eyes and ears”, Wiener said. “To me, the Israeli government has tried to destroy Gaza and to push Palestinians out, and that qualifies as genocide.”

And yet, that has not been enough to stem the relentless abuse from activists.

Tali deGroot, vice president of political and digital strategy at the liberal Zionist lobby group J Street, noted Wiener had long advocated for a Palestinian state.

‘It seems like these protesters are animated by misinformation or by a total unwillingness to accept that a person could evolve their position.’

Talia deGroot, vice president, J Street

“I don’t think there’s anything that he could say that would stop these people who are dogging him at every turn,” she said. “People claiming to have an advocacy angle are just using that platform to bully him.

“It seems like these protesters are animated by misinformation, or by a total unwillingness to accept that a candidate or a person could evolve their position. It is so bad for a democratic society that a candidate or a member could change on something, and nobody listens to them.”

But deGroot was not prepared to say the activists’ behaviour was antisemitic.

“There’s already too many people who are too quick to invoke antisemitism. Physical harassment like this takes us in the wrong direction and makes it more difficult to have the legitimate policy debate that we need to have.”

The repeated public abuse of Wiener in his electorate is just the latest example of Jewish Democratic politicians being targeted over their positions on the Middle East.

In New York, Congressman Dan Goldman was banned from a cafe after visiting with his young daughter. Poetica Coffee posted a photo of Goldman in the shop, accusing him of enabling genocide and taking money from pro-Israel lobbyists, and told him to never come back.

Goldman ended up losing his primary to another Jewish Democrat, Brad Lander, who was backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Israel became a dominant issue of that campaign – although both men call themselves liberal Zionists, Lander is a harsh critic of Israel and accuses it of committing genocide in Gaza.

That position earned Lander criticism from other Jews, including Bruce Blakeman, a Republican running to be the next governor of New York state. Appearing on Newsmax, he called Lander anti-American and antisemitic, adding: “This guy would be a camp guard in a concentration camp if he could. He’s a disaster.”

Blakeman refused to retract his statement or apologise when he appeared on CNN on Friday, leading host Kaitlan Collins to terminate the interview.

The string of incidents has put fresh focus on antisemitism and the rhetoric, tactics and policy positions of anti-Israel activists in the US, particularly as some transition to electoral politics and beat establishment Democrats in blue cities like New York.

One of the democratic socialists who succeeded in last week’s Democratic primaries, Darializa Avila Chevalier, is a PhD student who previously organised pro-Palestine protests at Columbia University and attended a rally in Times Square on October 8, 2023, that featured speeches praising Hamas – one day after the October 7 atrocity.

On Monday, CNN revealed Chevalier had a Twitter account – now deleted – on which she repeatedly expressed sympathy for communism and communist figures.

‘I have no objection whatsoever to anyone disagreeing with me, opposing me, or protesting me .. But when opposition and disagreement transition to harassment … that crosses a line.’

Scott Wiener

More broadly, Democrats fear being tainted by the behaviour of the far-left activists who are gaining a foothold in some cities. President Donald Trump and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson are shifting their message to defeating “communism” and anti-Americanism in the Democratic Party ahead of the midterm elections.

Anti-Israel, pro-Palestine activism is pervasive in parts of the country, often directed at Democrats rather than Republicans. Former vice president Kamala Harris is a frequent target: at the New York launch of her book last year, activists stood outside the building banging drums and repeatedly interrupted the event to accuse her of having Palestinian blood on her hands.

In the San Francisco restaurant, Wiener remained silent for more than three minutes as he was berated and abused – except to assure his haranguer that he no longer took money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobby group.

Meanwhile, one member of Wiener’s party tried to engage with his harasser, suggesting they “should all have a conversation”.

The video went viral online; author Hadley Freeman, also a columnist at The Times of London, called it chilling. “I don’t like WW2 analogies, but I think all of us who grew up hearing about how our grandparents were shouted at and shunned in 1930s Europe cannot help but see echoes here,” she wrote on X.

Wiener’s office did not respond to an interview request. In a statement, he noted the man who abused him in the restaurant was known to him and had stalked him at an airport in 2023. He also said the activists who targeted him in Dolores Park referred to his “Israeli handlers”, among other comments.

“I have no objection whatsoever to anyone disagreeing with me, opposing me, or protesting me. All of that is core to democracy,” Wiener said.

“I also have no issue when people talk to me on the street and ask questions or express opposition. That’s democracy, even when the people engaging in this conduct misrepresent my views.

“But when opposition and disagreement transition to harassment, including cornering me, touching me, or trying to physically bully me out of a public event, that crosses a line.”

‘No one more richly deserves this humiliation than Scott Wiener, who learns the hard lesson that you can be a militant for trans radicalism, a full-scale Israel-hater … and the hard left will still yell at you for being a Jew.’

Ben Shapiro, right-wing commentator

California’s Senate Democrats and the state’s LGBTQ legislative caucus issued a statement defending Wiener and condemning the harassment and violence.

Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has endorsed one of Wiener’s rivals in the race for her seat, had not made a public statement on social media at the time of writing.

But when contacted, she told this masthead: “As the subject of targeted hate, vitriol and violence for decades, I have always urged respect and civility in politics. The incidents of harassment against Senator Wiener went too far, and I condemn all forms of threats and intimidation, which have no place in American political debate.”

Meanwhile, right-wing commentator Ben Shapiro, co-founder of The Daily Wire, told his 8.6 million followers that Wiener deserved what he got.

“No one more richly deserves this humiliation than Scott Wiener, who learns the hard lesson that you can be a militant for trans radicalism, a full-scale Israel-hater, and an all-around moral derelict … and the hard left will still yell at you for being a Jew,” Shapiro said.

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