Oakland’s Jerusalem Coffee House Owner, Supporters Push Back on Antisemitism Lawsuits

At the quiet perimeter of Oakland’s Temescal District, about 100 community members on Wednesday came out in support of Jerusalem Coffee House, a Palestinian-owned coffee shop facing three lawsuits over alleged antisemitism.

Owner Abdulrahim Harara stood at a morning press conference alongside rabbis, lawyers, patrons and other allies who said the legal campaign against him reflects a broader pattern. They accused pro-Israel groups and officials of using legal tactics to silence Palestinian voices in the U.S. under the guise of combating hate, all while ignoring or abetting an Israeli assault on Gaza so dire that even the strip’s only remaining journalists are starving to death.

“We have been forced to be traumatized, to witness this genocide, and to not have our government do anything about it,” said U.S. Army veteran and street medic Ethos de Leon, “and in fact what they’re doing is attacking good people that run this coffee shop and provide community resources instead.”

In spring, two separate Jewish patrons filed civil suits claiming that Harara kicked them out for wearing caps emblazoned with the Star of David, one with the additional phrase “Am Yisrael Chai” or “the people of Israel live”. Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice added its own claim.

Groups like Jewish Voice for Peace leaped into action, sending out alerts to members, including Peter Truskier, an East Bay resident and descendant of Holocaust survivors from Poland.

“Since then, I’ve become friends with Abdulrahim, and I have to say that there’s no antisemitism I’ve felt at this coffee house,” Truskier said. “In fact, I’ve felt nothing but welcome. It’s like coming to a family establishment. So the main thing that I want to say is that antisemitism and anti-Zionism are not the same thing.”

But the issue is not political, according to the New York-based attorney representing Jonathan Hirsch, one of the men suing Harara and the East Bay Community Space, which rents the space to the cafe.

“I’m confident that that’s exactly how they’re going to try to paint Mr. Hirsch,” Brandeis Center senior counsel Omer Wiczyk said. “That’s already what they’re trying to do is paint him as an activist who went there to cause a scene. Unfortunately for them, the evidence totally belies that claim.”

Wiczyk said that far from being a provocateur hoping to lay a discrimination trap for Harara, Hirsch was simply looking for a bathroom for his child after getting a hot dog across the street when he went to Jerusalem Coffee House. He said the incident represents a basic violation of civil rights.

In a viral video of part of the October confrontation, Harara is seen telling Hirsch to leave because his hat is violent, not because he is Jewish.

“I’m not asking you to leave because of that,” Harara said. “Are you a Zionist? Then get out!”

Harara, whose family is from Gaza and maintains that Israel is committing genocide, told KQED last month he adamantly denies he was being antisemitic in either of the incidents.

In an adjacent space, used to host health care worker meetups and self-defense classes for Muslim women, Harara told the diverse crowd on Wednesday that “Zionist lobbying groups masquerading as civil rights organizations” are “terrified of our unity.”

“Death has crept into every crevice of life in Gaza, and yet despite the violence we have endured,” Harara said, “my heart remains faithfully tethered to a justice greater than anything the human mind can comprehend.”