A Jewish woman in California was blocked from using a bathroom at a coffee shop and employees can be heard telling the woman "Free Palestine," in a video posted online.
On Wednesday, @StopAntisemites posted a video on X, formerly Twitter, showing the incident unfold at Farley's East coffee house in Oakland, California.
"Oakland, CA—employees at Farley's East coffee house (33 Grand Ave.) are filmed denying a Jewish woman's access to a bathroom after she complained is was filled with antisemitic graffiti," the caption of the post said.
As the video begins, the woman filming is heard complaining that she is not being allowed entry into the bathroom, with employees attempting to explain why they are stopping her. One employee is heard saying "I know Israel loves taking private property and saying it's their own, but we gotta head [out]."
Since the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas militants, tensions over the conflict have continued to escalate in the U.S. and other parts of the globe. Many protests with supporters on both sides of the war have occurred in the U.S. and the presidents of Harvard, UPenn and MIT were recently questioned in front of Congress on how they are combatting antisemitism.
In the video, the woman and the employees continue to argue over entry to the bathroom as she tells them that since she is a patron she should be allowed, while the employees are heard repeatedly denying her access and asking her to leave.
Towards the end of the clip, the employees tell the woman she is allowed into the bathroom and as she enters, she films graffiti inside saying "Zionism = fascism" and "your neutrality....is enabling genocide."
The video was posted to social media by other accounts, but the StopAntisemites account removed its post and said, "At the request of the individual victim, we have now removed the video of the incident."
As the woman continues to film the bathroom, one of the employees is heard saying "history didn't start in 1948, lady," and another employee says, "Free Palestine." While walking out of the bathroom, another employee says "Free Palestine, it's always...great, we love it."
In a statement posted on social media, Farley's East coffee house responded to the incident saying "Dear Valued Community, in response to the recent incident at our family-owned-cafe, we want to offer an acknowledgment and a sincere apology. As context, hate speech graffiti was written in our bathroom. We do not support hate speech; this does not reflect our values."
The statement said that the customer who filmed the video was initially inside the bathroom and wanted to go back in to document the graffiti.
"The staff handled the situation poorly and we apologize for this error and the distress caused to the customer. We've taken corrective measures with our staff and removed the offensive graffiti. We're not antisemitic; we value diversity and inclusivity.
"We're committed to ongoing staff training for a safe and welcoming environment. Thank you for understanding that we are a small business doing our best to operate a community business in a difficult environment," the statement added.
Newsweek has reached out to Farley's East coffee shop via email for further comment.
Andrew Lieb, a discrimination attorney for Lieb at Law, told Newsweek on Thursday that "Denying entry into a bathroom because of religion/creed or race is plainly and 100% illegal in California under the Unruh Civil Rights Act, which requires 'full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, privileges or services in all business establishments.'
"If you are a victim in California, you should see a lawyer to file a claim where your attorneys' fees are recoverable if you prevail in your discrimination lawsuit. Bringing a case is so important because it can result in an injunction preventing future discrimination to other people like you coupled with policy changes, mandatory trainings, and you can even recover emotional distress damages and possibly, punitive damages," Lieb said.
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Matthew Impelli is a Newsweek staff writer based in New York. His focus is reporting social issues and crime. In ... Read more
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