DOJ sues California coffee shop for allegedly refusing Jewish customers

Owners of the Jerusalem Coffee House in Oakland violated the civil rights of Jewish patrons by refusing them service on the basis of religion, according to a Monday statement from the Department of Justice. Federal prosecutors filed a federal lawsuit on Monday, accusing owners Fathi Abdulrahim Harara and Native Grounds LLC of violating the Civil Rights Act by exercising racial and religious discrimination.

The Jerusalem Coffee House aimed to celebrate the rich heritage of Palestinian coffee, according to the shop’s social media profile. The shop’s social media also includes several posts advocating for solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. The Jerusalem Coffee House is not just a business, but a movement with the mission of raising awareness of genocide and occupation in order to spark change, a March post declared.

How do prosecutors know customers were denied service because of their religion? The federal complaint detailed several instances of alleged discrimination by the coffee shop. Prosecutors described how an employee recognized a customer as Jewish after having seen him previously outside the shop wearing a baseball cap with the Star of David on it. “You're the guy with the hat. You're the Jew. You’re the Zionist,” the employee told the customer, according to the lawsuit. The Jewish man said he only wanted to place an order, and the employee then told him to get out, the lawsuit alleged. Harara and two employees then followed the Jewish customer outside while yelling “Jew” and “Zionist” and pursued him up the street, according to the filing.

Prosecutors described a similar instance with another Jewish man who was allegedly harassed while patronizing the coffee shop with his 5-year-old son. The father, wearing a hat featuring the Star of David, ordered coffee and sat down at a cafe table with a chessboard to play with his son. Soon after sitting down, Harara approached the pair and asked the father if he was a Zionist, and if the star on his hat was the Star of David. Harara later demanded that the pair leave the shop, alleging that the pair was causing a disruption by trespassing and threatened to call the police. When the father said he would wait for the police to arrive, Harara tried to have an employee of the business complex where the shop was located remove the pair. When the father told the complex employee that he believed the owner was discriminating against him because of his religion, the employee noted that the pair had entered a Palestinian business. Once police arrived, Harara insisted that he had the right to refuse service to anyone and repeatedly requested that officers forcibly remove the father. Police did not arrest the father and instead documented the case as a hate incident, according to the lawsuit.

The shop also marked the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 invasion of Israel with a new menu. The shop introduced the “Iced In Tea Fada,” referencing “intifada” uprisings against Israel, and the “Sweet Sinwar,” referencing Yahya Sinwar, the late Hamas leader who orchestrated the Oct. 7 massacre. The coffee shop also spray-painted inverted red triangles on one of its outside walls, a commonly recognized symbol of anti-Semitism, according to the DOJ.

It’s illegal and reprehensible for any public American business to refuse business from Jewish customers, according to the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon. The DOJ is committed to combating anti-Semitism on American soil and protecting every citizen’s civil rights, she added.

Dig deeper: Read my report from February about the DOJ launching a task force to investigate anti-Semitism with a specific focus on colleges and universities.