A Tale of Two Restaurants: They go low, we go high.

A tale of 2 restaurants.

Reem’s café and bakery is adorned with a floor to ceiling image of a confessed murderer- Rasmea Odeh,  a convicted terrorist responsible for the deaths of 2 young men in a Jerusalem bombing nearly 20 years ago.   Peaceful vigils by a group of community elders opposed to the glorification of violence were violently attacked by ReemAssil’s staff and patrons.  

Ellen Brotsky of JVP attacking an elderly man at Reems, Fruitvale Oakland

Lara Kiswani of the Arab Resource Organizing Center and Ellen Brotsky with posters
ripped out of the hands of community elders.  

When the physical attack failed to silence their voices,  the police were repeatedly called to break up the vigils.  Ultimately, Reem Assil attempted to take out restraining orders to quash the communities rights to freedom of assembly and freedom of speech.

Contrast and compare

Mannys in San Francisco is under protest by alt-left fringe groups, threatening to run him out of town.

Its not about the artwork Manny has chosen to display- glorious representations of our diverse community.  Its about who Manny is- a proud and  progressive queer Jew who happens to fail the litmus test of political correctness- and accepts the right of the Jewish people to self determination.  Manny’s business has been vandalized with anti-Semitic imagery.  His windows have been broken.

Mannys vandalized with spray painted Jewish star.  Photo from Mission Local 

Manny’s response to the protesters harassing his customers was to invite them in to talk.  They refused.  The community response  has also been open and loving. There have not been violent attacks against the protesters, or attempts to silence their voices.   The community instead has embraced Manny, his shop and his mission.  On Wednesday evenings, the day of the protests, Manny’s restaurant has been packed with patrons, celebrating in the community gathering space that Manny has created. . 

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. knew best: "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. "  

The community will continue to respond to these attacks with light and with love. 
Read more about Manny's:

How many hoops must Manny Yekutiel jump through before he’s deemed worthy to set foot in the Mission?

Manny’s builds a real-life space for civic discourse in SF

Jewish cafe owner in San Francisco hounded over his ‘Zionist ideals’

Reem Assil Manipulates Yelp Reviews. Again.

They call it the Palestine Exception. Its the belief that being Palestinian enables you to use  your eternal victimhood as a  "get out of jail free" card to evade any moral or civic responsibility.  Reem Assil, proprietor of an Oakland bakery decorated with a mural of a convicted Jew-killer uses it like a master.  Faced with negative crowd-sourced reviews for her Oakland restaurant, Reem denounces them as "racist" targeting her "Arab owned business" and mobilized a response. 

Reports of dirty restrooms?    There are zionists afoot.

Small portions?  Only a zionist would complain.

Cold, bland food?  Only a jealous Zionist would make that claim.

The Palestine Exception means criticizing cold coffee is "racist", if its served in an Arab owned business. 

The Palestine exception means never having to take personal responsibility for your actions.  

 

David Jaber takes Reem's bait, and explains how to "drill down" and report the profiles

The Palestinian Exception means that Israel haters across the world have rushed to Reems defense, linked by their common hatred of the Zionist entity.   Emma Rosenthal freely admits she has never eaten in Reem's restaurant. yet posts a review, in violation of  Yelps' terms of agreement.  And yes, Emma Rosenthal calls unapologetic Jew Killer Rasmea Odeh,  "a hero"

Within days of the Reem initiated manipulation, many of the negative reviews had vanished from Yelp.  This form of blatant manipulation dilutes the Yelp brand, and makes all their reviews suspect. 

The way to win in Reem Assil's world is to Cry "Zionist" and let loose the dogs of war.

Reem Assil abandons her assault on the first amendment

Since the summer, there have been a series of vigils at Reem's California, an Oakland bakery that features a floor to ceiling mural of convicted terrorist Rasmea Odeh.

Rasmea Odeh, a member of the PFLP terrorist group was recently deported from America for not disclosing her role in a grocery store bombing that led to the deaths of Leon Kanner and Edward Joffe.

In true "progressive" fashion,  the initial response to these vigils was a physical attack on the participants.  There were multiple attempts to harass and intimidate the participants. Mall security and the Oakland police department were repeatedly called. When that failed to stop the vigils, libelous reports about the participants began appearing across the web.  

The vigils continued.

The "progressive" response from bakery owner Reem Assil, a self described "community organizer" was to file for a restraining order, which was ultimately denied by the court. Twice.

Reem Assil's assault on individual rights and freedoms has been documented by the good folk at  Legal Insurrection:

Anti-Israel activists try to shut down protests over California bakery honoring Palestinian terrorist

Reem’s Oakland bakery seeks Ct order halting protests over terrorist mural

A participant in the vigils has written about her experience in the Times of Israel:

Reem’s Cafe Owner Has a First Amendment Problem

This week, Reem Assil dismissed the case against journalist Michael Lumish and two others

From Mintz Levin, the law firm handling Michael Lumish's case:

The lawsuit against Mr. Lumish has been dismissed by the plaintiff, Reem Assil. Early yesterday morning, we provided notice to Ms. Assil’s counsel that we were going to appear in court ex parte on Wednesday to adjust certain pending case dates because we would be filing later that day – on behalf of Mr. Lumish – a motion to strike Ms. Assil’s case as a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (“SLAPP” suit) designed to chill Mr. Lumish’s exercise of his free speech rights. A few hours later, while we were waiting for the Court to provide a hearing date for our Anti-SLAPP motion, we received word from the Court of the plaintiff’s voluntary dismissal.

Because Ms. Assil’s lawsuit against Mr. Lumish was precisely the type of effort to use the courts to try to obtain a content-based prior restraint on political speech, which California law does not countenance, we are very pleased that Mr. Lumish is no longer facing the burden of having to deal with such an action and attempt to intimidate him and others from engaging in peaceful protest. In light of the time and effort that we were required to invest in order to vindicate Mr. Lumish and to stand up for his free speech rights, we are considering the possibility of recovering defense fees and costs from Ms. Assil and/or her counsel in connection with this action and with their effort to silence protest against Ms. Assil’s own political speech and choice to use her restaurant to honor a convicted murderer and terrorist.

The take home lesson is that when we fight back, we win. This path is not easy, but this is the path. We can not let ourselves give in to threats and intimidation.

UPDATE

Mike Lumish has issued a statement, in a post chag spirit of t'shuvah.

Reem Assil and her malicious, anti-Zionist friends challenged the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and promptly got their legalistic butts kicked.

{Good for them.}

Anyone who followed the story of Assil's extremist and terrorist-admiring restaurant at the Fruitvale BART Station in Oakland knows that her attorneys dismissed her malicious "lawfare" action against Bob Pave, Robin Dubner, and myself.

This was due to the insightful work of Mitch Danzig, Evan Nadel, and Paul Huston of the law firm, Mintz Levin.

Speaking strictly for myself, I owe those gentlemen a significant debt of thanks.

There are, however, a few loose ends dangling that I want to tie up.

The first is that I owe an apology to StandWithUS, particularly Randy Kessler, Executive Director of the Northwest chapter.

And I owe a big tip 'o the kippa to Yael Lerman, Director of the SWU legal department.

{Were I her I do not know that I would have been quite so nice to me.}

When, during the vigils, it looked as if we would get zero support from the larger San Francisco Bay Area Jewish community, I lambasted that organization and stormed into Kessler's Facebook space with a self-righteous fit.

It was inappropriate, unfair, and I was wrong to do it.

Nonetheless, despite my bad manners, SWU did more to help the ongoing vigils at Reem's than any synagogue or other Bay Area Jewish organization.

Did Attorney Rose Mishaan actually pass Constitutional law?

Who is Attorney Rose Mishaan and did she ever study Constitutional law?

According to Legal Insurrection, the silent vigils at Reem’s Bakery in Oakland are under a new form of attack. A local journalist, Mike Lumish, is being taken to court in an effort to silence his voice. His alleged transgression? He wrote about Reem’s Bakery egregious support of convicted terrorist Rasmea Odeh in the Jewish Press, and in his blog Israel Thrives.

Among Reem Assils' demands are that Mike stop posting “defamatory” remarks about her, her business or her customers online and in the media.

From Legal Insurrection:

The case also raises serious constitutional and free speech issues, as the bakery owner seeks to punish protest, to halt or move continued protest, and a prior restraint of speech.

Reem Assil is represented by attorney Rose Mishaan.

What kind of attorney would support an action that flies in the face of our Constitutional protections of free speech and public assembly?

Apparently the answer is “An ideologue”

Reem's attorney, Rose Mishaan  visited Gaza with a delegation from the National Lawyers Guild. She was accompanied by career anti-Israel activists, including  Huwaida Arraf, co-founder of the ISM. Her reports from Gaza, naturally, are devoid of context and completely ignore Hamas's terror attacks against the Israeli people.

She's a natural to represent Reem Assil..

1. 
   

Reem's: Quashing constitutional rights in the name of "Community"

On July 25, another vigil was held at Reem's, in what appears to be the latest in an ongoing series of actions. The peaceful low-key lunch hour event was again disrupted by a blatant attempt to infringe on the groups constitutional rights of freedom assembly and freedom of expression

And again, Reem Assil's reaction to a non-violent protest was to call  "security"

However, there are no trained security guards at Fruitvale Village.

According to the East Bay Express, several years ago, the Unity Council, the non-profit that owns Fruitvale Village decided to end its contract  with Universal Protection Services, a unionized security company. Instead, the trained guards were replaced with "neighborhood ambassadors" -workers without guard cards or formal security training.

Reem Assil and the Unity Council are now relying on these "neighborhood ambassadors" to curtail the civil rights of the lawful protesters. The ambassadors from the Safety Neighborhood Ambassador Program (SNAP) are employees of Peralta Service Corporation, a subsidiary of the Unity Council, and are clearly uncomfortable being asked to infringe on people's constitutional rights

UPDATE:
Legal Insurrection posts more details of the legal protections afforded to the vigil in California in their article Anti-Israel activists try to shut down protests over California bakery honoring Palestinian terrorist

In an important 1980 case, Pruneyard Shopping Center vs. Robins (447 U.S. 74, 80), the SCOTUS upheld the general claim that citizens have no free expression rights in private shopping centers, but found that state constitutions could confer broader speech rights, if they so desired, permitting free speech in these private arenas.

Pruneyard involved a group of California high school students who were denied permission by the manager of a private mall in Campbell to man a table, hand out leaflets, and collect signatures for a petition against the virulently anti-Israel and antisemitic UN General Assembly Resolution 3379, which determined that ‘Zionism is a form of racism’.

The Court stated that the student group had the right to set up a table, and approach passersby in order to solicit names for their petition, discuss the issue, and distribute their literature because the broadly worded California Constitution does in fact give citizens the right to speak and assemble freely, and to petition, including in private malls.

That is, the Supreme Court recognized that state constitutions may provide more protection than the U.S. Constitution does when it comes to speech in privately-owned malls.

The subsequent history of the decision bears out the free speech rights of the vigil participants

Again, from Legal Insurrection

Thirty-seven years later, another group of pro-Israel protesters stand to benefit from this SCOTUS ruling, and other subsequent California Supreme Court decisions upholding free speech rights at shopping malls.

Particularly relevant for Reem’s protesters is a 2007 case (Fashion Valley Mall, LLC vs. NLRB, 42 Cal. 4th) which held that the state’s constitution even protects “non-commercial expressive activity” in shopping centers that involves advocating for the boycott of a store or business there. More recently, a 2013 court of appeal decision held that

"a shopping mall must allow protests within aural and visual range of a targeted business whenever the mall is open to the public.”

Vigil at Reem's Oakland. July 22

While Reem's California patrons chanted a call for the genocide of the Jewish nation, progressive community members, including a former delegate for Bernie Sanders expressed their heartfelt desire for peace.

These are the people Jewish Voice for peace and their unsavory allies characterized as the alt-right, btw



From the side of peace and light:

"As long as this community continues to bless terrorists by putting their images on the wall there will never be peace in Oakland or in your hearts"

"By embracing terrorist and giving them platforms your are destroying the credibility of peaceful Muslims everywhere. "

Who are the real "progressives" here?  People calling out hate, people yearning for co-existence and mutual respect, or those calling for the genocide of the Jewish people?

Reem's of Oakland: Photos of attackers emerge

Reem's in Fruitvale has been widely criticized for its lionization of convicted murderer Rasmea Odeh. Yesterday, a non-violent vigil meant to focus community attention on the local cafe's glorification of violence ended in an assault on the participants, including a 78 year old survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto

Lara Kiswani, the Executive Director of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC) in San Francisco Bay Area has been identified as one of the attackers. She is reported to have ripped a sign out of a participants hands, then strutted around the outside patio with the remnants.

Ellen Brotsky, a self identified member of Jewish Voice for Peace can also been seen on the footage attacking the non-violent protesters

Ellen Brotsky and Lara Kiswani  with stolen signs

This person  was reported to have assaulted a wheel-chair bound activist, cruelly twisting her fingers in an effort to steal her sign. 

Sara Kershnar of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) also made an appearance, participating in the mayhem until the police arrived, then tossing on a lime green National lawyers Guild Legal Observer hat.  (Pssst, Sara- the National Lawyers Guild Manual for Legal Observers specifically says  "...we ask people to commit themselves to act as Legal Observers and not protesters, and avoid blurring of lines between Legal Observer and activist.")

Oops. Fail.

As morally reprehensible as it might be, Reem Assil and her customers have the right to glorify a murderer, but they do not have the right to attack those in opposition. Organizers of the vigil are planning on returning to Fruitvale Station, committed to the sacred task of educating the community about the dangers of incitement and indoctrination and how they act as an obstacle to peace, both in Oakland and overseas.

These are just empty words from an interview with Reem Assil in Berkeleyside:  “People are afraid of politics, but now more than ever people are asking. If my food can stir up a conversation — even if it’s a hard conversation — that’s what I want it to do. I welcome that in my space.”  Yet when people attempting to engage in the very hard conversation Reem says she welcomes- they are met with abuse, harassment and assault.

Non-Violent Vigil attacked at Reem's in Fruitvale

San Francisco's iconic Bound Together bookstore has a mural, captioned "History remembers 2 kinds of people. Those who murder and those who fight back."

Reem Assil has chosen to adorn her Fruitvale bakery cafe with the likeness of one who chose to murder.

Fortunately, Oakland has chosen to fight back.   This weekend, a group gathered to "Honor the victims, not their killer" , in what organizers promise to be the first of many informative vigils, speaking to the community about why the mural of Rasmea Odeh was so hateful.

In response, Reem Assil called upon her political allies for support.

The non-violent vigil was brutally attacked, and signs and flyers were ripped out of people's hands.

Again we see how in Israel, and in Oakland, violence is justified as a means to an end. Innocent citizens shopping in a grocery store or simply exercising their right to peaceful assembly and free speech are equally at risk.