Reem's Bakery: at the intersection of left and right anti-semitism

What does the Bay Area "social justice" community look like?  We need to look no further than the supporters of Oakland bakery owner Reem Assil for a cross section of the abject hypocrisy and moral bankruptcy of the local "progressive"  movement. Reem owns a bakery that features a floor to ceiling mural of confessed, convicted Jew-killer Rasmea Odeh.

Reem's supporters exhibit a racist intolerance, a feckless disregard for facts and an inability to process new information that might surprise bona fide believers in individual human rights who tend to attribute those characteristics to denizens of the flyover states.

For over 15 years, Indybay has been considered one of the vanguard sites of the "progressive" Bay Area.  Naturally, they support Reem's.  Their support however doesn't take the form of an absolutist belief in the first amendment. Here, instead, is an example of the staggering depth of their intellectual integrity:

(Incidentally the "stupid signs" they attempted to crop out said "Honor the Victims. Not their Killers")

With the cultural sensitivity characteristic of both toddlers and activists of the hard left, Zoe Samudzi describes the kippa worn by an observant Jew at a Reem's vigil as an "ugly hat". 

Clearly her anti-oppression efforts stop short of respecting traditional Jewish observance.

And again proving that anti-Semitism is often found at the dank intersection of the hard left and the hard right.  Reem's Bakery numbers among its supporters the Twitter account  "Jew World Order" 

With these among her allies, its not surprising that Reem's strategy in dealing with opposition was her cynical attempt to use the legal system to suppress activism,  silence dissenting voices and repress the civil and human rights of others.

They're just not making "progressives" like they used to.

Diablo Magazine lauds Terror Supporter Reem Assil

h/t Israellycool

The latest issue of Diablo magazine  ( the "only monthly publication written specifically for the San Francisco East Bay market—from Central Contra Costa, into the Oakland and Berkeley Hills, and throughout the Tri-Valley") features an article called "40 under 40". One of those featured is Reem Assil, owner of Reem's Bakery in Oakland   The editor of the piece, Lauren Bonney could have and should have spent more time researching Reem's background

Yep. This is the same Reem Assil who features a mural of a convicted Jew-killer in her bakery. The same Reem Assil who has promoted other PFLP terrorists from her Twitter account.  The same Reem Assil who did nothing while her friends and customers attacked elderly protesters in front of her bakery.

Lauren Bonney's oversight wasn't lost on the commentators,  including David Rosenberg, who wrote:

It is unfortunate that you honored Reem Assil in the 40 Under 40 article without mentioning her support of terrorism and that she decorated her bakery with a full wall mural of Rasmea Odeh. Rasmea Odeh is a member of the terrorist group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine who was convicted for the murder of Leon Kanner and Eddie Joffe (two students in Israel) and lied about it when applying for U.S. citizenship. In April 2017 Rasmea Odeh pleaded guilty to failing to disclose her previous conviction on her citizenship application. Her U.S. citizenship was revoked and she is being deported from the U.S. As long as Reem Assil honors Rasmea Odeh and supports her terrorism, I think that Reem is unfit to be included in the 40 Under 40 (or be recognized for anything other than her support of terrorism).

Michael Harris added· 

To put Reem Assil's giant mural of the unrepentant murderer Rasmea Odeh in perspective, imagine a restaurant serving Southern cuisine that featured a giant mural of Dylann Roof, who murdered 9 African Americans in cold blood in South Carolina. Or an Israeli restaurant decorated with a mural of Baruch Goldstein, who murdered dozens of Arabs in a house of worship. Either of these would appropriately be met with widespread revulsion. Reem deserves no less.

Maria Parker  concluded:

I wish you had done your due diligence researching this article. Reem Assil is no more a role model than is Rasmea Odeh, the convicted terrorist portrayed in her restaurant.

Touche. At least some people are paying attention.

First National Bank of Northern California no longer listed as sponsor of Reem's food n' farm tour

Reem's Bakery in Oakland, notorious for its mural glorifying convicted terrorist Rasmea Odeh is being featured on a new food & farm tour, with the theme Crickets and Community: Women Changemakers Food Tour. CUESA - the Center for Urban Education About Sustainable Agriculture is sponsoring the event.

As of yesterday, the First National Bank of Northern California was also listed as a sponsor. After a letter writing campaign that appears to have originated here, their name has been taken off the page promoting the event.

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Its not clear if the First National Bank of Northern California has actually pulled their sponsorship of the event or has simply removed their name from the event page. In either case, they've recognized that they don't want to be publicly associated with the toxic plume of Reem Assil, and that is a good thing.

Its not over yet. Please contact the Center for Urban Education About Sustainable Agriculture's facebook page for the event, and let them know why hate, bigotry and intolerance will never be accepted in our community.

UPDATE:
The Center for Urban Education About Sustainable Agriculture has cancelled the event.

Reem Assil: the PT Barnum of restaurateurs

Reem Assil is positioning herself as the PT Barnum of restaurateurs

Her attempts at self promotion go far in exposing the incestuous nature of the anti-Israel community in the Bay area.

On July 8,  a group of Jewish elders, including a survivor of the Warsaw ghetto, held a peaceful vigil at Reem’s,  upset at the restaurants’ glorification of violence.  The group was attacked.

In remarkable example of the incestuous nature of the group-speak/group-think of the local anti-Israel community  the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, the Arab Resource organizing Center, the Mid East Children’s  Alliance and Jewish Voice for Peace have all sent out identical announcements urging people to eat at Reems.

Using terms like  “racist”, “Islamaophobe”, “zealot”,  the collected effort of the Bay area anti-Israel community are desperate to rewrite the incident to place the blame on the victims, and to capitalize on yet another example of their righteous victimhood.

Here’s a quick guide to the Orwellian language of the local haters

“They came with racist signs”:  (remember the victims not their killers)

 "harassed customers”.  (stood there silently)

“defend Reem’s”    (attack a silent vigil)

“writing slandering articles” (engaging in free speech and expressing a contrary opinion )

Its an interesting strategy, though most shop keepers would just use a Groupon to drum up  business.

Reem's Bakery Tries to Cash in

Reem Assil's latest strategy appears to be "When in doubt, lie through your teeth and claim  'I'm the victim.'"

Reem's bakery is attempting to capitalize on their attack on peaceful protesters, in an effort to prove that crime does in fact, pay.

From Reems Bakery Shamelessly Lies About Non-Violent Protest To Cash In On It, published  in IsraellyCool:

"They had racist signs"

Not a single photo exists of a "racist" sign. There was this:

Reem Assil thinks this is racist.

And this:

Again, from Israellycool

The signs are clearly not racist in the slightest, just anti-terrorist. If Reems are equating that with anti-Muslim, then it is them who are the racists.

And Reems expects us to believe those protesters (three 60-something-year-old ladies and a 78-year-old survivor of the Warsaw ghetto) were violent, especially the one in the wheelchair? What shameless liars.

Whether Reem Assil can cook is up for debate. But few doubt that her real talent lies in self promotion 

Reem's bakery in Fruitvale. Mainstreaming Murder

Why is Reem's Bakery in the Oakland Fruitvale neighborhood promoting hate? Why is Reem's glorifying Rasmea Odeh, the confessed killer of 2 young students? Why is a bakery that claims to "connect people across culture" lionizing a murderer who targeted civilians in a grocery store?

Mural of PFLP terrorist Rasmea Odeh at Reems bakery in Fruitvale

Hebrew University students, Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner were best friends, murdered when members of the terror group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine bombed a Jerusalem grocery store in 1969. Nine other people were injured.

Rasmea Odeh, a member of the PFLP terror group placed her bomb in a kosher grocery store in Jerusalem for one reason- to target and terrorize Jewish civilians.   She was arrested and confessed to the murders after one day in custody. Physical evidence such as bomb making materials were found in Odeh’s home. Guy Wintelir, an observer from the International Red Cross attended the six month long trial and described it as fair. Rasmea was sentenced to life in prison over for her role in the attack. 

In 1980, after serving only 10 years of her sentence, Odeh was released in a prisoner exchange 

She immigrated to the United States in 1995, escaping detection by using a variety of aliases, but was found guilty in 2014 of lying on her immigration papers. She confessed after an appeal and is currently awaiting deportation.

In a 2004 documentary, Rasmea was implicated by her co-conspirator Aisha Odeh which Aisha admitted to participating in the Super Sol attack and named Rasmea as one of her accomplices.  She admitted  “Rasmea Odeh was more involved than I was [in the grocery store bombing] ... I only got involved during the preparation of explosives. We wanted to place two bombs to blow up consecutively. I suggested to have the second bomb go off five or six minutes after the first bomb so that those who get killed in it would be members of the army and secret service, but it did not explode. They diffused it 20 seconds before it exploded.”

In a community devastated by violence, why is Reems bakery glorifying this unrepentant murderer?

It remains unclear how glorifying a murderer builds connections across cultures

For more information on the crimes of Rasmea Odeh:

The Legal Insurrection website provides the most comprehensive coverage of Rasmea Odeh's history, and more importantly, those of her victims and their families.  

Justice for Rasmea Odeh

Vigil for Victims of Rasmea Odeh outside her appearance at Northwestern U

Statement from family of Leon Kanner on Rasmea Odeh plea deal

Statement from family of Edward Joffe on Rasmea Odeh plea deal

A bakery that dishes out hatred in Oakland