Ironically, a cafe called Jerusalem Coffee House kicked out a patron wearing a Star of David hat last October. Now Trump's Department of Justice has taken note, and is suing that Oakland cafe.

We noted above the irony of a cafe called Jerusalem Coffee House kicking out a Jewish patron, considering the cafe is named after Jerusalem, a majority-Jewish city. But you can see this incident in the seven-month-old video below, where the owner of the cafe in Oakland’s Temescal District, Fathi Abdulrahim Harara, kicks out patron Jonathan Hirsch for wearing a Star of David ball cap. The two argue at length as partisans in the Israel-Palestine conflict, and KRON4 reported in March that Hirsch sued the coffeehouse over the incident, in a lawsuit brought for him by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law.

That lawsuit is still meandering its way through the courts. But now there is a much bigger lawsuit looming over the same incident, as KTVU has the news that Trump’s Department of Justice is suing the coffeehouse, alleging that the establishment “discriminated against Jewish customers through policies and practices that denied them the full and equal enjoyment of the Jerusalem Coffee House’s services, accommodations, and privileges.”

The suit also dredges up that the coffeehouse served drinks on the anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israelis with the names “Iced in Tea Fada” (a play on the word “Intifada”) and “Sweet Sinwar” (an alleged reference to Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar). The suit additionally alleges that a second Jewish man in a similar hat was told by an employee, “You’re the guy with the hat. You’re the Jew. You’re the Zionist. We don’t want you in our coffee shop. Get out.”  

“It is illegal, intolerable, and reprehensible for any American business open to the public to refuse to serve Jewish customers,” Justice Department Civil Rights Division assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon (yes, her) said in a Monday press release. “Through our vigorous enforcement of Title II of the Civil Rights Act and other laws prohibiting race and religious discrimination, the Justice Department is committed to combatting anti-Semitism and discrimination and protecting the civil rights of all Americans.”

These incidents have already been pretty well-litigated in the local media. Though the SF Standard did some digging around the time of the coffeehouse incident, and found Hirsh has quite a lengthy record of public shouting matches. Some of these are unrelated to his faith or the Israel-Palestine conflict, and Hirsch was even able to pull up a couple more argument videos on his phone when asked about his frequent disputes. Whether Hirsch seeks out conflict or not, it sure finds him with unusual frequency.

But it also seems that coffeehouse owner Fathi Abdulrahim Harara was the instigator in the cafe video (though the video is edited , and may not tell the full story). At the same time, Hirsch now finds himself a poster boy for the Trump administration, which will not make one a particularly popular person in the Bay Area. It seems Hirsch and Harara both have a penchant for public fights and grandstanding, and both may now find themselves getting more public scrutiny than they mght like.

Related: Doctor Says UCSF Fired Her Due to Pressure From Wiener, Dillers Over Pro-Palestinian Speech [SFist]

Image: Jim G via Yelp