“After posting a new menu to Instagram on Oct. 7, an Oakland cafe owner is defending beverage names that appear to honor the head of Hamas and celebrate the terrorist organization’s fight against Israel.
The Jerusalem Coffee House’s new menu features a juice dubbed “Sweet Sinwar,” which critics say is an homage to Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. The updated offerings at the Temescal cafe also include “Iced in Tea Fada,” a play on the Palestinian uprisings known as intifadas. The menu features inverted red triangles, which have been used as pro-Palestinian symbols since Israel’s invasion of Gaza.
This is as if the KKK or the Nazis had a coffee house dedicated to Hitler or the Democrat Party. This place is a hate crime—and government says and does nothing.
Oct. 7 menu isn’t Hamas-themed, Oakland cafe owner says
By George Kelly, SF Standard, 10/17/24 https://sfstandard.com/2024/10/16/jerusalem-coffee-house-oakland-defends-menu/
After posting a new menu to Instagram on Oct. 7, an Oakland cafe owner is defending beverage names that appear to honor the head of Hamas and celebrate the terrorist organization’s fight against Israel.
The Jerusalem Coffee House’s new menu features a juice dubbed “Sweet Sinwar,” which critics say is an homage to Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. The updated offerings at the Temescal cafe also include “Iced in Tea Fada,” a play on the Palestinian uprisings known as intifadas. The menu features inverted red triangles, which have been used as pro-Palestinian symbols since Israel’s invasion of Gaza.
The Israeli military said Sinwar was killed Wednesday in Gaza.
In an interview with The Standard, Jerusalem Coffee House co-founder Abdulrahim Harara said the Oct. 7 unveiling was tied not to the anniversary of Hamas’ attack on Israel but to the business’ first anniversary. (The cafe’s Instagram account indicates that there was a soft opening in mid-September 2023 and grand-opening dates of Sept. 17, 2023, and Oct. 15, 2023.)
Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing more than 1,200 people and taking hundreds hostage. Israel’s resulting operations in Gaza have killed more than 42,000, according to the Hamas-run local health ministry.
Harara, whose family is from Gaza, said his culinary mission is to refocus the conversation on the crisis in the area. He denied that the Sweet Sinwar was an allusion to the alleged mastermind of the Oct. 7 attack, stating that it is merely a common surname among Palestinians. (According to the genealogy website Forebears.com, Sinwar is not among the 1,000 most common Palestinian surnames.)
“We want to redirect the conversation to the fact that there’s a genocide,” Harara said, adding that he has lost relatives in the recent violence.
After news surfaced of the provocative menu, critics pounced. Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, said on X that the restaurant was “glorifying the 10/7 mastermind & violence against Jews.”
“Imagine a [dessert] named after Al Qaeda post-9/11. Would this be OK?” he added.
The Times of Israel even took notice of the menu items and the date they were dropped.
Harara said online outrage amounts to “feelings being hurt because things are named things that you don’t like.”
“Media sensationalism around our menu changes seeks to do one thing, and that is to demonize anything remotely Palestinian or anything remotely close to what we would consider Palestinian resistance,” he told The Standard on Wednesday.
The coffee house doubled down on its position Monday in its Substack newsletter.
“Despite the sensationalism surrounding our choices, the core of our work is focused on nourishing our community,” the post reads. “By continuing this work, even when critics try to discredit it, we create a space for Palestinians and comrades to struggle, gather, reflect, and strengthen their shared identity and resistance.”
Harara said he’s inspired by Oakland’s activist history, such as the work of the Black Panthers, and is committed to pushing for radical change in the community.
“I never pulled a shot of espresso before this cafe. I didn’t know anything about coffee,” he said. “That’s all we wanted to create was a space for our community.”
