A July 2017 protest in front of Reem’s restaurant in Oakland (Photo/Courtesy Faith Meltzer)
A July 2017 protest in front of Reem’s restaurant in Oakland (Photo/Courtesy Faith Meltzer)

Protesters outside an Oakland restaurant that features a mural of a convicted Palestinian terrorist were physically attacked by counterdemonstrators, according to an organizer of the July 8 nonviolent vigil.

Protesters in front of Reem’s restaurant in Oakland. (Courtesy/Faith Meltzer)
Protester holding torn sign in front of Reem’s restaurant in Oakland (Photo/Courtesy Faith Meltzer)

Faith Meltzer said she and four fellow pro-Israel activists had gathered near Reem’s, an Arab restaurant and bakery in Oakland’s Fruitvale district. They came to protest the restaurant’s wall-size mural depicting Rasmea Odeh, a Palestinian woman who confessed to participating in a 1969 Jerusalem grocery store bombing that killed two and injured nine.

“We felt the need to inform the community about what was being promoted there,” Meltzer said. “We had a sign that said, ‘Honor the victims, not the killer.’ I think it’s appalling that a convicted murderer is being lionized in this manner.”

A dozen counterprotesters soon approached, according to the pro-Israel activists, ripping signs out of their hands. One pried a sign from the fingers of a disabled protester and another tried to grab Meltzer’s purse, she said. Police were called, and bystanders filmed portions of the incident, according to Meltzer. Photos taken at the incident seem to confirm that one of the counterprotesters grabbing signs was Lara Kiswani, executive director of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center.

Odeh was given a life sentence in an Israeli prison after confessing to taking part in the planning of the terror attack. Released in a prisoner swap 10 years later, she recanted, claiming she was raped and tortured into giving a false confession. She came to the United States in 1995, but was later found to have lied on her immigration papers. Odeh is currently awaiting deportation later this summer.

Reem Assil, founder and owner of the bakery, is of Palestinian-Syrian descent. She has defended the mural, calling Odeh “outspoken on Palestinian rights” and “an emblem of resilience for us.” In an interview with Berkeleyside, Assil called Odeh “a modern-day Malcolm X.”

Once news of the mural broke a few months ago, community reaction on both sides was swift and sharp. The bakery received a string of angry one-star Yelp reviews in an effort to bring down its rating, but Yelp ended up deleting them. J. published an op-ed on May 30 condemning Assil and the mural.

Meltzer said she and her group would be back.

“You can’t allow yourself to be intimidated,” she said. “It’s morally reprehensible to protect murderers, but [Reem’s] took it a step further and just glorified this woman. I spoke to Oakland police and they said, ‘Let us know when you’re coming back and we’ll provide an escort.”

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Dan Pine is a contributing editor at J. He was a longtime staff writer at J. and retired as news editor in 2020.

26 replies on “Protesters of bakery’s ‘appalling’ mural of terrorist attacked”

  2. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ba263533a694a92c507db7fef0de4221121950fe7f17c344370f220942c91e86.jpg

    “Photos taken at the incident seem to confirm that one of the counter-protesters grabbing signs was Lara Kiswani, executive director of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center.”

    This is the very same Lara Kiswani of the Arab Resource Organizing Center thats been petitioning to give classes for the San Francisco Unified School district. Would you allow this woman to work with children?

    Other websites have footage of her prancing around with the signage she ripped out of the hands of the peaceful protesters. This whole incident is obscene. Welcome to Trumps America, where the fascists have free reign.

    1. Trump’s America? Lara Kiswami and her like didn’t vote for Trump. Essentially all political violence in America, this century, comes from the left. And so does most of the hostility to Israel.

      Wake up, because this isn’t your grandfather’s Democratic Party anymore.

    1. Thanks for weighing into this tiny local paper all the way from Australia, and for linking to Hamas’s own agitprop suite. And by “history of violence” I assume you mean she was in the same room when an attack occurred, as reported in this very paper.

    1. Ah. The miracle baby that died from “tear gas” a full 2 months after Israel had passed through his village, therefore it was Israel’s fault?

  5. And look at that… the oppressor playing the oppressed. Denial sure is a powerful psychological self defensive mechanism.

    1. This was obviously a protest against terror and violence, not against Islam. The authors of that article conflate the two, and by doing so, prove themselves Islamophobic. If there really were “racist” or “Islamophobic” signs, you’d think they might have a photo or other evidence, but there is none. The J has already printed photos of the signage.

      Incidentally, “Jewish” Voice for Peace sent out an e mail blast calling for their minions to descend on Reem’s between 11- 1 on Shabbat to ward off any potential Jews, oops, Zionists. Who incites hate in our community? Not just Reem’s- JVP does as well

  9. https://spectator.org/the-warmth-of-bread-and-of-blood/

    “Eating your Arab-street bread under the glare of Rasmea Odeh is offensive not only to Jews but to anyone who objects to the taking of innocent life. For all the warm fuzzy talk about extending hands across cultures and experiences, being looked down upon by the image of a convicted terrorist as you try to savor Ms. Assil’s culinary art is incongruous at best, and indigestion-inducing at worst.

    Let’s be clear. Ms. Assil cannot be held responsible for the thuggery of her patrons or even her fellow anti-Zionists whom, some allege, she mobilized. Furthermore, this is America, and Ms. Assil can decorate her restaurant with whatever “art” she wants. And if patrons’ appetites are stimulated by the face of bloodshed, that too is their right.

    At the same time, the elderly Jews who stood outside Reem’s bakery with pictures of Rasmea Odeh’s victims have the same right to be there. The attack on them by the restaurant’s patrons and an assortment of Berkeley/Oakland anti-Israel activists is more offensive and a greater threat to our political system than anything Ms. Assil could conceivably hang on her wall”

    1. And Americans should be able, at the ballot box, express their desire to bring no more Odehs and Assils here. They already have their country (it’s not the US). Let them find fulfillment and anti-Jewish nirvana over there.

  10. Today, a Palestinian teen broke into the home of a Jewish family celebrating Shabbat, and stabbed 3 of them to death. They are celebrating in the streets of Gaza.

    What Reem’s California Bakery is doing is no different.

      1. No, duh. Celebrating a murderer is no different- and thats just what Reem Assil is doing in her Oakland resaurant

  12. Photo of Ellen Brotsky of Jewish Voice for Peace , grabbing a sign from under the hands of a 78 year old Holocaust survivor. She then destroyed the sign. Does anyone still believe that Jewish Voice for “Peace” is a peace organization? I see no denunciation of violence, apology or even a distancing from Brotsky’s violent behavior by the JVP spokespeople.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/420bff4e983aa3cec7f1ae7770a8a4743b1a4a44c973ae90914c282665909239.jpg

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