Some context and more ample info to add to this live reporting thread:
Speakers:
Walter Riley: A distinguished bay area lawyer and civil rights activist who has helped defend pro-Palestine activists such as the "Golden Gate 26"
Glenn Katon: a civil rights attorney and the attorney for Abdulrahim Harara and the Coffee House [Katon's name is mispelled Kanton throughout, regrettably]
Dr. Hatem Bazian: a UC Berkeley lecturer, Chairman of the Americans Muslims for Palestine
Monadel Herzallah: a long-time labor and Palestine activist who was one of the plaintiffs in Defense for Children International vs the Biden Administration
Rabbi Cat Zavis: of Beyt Tikkun and a member of Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinical Council and the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network [the reporting misidentified Zavis as Katz, embarrassingly]
AJ Pluss: a health worker with the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Reporter's Notebook:
The event, held in the adjacent community center East Bay Community Space, was filled with supporters, likely around 100 people. Afterward, the coffee house was also standing room only as supporters and customers spilled out of the cafe.
As Harara is facing a serious lawsuit from the DOJ, he did not personally answer questions, but instead asked members of the public if they wanted to speak out on the issues. About a half dozen community members spoke out, some of that is captured in the live reporting thread. Katon did answer questions about the case to the extent of his capacity as Harara's attorney, however, after the press conference had wrapped up.
On a personal note, the media coverage of the event was surprisingly fair and open—and it's possible this was due to Harara's approach to the press conference, which put reporters on notice about a legacy of bad reporting on both the Coffee House and Palestine in general. Harara made several cogent points about local media's legacy of unethical reporting on Palestinian issues which have not been captured otherwise, so I'll quote them here:
"I do have some critiques of how this genocide has been covered...especially by local press, given the fact that there's a lot of Palestinians in the Bay Area, and the the fact that our voices have been sidelined, our voices have been tarnished and our voices have been kind of erased, and the narrative that has been chosen to be platformed is one of ignoring and silencing the genocide.
And I can't help but question the ethics of that type of coverage and question the ethics of that type of purpose in the work...so I hope that after today, you will all reflect and change the way you choose to talk about Palestine, the way you choose to talk about the genocide, and the way you choose to platform narratives that kind of veil and hide the intentions of this genocidal government..."
Some good local reporting:
ABC7's reporting was better than expected, but the reporter diminished its value by seeking a counterpoint to Harara's press conference from one of the plaintiff's, Jonathan Hirsch's, attorney. Though the report represented Hirsch's version of events, it didn't contextualize other elements of Hirsch's background which are obviously pertinent. At least two videos exist that captured at random separate incidents of Hirsch's behavior in Oakland. The videos clearly show him leveraging the imagery in the hat to accuse hapless interlocutors with bias, despite the overwhelming visual evidence that he is the aggressor in the encounters. Around the time that Hirsch's encounter at JCH became known, an Oakland Observer reader reached out about Hirsch's harassment of table workers in support of then-DA Pamela Price as she faced a recall. But that person had not actually heard about the Jerusalem Coffee House incident, and was independently alarmed by his behavior. That interaction and others were eventually reported in the San Francisco Standard's reporting on Hirsch.
But ABC7's reporting did capture unedited statements without filter, so it's included here as better than typical reporting, although I objectively observe that bar is quite low.
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