A new Minneapolis bar catering to the city’s LGBT community is coming under fire, after it was discovered that the establishment’s owner had made a series of explicitly anti-Semitic comments on social media.
The new bar, called Cheers Minneapolis, was slated to open at the end of the month, City Pages reported, but a fundraising campaign launched on GoFundME to help pay for preparing the bar was shut down recently – along with the bar’s Facebook page – after it was discovered that the establishment’s owner had made a number of anti-Jewish remarks on social media.
The owner, Emad Yousef Abed, wrote on Facebook in December 2015 that “Israel and it’s [sic] people must be eliminated from existence,” and later called Israelis “cancer” and “f**kin criminals.”
Abed also wrote that “all of the world’s problems are caused by Israelis and Jews,” and “Hitler should have finished them all”.
“Maybe we should remove them from Palestine and send them by themselves to live on the MOON.”
When Abed came under fire for his comments, he responded writing that the was “in the business to make money,” adding “You and your community can kiss my ass and none of you evil people commenting on this post are allowed in my bar. Go have a drink in hell because all of you are going there when you exit this earth.” Abed confirmed to City Pages that the posts were indeed his, but denied he was anti-Semitic, saying he was just “reporting the facts”.
“Most of my friends are Jewish, and I love them,” Abed said.
Despite Abed’s denial that he is anti-Semitic, following the revelation of his past social media comments regarding Jews, the bar’s Facebook page was inundated with negative posts.
According to The Forward, Abed’s comments also spurred some in the local LGBT community to launch a “Queers Against Cheers” protest, slated for June 21st.
“No to anti-Semitism, no to Queer appropriation”, the protest group’s Facebook page reads. So far, nearly 340 people have signed up for the protest, with close to a thousands more expressing interest in attending.