The Tsion Cafe, owned by a black Jewish refugee from Ethiopia, Beejhy Barhany, is the latest target of Hamas supporters. Ms. Barhany says it has become impossible for her cafe to function, as a result of what she called “a changed environment for Israeli restaurants in the city since the Oct. 7 terror attacks and over the course of the ensuing war in Gaza."
In other words, Hamas supporters harassed, bullied, and smeared Ms. Barhany until she couldn’t take it any longer-just as they have targeted many other kosher restaurants around in the United States and around the world.
In Los Angeles, a caravan of cars pulled up in front of Sushi Fumi, a kosher eatery, and passengers yelling “Dirty Jews!" and “Israel kills children!" piled out and began assaulting diners.
In Philadelphia, several hundred Hamas supporters descended upon Goldie Falafel, screaming “Goldie, Goldie, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide!" and plastering its front windows with “Free Palestine" stickers.
In Melbourne, dozens of Israel-haters invaded the Miznon restaurant, smashing windows and hurling furniture at diners. At Miznon’s branch in Notting Hill, London, Hamas supporters used megaphones to blast their chants of "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!" and "Long live the intifada!" into the ears of customers.
Similar harassment recently succeeded in shutting down both branches of Shouk, a kosher restaurant in the Washington D.C. area.
There is an extra layer of ironic tragedy with regard to the Tsion Cafe, however-in this case, the Hamas supporters, who claim to defend “people of color," have victimized a black restaurant owner in Harlem.
Israel-haters often describe Israel as a “white" country that is fighting “brown" Palestinian Arabs. That characterization is absurd, because the majority of Israelis were born in either the Middle East or Africa.
Jews born in Ethiopia are just as much “people of color" as Muslims born in neighboring Somalia, such as Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. And Jews born in Jerusalem are just as much “people of color" as Muslims who are born a few miles down the road in Ramallah, such as Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib.
All of which means that the Hamas supporters’ campaign to drive black Ethiopian-Israeli Jews out of Harlem hardly differs from efforts by white supremacists to drive people of color out of racially mixed neighborhoods in the United States.
Dr. Medoff is the author of more than 20 books about Jewish history, Zionism, and the Holocaust. Follow him on Facebook to read his daily commentaries on the news.