Reem Assil Drops Lawsuit Against Jewish Protesters

A California baker whose bakery features a mural honoring a convicted Palestinian terrorist has dropped a lawsuit targeting Jewish protesters who organized anti-terror vigils outside the establishment.

Reem’s, a bakery in Oakland, opened this summer with decorations including a full-wall mural depicting Rasmeah Odeh, who was convicted in Israel in 1970 for her involvement in a supermarket bombing that killed two Israeli college students. Bakery owner Reem Assil said that the Odeh mural was “an emblem of resilience.”

But after pro-Israel protesters continued to show up outside her bakery, Asil filed for restraining orders against several of the activists, claiming that she was being targeted “because of this mural and my identity as a Palestinian-American.”

The Jewish protesters argued that they had a right to protest the bakery on First Amendment grounds. Represented pro bono by lawyers arranged by the pro-Israel organization StandWithUs, the protesters threatened to file an anti-SLAPP motion—a procedure to fight frivolous lawsuits against constitutionally-protected speech. If the protesters won the SLAPP fight, Asil would have had to pay their legal costs.

In response, Assil dropped the lawsuit.