Interview: Pro-Palestine Coffee Shop Owners Defy Zionist Threats in Austin Suburb

Over the past week, Zionists have been harassing Coffeyeh, a Palestinian-owned, openly pro-Palestine coffee shop in Cedar Park, a suburb of Austin, by posting fabricated 1-star google reviews, sending death threats, as well as accosting the owners and patrons in person at the cafe.

The harassment began after StopDontShop, a Zionist social media account, made posts claiming Coffeyeh was running a promotion for October 7, the anniversary of Al-Aqsa Flood, which offered free lattes to customers who came in to the store wearing a keffiyeh, the traditional Palestinian scarf and well-known symbol of the Palestinian resistance.

The owners deny that they were running the free latte promotion, and told The Worker that they offer 10% off to anyone who comes in to the store wearing a keffiyeh, regardless of the date.

Since October 6, Coffeyeh’s co-owners have documented dozens of threats sent to their personal phones and social media accounts. At least 15-20 of these have been explicit death threats according to co-owner Larrisa Dominguez, who is married to co-owner, Ziad Bader, who is Palestinian.

One man left a detailed voice message on Bader’s personal phone in which he claims to have “two confirmed kills in Gaza,” including shooting a Palestinian child in the kneecap and letting him bleed out. He ends his message saying, “I’m going to call in my American troops and you’re going to get the shit kicked the fuck out of you in a couple years, you’re on borrowed time.”

StopDontShop is part of StopAntisemitism, a Zionist nonprofit which uses doxxing and social-media call-outs to target pro-Palestine individuals and businesses. According to monopoly media outlet The Washington Post, the Merona Leadership Foundation, a Zionist nonprofit fund, provides $270,000 to StopAntisemitism, in addition to paying the $125,633 salary of its director, Zionist social media influencer Laura Rez.

The Worker spoke with Bader, Dominguez, and co-owner, Kareem Soufan, who is also Palestinian. They spoke about what it has been like facing the Zionist threats and harassment over the past week and how they are undeterred in their mission to use their business as a platform for the Palestinian cause. The following are excerpts from the conversation, which have been edited for clarity.

Tell us about how this situation began, and how you have been dealing with the harassment and threats.

LARRISA DOMINGUEZ You know, every other day, or every once in a while here, we’ll have an Israeli come in and open the door and see our flag and immediately shut the door, and then take it to Google to put their stance, like, “I’ll never support this coffee shop because they’re Palestinian.” So we’re kind of used to that. But then what happens is sometimes they go into their own groups, and they post, “Hey, this coffee shop is Palestinian, let’s target them.” And then we’ll start getting all these one star reviews on our Google page.

We were reporting everything, but we were like, I don’t know if this is going to get removed. So my husband made a post on our social media saying, “Hey, Coffeeyeh fam’, if y’all could just please go in and give your honest review.”

ZIAD BADER I was just holding my position about our people’s right to be here and to defend themselves. I made a video saying Free Palestine, and I put the song, I didn’t even say the words, that says “Death to the IDF.” I wish anyone that hurts kids and is doing anything violent, that is committing war crimes—well, of course they deserve that. I’m not backing down about that.

So I posted that video, then slowly I started getting more reviews, I was like, alright, so this is a targeted attack, I thought it’s a tiny thing. Then it blew up after they somehow came up with this idea that I said, wear your keffiyeh on October 7th and you get a free latte. Whether that’s a thing or not, it doesn’t mean I’m celebrating anything. I’m talking about the suffering of my people that did not just start on that day. It’s been going on for years and decades.

And after the post?

DOMINGUEZ They started calling my husband’s cell phone, which is linked to the business. It was going until three or four at night, our phone was just ringing nonstop. Then we had several people come to the shop. And we had to call the police because they were being belligerent in front of our customers. My child comes to the shop with me, it’s like our second home, and he’s only a year and a half.

KAREEM SOUKRAN The past few days were hard for me. Even leaving my own apartment getting out, you got to be cautious all the time. I have minors working at the shop so I gotta be here all the time. I don’t want them to feel threatened or unsafe.

It seems like you aren’t hiding or letting their threats stop you. What keeps you motivated?

SOUKRAN The Cedar Park community, seeing them supporting us, coming into the shop no matter what is what’s keeping us running. We’ve had a lot of new faces coming in, making sure we’re doing good. We actually had a lot of Jewish customers coming in apologizing for what happened, showing us love. That’s actually amazing.

DOMINGUEZ For us, it was every child that was martyred in Gaza. In fact, shortly before the war started, my oldest son passed away. So when I saw these children being hunted down, that just broke my heart, because as a mom who lost a child, you don’t wish that on anybody. So it encouraged me even more to speak out. Since [October 7] happened so close to my son’s passing, we had a bigger purpose than what we were doing at that time.

So many families, so many children have been affected. Right now, we sponsor a family that sought asylum here from Gaza. It’s three boys. One of them has their leg amputated. Another one has a marble eye. They have scars not only physically, but you can see their emotional scars. One of them lost all of his family, he has nobody. And if they can’t stand, and they can’t speak, we’re going to be a voice for them. And that’s a big thing for me and my husband.

BADER We have a collaboration with New Hope Resistance, a group that is active in human rights in general. We have free donations for families affected by ICE. We have a little white board that local businesses or anyone that can just put their stuff on it.

We care about our community. We sponsor baseball teams of kids, schools here and there. Even a pastor came the other day. I was like, whatever you need, any volunteering, you want us to come serve coffee, talk about something in your church, we are more than ready. So yeah, just serving coffee with a purpose, with a smile, with love for coffee itself and appreciation for the coffee and the beans. That’s very huge.

In your lifetime, how have you seen the support for the Palestinian cause change?

BADER It’s definitely changed. Pre-October 7th, there was a little bit of room for gray area. After October 7th, it’s either you’re with me or not. That means it’s either you are a human being or, I don’t want to say the word on record.

I lost a lot of people and I could care less. Two weeks after the war, I lost my job. Because they know I’m loud, they fired me over the phone at 8:30pm. I was completely proud about that, very happy. It sucked financially after, until now, but it’s okay.

I’m proud of what I have built here. If it wasn’t for the support of my wife, this shop would not be anything. She’s everything. She’s the main stone in this shop. And yeah, I’m blessed with our community. Oh my God, the support from the people, the warmth that I feel. I never felt it the way I actually feel it right now, with the support.

How can people support you here in Austin and from around the country?

SOUKRAN Walk in, show us some love, try our coffee. A lot of people still don’t know about us. Coffeyeh is all about love, hospitality, and respect. And serving great coffee.

DOMINGUEZ If they can purchase online, we do have merch. We have keffiyehs, our shirts, our hats. We have beans we sell. Anything really to just show support, saying, “We know you’re there, we know you exist and we’re here to support you.” That’s big for us. Make a comment, share our page. Anything really just helps us stay motivated and keep going.

You can make purchases of Coffeyeh’s drinks and merch through their online store: https://coffeyeh.square.site

Image: Coffeyeh co-owners Larrisa Dominguez and Ziad Bader, and their son. Credit: The Worker.

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