Middle Eastern restaurant turned away people wearing Palestinian scarves

A Merivale restaurant which describes itself as “a little piece of the Middle East in Sydney’s CBD” has been accused of refusing entry to people in pro-Palestinian scarves in the hours after the Harbour Bridge protest.

Seven people told the Herald they were stopped from entering Jimmy’s Falafel, inside the hospitality giant’s George Street Ivy precinct, on August 3 unless they removed their keffiyehs, a Middle Eastern headscarf that has come to symbolise the pro-Palestinian movement abroad.

Merivale initially denied the allegations but later said a management decision to ban people carrying or displaying flags and placards inside the venue was imposed between 3.55pm and 4.15pm for the safety of their employees, after “many instances of rogue members of the public walking past the Ivy venues on George Street yelling obscenities and violent rhetoric into our venues”.

Merivale footage without audio seen by the Herald showed two people yelling towards the restaurant from the footpath, with another person raising two middle fingers. According to Merivale, passers-by shouted “death to the IDF”, “death to all Zionist pigs”, and “f---ing Zionist pigs and scum” towards Jimmy’s.

Merivale said its staff understood its decision to include “political items of clothing” in the ban and they asked people wanting to dine in to “remove those items [or] place them in their bags before entering”.

The Herald observed multiple groups being turned back by security while wearing keffiyehs in a 20-minute window on the CCTV.

Farah Ghafar said security asked her to remove her keffiyeh-printed hijab, telling the Herald she was considering legal action against Merivale over the incident.

“I felt excluded. I felt discriminated against,” she said. “I have never, ever in my life been refused service based on what I was wearing, or asked to remove an item of clothing in order to enter a store.”

Farah and her sister said that when they returned to ask the manager for an explanation, they received an apology and were allegedly told security shouldn’t have refused them entry but the request to remove the keffiyeh was to maintain the restaurant’s neutral stance and ensure the safety of employees.

A managing director at a business consulting firm, who asked not to be named, said security had told him and his wife they could not dine in unless they removed their scarves. He was wearing a Jordanian version of the keffiyeh, while his wife wore a Palestinian one.

When they asked why, the guard said he didn’t know, the pair said.

“He said that he was following orders [from management] and that our scarves were not allowed in, and if we wanted to sit inside, we would have to take our scarves off.”

Husband and wife Qamar Albashir and Tanjina Ahmed said the denials felt “harmful”, especially for a restaurant that “profits off” Middle Eastern culture.

“I was suggesting [to go to the restaurant] based on our group of friends being Muslim and the establishment serving halal food,” Ahmed said.

“It’s representing our food, our culture, but not willing to welcome us in unless we were willing to take off items of clothing – nothing that had any words on it or anything like that.”

Keffiyeh designs differ among Middle Eastern nations. The Palestinian version is typically worn to show solidarity with Gazans.

Merivale said it took a politically neutral stance, describing the day of the march as a “challenging time for venue staff”.

“The safety and comfort of staff and patrons is always a priority at our venues, and this was especially the case on the day of the march,” a spokeswoman said in a statement. “No Merivale venues, including Jimmy’s Falafel, have policies on customers wearing keffiyehs or other political or religious items of clothing.”

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