(KRON) — Former and present employees of an Oakland coffee shop at the center of an incident involving antisemitic graffiti have issued a statement slamming the business’ owners. The owners of Farley’s East knew about the graffiti in the bathroom, which equated Zionism with fascism, for two months, according to the statement from the group, Former Farley’s East United.
Farley’s East has been at the center of a controversy that emerged after a viral video on social media surfaced showing employees of the business appearing to deny a customer access to the bathroom with the graffiti. In the video, three employees of Farley’s are seen blocking the customer from going into the bathroom, before finally relenting.
The woman then enters the bathroom and films the graffiti.
“The narrative is that they denied her entry because she is a Jewish woman,” said the statement from past and present employees. “That is a lie.”
According to staff, the woman who filmed the video “yelled at and harassed staff about the graffiti,” and refused to leave when asked to. That incident, which occurred on Dec. 3, was followed by a similar incident the following day, according to the statement. The workers also said that one of the cafe’s owners, Chris Hillyard, had known about the graffiti for two months prior to the incident.
Farley’s East announced on social media that the three employees seen in the video are no longer employed.
“Because this act was not aligned with our values, the employees involved in the incident are no longer employed at Farley’s,” read a statement posted to Facebook from owners Chris and Amy Hillyard
The statement from employees confirmed that three employees had been fired and added that three more Farley’s employees resigned over the incident.
“Three more of us have resigned, disgusted that our colleagues have unjustly been punished by the Hillyards when they are the ones bearing the brunt of harassment,” said the employees’ statement.
The employees’ statement also claimed that the Hillyards failed to protect employees who were targeted by a “right-wing doxxing campaign.”
According to the past and present employees, the coffee shop’s owners only took action when Farley’s was “spammed with one-star reviews.” The employees’ statement also accused the owners of releasing a statement “that justifies the harassment of the staff in the video,” despite knowing about the graffiti.
A statement on the Farley’s East Yelp page states that the business is currently being monitored by Yelp’s Support team for “content related to media reports.”