The Racial Justice Centre is preparing to file a group complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission after a Sydney restaurant denied dine-in service to people wearing Palestinian keffiyehs during a 20-minute period last weekend.
The legal centre will lodge the complaint on behalf of six Palestinian complainants regarding an incident on 3 August at Merivale-owned Jimmy's Falafel in the Sydney CBD, following the Sydney Harbour Bridge march. Witnesses reported being told they could not eat inside unless they removed their keffiyehs, traditional scarves often worn in support of Palestine.
A Merivale spokesperson stated that a management decision was made at about 3.55pm to ask people not to carry large flags or placards after instances of “yelling obscenities and violent rhetoric” at nearby venues. Staff understood this to mean that persons wearing political garb should be asked to remove those items before entering, leading to a 20-minute period where some keffiyeh-wearing patrons were turned away.
CCTV footage viewed by Guardian Australia shows that during that window, some patrons left or were refused entry, while others removed their keffiyehs or opted for takeaway. The spokesperson insisted that at no time was anyone refused entry due to political or religious affiliations and that Merivale remains “politically neutral”.
Sharfah Mohamed, a lawyer at the Racial Justice Centre, argued that Merivale's conduct breaches the federal Racial Discrimination Act. “There is nothing neutral about banning the cultural garment of a specific racial or ethnic group,” she said.
