In 1917, during the first World War, a little known charter called the Balfour Declaration planted the seeds for what was then known as Palestine and today known as Israel. In it, the British threw their substantial support behind the burgeoning notion of a Jewish home, or state, depending on how one interprets the charter.
A few decades later, after WW2, on the heels of Nazi Germany’s near total annihilation of European Jews (not to mention the murder of millions of other minorities, including LGBTQ, refugees, immigrants, and the disabled) the State of Israel was seen as a new imperative, a place where Jews could rebuild and find refuge and, again depending on how one views events, a Judeo-Christian thorn (a Jewish state backed heavily by the Christian West) in the side of the predominantly Muslim Middle East.
Since Israel’s 1949 independence, the fates of Israeli Jews and Israeli Palestinians, as well as the population of 1.2 million non-Jews who lived there pre-Israel, have diverged dramatically. While the Jews have been seen as the prime example of resilience, resourcefulness, and success against all odds, boasting a booming high-tech economy and elevated status in world affairs, the Palestinians have been increasingly stripped of land, rights, and status, forced out and then literally walled in, suffering through the slow, inexorable process of being absorbed by the now dominant, monied, politically connected Jewish state of Israel.
Here in San Francisco, we can draw many clear parallels. We are in a war of attrition. Our homes are being taken from us, longtime residents have been forced out, family homes have been replaced by steel and cement condos, affordability replaced with exclusivity, convenience with $8 cold-brew coffees and artisan pastries.
How do we maintain what we have, or even reclaim the land that the neighborhood has been forced to accede? How do we assert ourselves against a wealth that seeks only to maximize itself? How do we save the culture of this place as it’s being eaten, block by block?
Enter Manny’s, a cafe-bookstore-event space, which has become the latest flashpoint in an increasingly fractious relationship between local business and activists. Manny Yekutiel, who runs and owns Manny’s, is part-Afghani Jewish gay man who embodies many of these histories. A self-proclaimed “Zionist,” he describes his business as a space for civic discourse and engagement, projecting an earnest attempt to be as uplifting to the community and city as possible.
Manny’s presents an image of relentless progressiveness, where the employees—largely marginalized and sourced via a local nonprofit—will extol the virtues of inclusivity, healthy lifestyles and natural living. The flatware and mugs are made by local artists, as are the works of art that adorn the walls and stage space. A premium green tea and a delicious locally devised and baked, gluten-free tahini brownie, cost with taxes, $7.14. In San Francisco, anywhere in the city, this is a bargain. You can even pay a drink forward for a complete stranger, or get a hot beverage for free, no questions asked.
The event space offers up presentation and discussion by a host of local and national activists, groups, and luminaries. Community groups are given free or very cheap use of the space to interact with the neighborhood at large. The small bookshop, with books lent by nearby Dog Eared Books, offers text and analysis on nearly everything that plagues us as a society—injustice, the inequalities found along lines of race, sex, religion, wealth, sexuality. In a vacuum, it’s a wonderful attempt to address these issues via a coffee shop, the same business that has already brought us so many scientific and cultural revolutions and advancements.
But, to bill yourself as a civic gathering space is to open yourself to criticism from the community. In showing support for Israel, a state its supporters see as unlikely and improbable and a model for the world to follow, one must also acknowledge what is so painfully evident for those on the other side of the wall: Israel is intractable and subjugating, a modern day apartheid not too far removed from the scourges of Europe that its Jewish founders fled from. To truly be a civic space, we must accept those dualities and make it our duty to speak truth to power and shine a light on those who cannot shine it on themselves.
Which is why, every Wednesday from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., a collection of activists from an array of local organizations, including Black and Brown for Justice, Peace and Equality, and the Bay Area branch of the Palestinian Youth Movement, come together with signs and bull horns in hand to loudly protest Yekutiel as a “Zionist” and a “gentrifier.” Inside, patrons ignore, or pretend not see, the large red sign, visible through the front window that says, “Boycott Manny’s”
To its detractors, Manny’s represents a new front in the war on gentrification. They see that the founder’s alleged cozy relationships with highers-up in the San Francisco Planning Department has afforded him and the business certain perks others have an impossible time getting. This includes, as the San Francisco Chronicle reported, reduced rent for use as a “community space, as well as carte blanche to open without input from the building’s subsidized residents. Critics are wary of Manny’s days as a political fundraiser to the political elite (Clinton and Obama among them) and of the tremendous private and social funding and backing this venture received. They see this as a place where mostly white tech elites can go to feel invigorated and cleansed in the fight for equality and against gentrification, while not really doing much more than spending money, clutching their pearls, and perpetuating the cycle.
Yekutiel perceived one-sidedness on the issue of Israel has come at a cost and has only fanned the flames. Tweets that he has made celebrating Israel have been quickly jumped on by opponents. One such tweet—made on the exact 70th anniversary of Nakba, the forced expulsion and exodus of the Palestinian people from their ancestral land, an event mourned by the Palestinian community and its global diaspora—met particular ire. His continued celebration of Israel comes at a time where that nation is in a similar state to our own (led by a fervently xenophobic leader, who has been recently been indicted on charges of corruption, who is anti-Muslim, anti-rights, pro-surveillance, pro-corporation). In order to lead by coalition, Israel’s ruling party has had to align with the far right of that country, people who, as expected, hate “the other,” whomever that may be, and see the co-opting of Palestinian land as a divine and necessary right.
So which is true of Manny’s? Is it a place that upholds entirely open, honest, and beneficial ideas; a place where ideas are bought and sold based on merit; where no injustice couldn’t be overturned or overtaken; where people are given fair representation and a platform? Or is it merely a slick corporate facsimile of that, a sneaky trap, a gilded cage paid for by the same people tearing down homes, a place where our best-meaning ideas end up being molded into something that works only to uphold the status quo? Is it yet another stake into the heart of the neighborhood ravaged by a kind of deculturalization, helping turn what was once unique into something that is indistinguishable and unremarkable?
The cynic thinks if this is a battlefield, the subsidized space to talk politics, make art, find opportunity, the battle is already lost. Homes and families are gone, never to return. Businesses have closed, the fabric of the neighborhood has been switched out. Talking in this space or any other probably will not change that. But the optimist can see that there still is a lot of fight in the community, and ideas abound. And the positive take on Manny’s is that Yekutiel and the folks that run it and are behind it have made genuine efforts toward inclusion, betterment, and have offered up a new space for us to explore and ponder and improve. Time will tell if this is merely a more nuanced and curated shill or an actual place where ideas and solutions will spring from.