The Palestinian-owned Nabala Cafe in Uptown had its windows smashed for the second time early Friday morning, less than two months after it faced similar vandalism during Labor Day weekend.
Three windows and a glass door were broken early Friday morning at some time between the hours of 1 a.m. and 5:30 a.m., according to Chicago police. No money was stolen from inside the cafe, Chicago police said. No one has been taken into custody.
Eyad Zeid, who opened Nabala Cafe in his home neighborhood in late July after years of planning, said that he’d always expected some backlash for openly displaying a Palestinian flag in the window of his cafe. Yet even he was surprised that his windows were broken again so soon after the first act of vandalism, he said.
“Yesterday was really challenging, to go through the day after everything happened,” Zeid said Saturday morning. “Representing Palestine so openly, you kind of expect somebody to be upset by it. And then seeing the community come through just so strong.”
When the cafe opened up again Saturday morning, the line stretched almost out the door, with many customers visiting Nabala Cafe for the first time after hearing about the vandalism on social media. As music played over the cafe speakers, over a dozen people sat at tables working on their laptops or chatting with friends.
Boards covering the shattered glass windows and door had already been decorated with colorful paintings by community members on Friday.
Uptown resident Sarah Myer, who made her first trip to the cafe on Saturday, said she wanted to “support the local business who’s doing what they feel is right, and is not asking for any violence or trouble.”
When creating Nabala Cafe, Zeid said his main goal was to open a space “rooted in community” for the Uptown neighborhood. Zeid was born in Cicero and grew up in the south suburbs before moving to Uptown in 2019.
He named the cafe after his family’s home village in Palestine, Bayt Nabala, which was destroyed in 1948, he said.
“I felt it made sense to do something where I honor my family’s home village and the roots that we carry to this day, bringing it into my current community,” Zeid said.
When he opened the cafe and began displaying the Palestinian flag, he said he “came into it with the expectation that it would be controversial,” which he found “really frustrating.”
However, the biggest practical challenge for Nabala Cafe after both acts of vandalism has in fact been adjusting to the rush of customers in the following days, Zeid said.
While leaving Nabala Cafe with take-out cups and bags of pastries, Ann Baltzer and Robin Weiss said that they had driven to Uptown from their home in Humboldt Park in order to show their support for the business. Their four-year-old daughter Miriam Weiss had eaten a “caramel roll bigger than her head,” Baltzer said.
“It’s not a friendly thing to do to anyone in our city,” Weiss said of the destruction.
Vic Hinojosa, who lives just down the street from Nabala Cafe in Uptown, said he’d passed by the cafe before, but decided that he needed to go after finding out about Friday’s vandalism. On Saturday morning, he sat at a table in the cafe with Kevin Oldenstedt, who said he was excited to have found a local place selling baklava after their old go-to bakery had closed.
“We want local business to stay in the area,” Hinojosa said, adding that it was important to support a cafe that was “starting to come up” in the neighborhood.
Nabala Cafe had seen a similar wave of support after Labor Day weekend, Zeid said, when a single front window on the cafe was broken just after midnight on September 2 by a still-unknown offender. Similarly to Friday’s attack, no money was taken from inside the business.
Both acts of vandalism are currently classified as “criminal damage to property,” according to Chicago police. Zeid said that he received a call Saturday morning from CPD’s Civil Rights Unit, which investigates hate crimes.
While reviewing footage from the building’s security cameras, Zeid said he noticed that the offender in both attacks had covered their face with a black keffiyeh – a symbol typically associated with support for Palestine – and used a baseball bat to shatter the glass. This has led him to believe that the same individual might have been behind both attacks, he said.
The only window left intact by Friday’s vandal had an Irish flag displayed at the time, which was donated to the cafe by Chicago Irish for Palestine, a group Irish-American Chicagoans organizing in support of Palestine. On Saturday, the Palestinian flag was displayed in that same window.
Chicago Irish for Palestine launched a fundraiser to support Nabala Cafe midday Friday. By 11 a.m. Saturday, more than 500 people had donated to raise a total of over $17,000 – far exceeding the $10,000 goal set by organizers, which Zeid said he would use to cover the window repairs and pay employees for extra time worked on Friday.
Zeid said he currently plans to install Plexiglass or bulletproof windows to deter future vandalism. All donations above the $10,000 threshold will be donated to the Middle East Children’s Alliance, he added.
Though he appreciates the help during another “moment of crisis,” Zeid said Saturday that he feels slightly uncomfortable with the waves of financial support directed solely towards his business.
“The folks that are coming here to support, in my view, it’s mostly as a show of solidarity with Palestine and with Gaza,” Zeid said. “My expectation is that people won’t just come to this cafe and they should do other things. They should be out in the streets protesting and making their voices heard, and donate money, all kinds of things.”
