A Salt Lake City bar’s declaration of “No Zionists Allowed” may have been ill-advised, but there’s no evidence the bar did anything illegal, according to an opinion from the Utah Attorney General’s office.
Investigators with the A.G.’s office “could not substantiate” that Weathered Waves, a cider bar in Salt Lake City’s The Gateway, had denied service or otherwise “discriminated against or mistreated anyone seeking to patronize your establishment,” wrote staff attorney Amanda Montague in a letter sent to the bar Wednesday.
Weathered Waves’ sister company, Six Sailor Cider, celebrated the news on Instagram and said the “ban” on Zionists will “stay in place,” again comparing Zionism — which Montague defined in her letter “at its most basic” as “the support of the development and protection of the state of Israel” — to hate speech.
“We’d also encourage every place to speak up against genocide, imperialism, colonialism, and stand for human rights and the people of Palestine,” Six Sailor posted Thursday on Instagram.
The A.G.’s investigation was in response to the declaration the bar’s owner, former Salt Lake City mayoral candidate Michael Valentine, posted on its Instagram account on March 3. That post prompted more than 70 people to file complaints with the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Services, which had granted Weathered Waves its liquor license only days before. DABS, in turn, asked the A.G.’s office to investigate.
Valentine said the initial post was inspired by what he considers a genocide against Palestinians. In an op-ed published in The Tribune on March 26, he argued that the ban was not illegal because Zionism is not a protected class, but an “ideology.”
“I’m not interested in creating solidarity with hate speech and genocide deniers. I am not interested in breaking bread with those who can’t see the humanity of Palestinians,” Valentine wrote in his op-ed. “It’s not discrimination to ban hate speech from my bar.”
Montague, in her letter, said that under the state’s public accommodations laws, if there had been evidence that the bar denied service to customers because they were Jewish, “this would certainly violate the prohibition against religious discrimination.” Montague added that “discrimination against Zionist beliefs could also violate” those laws.
Though Zionism can “be viewed as a political movement, when it is simply used to express support for the Israeli government’s policies or practices,” Montague wrote that “banning Zionism is considered antisemitic when it is used to express opposition to the continued existence of the state of Israel or to the Jewish religion.”
In her letter, Montague said the A.G.’s office would “strongly urge” Valentine to “reconsider your statement that you will not serve individuals expressing certain beliefs. You are entitled to express your views freely, but you are not entitled to deny someone service or otherwise discriminate based on someone’s religion, ancestry, or national origin.”
Montague ended her letter with a warning that “if you continue to advertise that you will not serve certain individuals, we are likely to get more complaints and will need to investigate each complaint.”
Shannon Sollitt is a Report for America corps member covering business accountability and sustainability for The Salt Lake Tribune. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by clicking here.
