The problematic side of the cafe that's open on Shabbat

A discovery came up about Cafe Basimta, which has been open on Shabbat and harrassed by Haredi extremists, that now has some embarrassed, and for all we know, the Haredis may still go after it:

Jerusalem’s premier soccer team made an unusual announcement last week: It would give a new cafe free advertising on players’ uniforms for the coming season.

Cafe Basimta was facing harassment from haredi Orthodox protesters who wanted it to close on Shabbat, and Hapoel Jerusalem said it wanted to send the message that Jerusalem is “an open and diverse city, where there is room for everyone.”

But on Tuesday, Hapoel Jerusalem reversed course and retracted the offer, after learning via an inquiry from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that Cafe Basimta is an official project of Jews for Jesus.

“Our original intention was simply to support a small business that was being denied its freedom of operation, and we still believe in that principle,” club spokesperson Matan Avrina told JTA. “However, we also realized that this specific story is more complex than we initially knew.”

For the secular Israelis who have flocked to Cafe Basimta in response to the protests, too, the revelation of the cafe’s ties to a Christian missionary organization is complicating what had seemed like a simple skirmish in the city’s culture war over businesses open on the Jewish day of rest.

Perhaps it's not that surprising a business like this could operate on Shabbat. That said, it's still no excuse for what the Haredi hoodlums were doing, and only makes for bad publicity. So the authorities should continue to make sure the Haredis just simply stay away and remain in their shoddy enclaves, because their behavior doesn't help, and is illegal.