Chicago cafe's Palestinian flag display vandalized on North Side
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A Palestinian Chicago coffee shop owner spent Labor Day cleaning up broken glass after someone vandalized his Palestinian flag display overnight.
Hours after the incident, the cleanup continued as the flag was placed in another window, and a plank of wood covered where the vandals broke the glass.
"We will put it out there," said Eyad Zeid, the owner of Nabala Café in Uptown. "We're so clear we're named after a Palestinian village. We have a flag on the window. We have all kinds of artwork and stuff in support of Palestine."
He said the café was named after his family's home village of Bayt Nabala.
After only being open for a few weeks, Zeid woke up to a text informing him that his business had been broken into.
"My heart sank," he said.
The café has only been open since July.
"I don't know if this was, if we can go so far as calling it a hate crime or something racially motivated," he said. "It certainly feels that way."
Chicago police don't know how many people broke the window, but said they're investigating the incident. Police did not say whether the incident was being investigated as a hate crime.
No one entered the building. The person responsible appeared to have broken the window and moved on.
"As a Palestinian, and as someone who's been Palestinian my whole life, I don't ever expect to be safe, expressing that I'm Palestinian," Zeid said. "I think that's just the nature of being Palestinian."
Zeid set up a GoFundMe page to raise money to fix the window of his new business. He's hoping to raise $3,000 with the intention of donating whatever is left over to Gaza.
"We exceeded it by $1,000 within an hour," he said.
The café reopened for business on Tuesday.