Portland, ME – The Portland Police Bureau is investigating after at least three Portland Israeli restaurants were vandalized with “Free Palestine” graffiti late Saturday and early Sunday, according to a bureau spokesman.
Aviv, a hummus-focused vegan restaurant from Israeli chef Tal Caspi, and two locations of Shalom Y’all, formerly part of the Toro Bravo restaurant group, were targeted. Neither restaurant describes itself as exclusively Israeli, and each recently removed the “Israeli” descriptor from its signage.
Officers took a report on Sunday. Bias crime detectives have been notified of the case, according to police spokesman Derek Harmon.
A Jewish lawyer who has been practicing law in southern Maine since 1979 had his Portland office targeted this weekend with pro-Palestine graffiti.
“We have the American flag and then in the other window we have the Israeli flag hanging there, which we put up immediately following October 7, because we are a Jewish family and we wanted to show our alignment with Israel,” said Roberta Cope, the wife of attorney Steven Cope.
Cope, a bankruptcy attorney, has lived in Maine for his entire life.
