Leith Café owner not guilty of racial hatred for Zionist Free Zone poster

A former Edinburgh café owner has been cleared of stirring up hatred against the local Jewish community by displaying a poster displaying the words ‘Declare Leith A Zionist Free Zone’.

Mohammed El Ayeb, 29, was alleged to have communicated material that was threatening, abusive or insulting by displaying the poster at Movski’s café in the Leith area of the capital.

Mr El Ayeb was arrested and charged with the hate crime after a prominent member of the Jewish community in Edinburgh confronted the business owner about the wording on the poster.

Mr El Ayeb, of Finnieston, Glasgow, denied the allegations and stood trial at the capital’s Sheriff Court over two days in March and yesterday. (WED)

Witness Jack Gold, the convenor of Edinburgh Friends of Israel, told the court he visited the café and found the poster displayed in a glass panel on the front of the counter in June 2024.

Mr Gold, 72, told the trial he found the wording on the leaflet ‘Declare Leith A Zionist Free Zone’ to be “offensive and hateful” and said it was “totally unacceptable” to be on public display.

Mr Gold said: “It reminded me of posters I had seen from Nazi Germany in the 1930s, and for me it declared Leith should be a Jew-free zone.

“Not all Zionists are Jews but most Jews are Zionists so to say make Leith a Zionist-free zone is to me to make Leith a Jew-free zone.

“Zionism is very much connected to the Jewish faith.”   

Mr Gold said he spoke to the café owner and asked him why he had agreed to have the poster on view.

He said: “His opinion was this was not something that he deemed offensive. He stated that some of his customers are Jewish and they come in to the cafe and are not offended by it.

“My response was I am Jewish, I am a Zionist and I am offended by the poster.”

Mr Gold said he was later contacted by the police who he said had received around 20 complaints regarding the poster and he provided officers with a statement.

Mr El Ayeb did not give evidence but in closing submissions his defence agent Robbie Cole said there had been “no evidence from the Crown witnesses as to who placed the poster in the window”.

Mr Cole said: “The Crown case rests primarily on inference from ownership. There is no direct evidence that the accused created, authorised or placed the poster in the window.”

The court heard Mr El Ayeb no longer owns the cafe and his lawyer added Mr Gold had agreed in cross examination that he “was not subjected to threatening behaviour or abuse in the café”. 

Following submissions, Sheriff Charles Walls said: “The accused in this case faces a single charge of an offence contrary to the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021.

“Before delivering my verdict, I wish to be clear that although the court is of course aware of the rise of antisemitic behaviour , this is a court of law, governed by rules of evidence and the requirement that the Crown prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.

“It is not an inquiry into the meaning of Zionism.

“I found Mr Gold to be a credible and reliable witness. He explained why, as a Jew and a Zionist, he found the poster to be offensive.

“He had met a man he thought was the owner of the café and explained he had not formed the view that person had intended to stir up hatred, although it was wrong to display the poster.

“He did not say he found it to be threatening or abusive.”

The sheriff said there had been “no direct evidence” the accused had placed the poster in the window of the cafe or “that he intended to stir up hatred”.

Sheriff Walls concluded: “For all these reasons, and the evidence as a whole, I am left with a reasonable doubt as to the guilt of the accused and so the verdict is not guilty.”