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OAKLAND — When employees arrived on the morning of March 28 at Ba-Bite at 3905 Piedmont Ave., they were shocked to see what appeared to be feces covering a sign on one of their windows that read “Sanctuary Restaurant.”

The Middle Eastern restaurant, which specializes in hummus and other fare, has been vocal about its support of Muslim and immigrant families in the Bay Area, and employees said they were disappointed to see the vandalism.

“What is disturbing about this is we have four windows and two doors, on one of those doors we have a sign that says we’re a sanctuary restaurant and that we support our Muslim, Arab and immigrant neighbors,” restaurant co-owner Robert Gott said. “That was the only place that that s— slurry hit, and to me that seems targeted.”

His wife and co-owner, Mica Talmor, immigrated from Israel, and many of the employees at Ba-Bite are also immigrants.

“The reason why we decided to hang those signs is because we’ve had some refugee employees in the past so we kind of feel like this issue is about us. Everyone under our roof pretty much is an immigrant,” Talmor said.

She added that the restaurant’s name, Ba-Bite, actually means home in Hebrew, and that is how she sees the business and the people who are a part of it.

“I think that in the last few months, everything has been really tense,” she said, adding that they’ve even done extra employee training about how to stay safe after the November election and President Trump’s executive order calling for a Muslim ban earlier this year. “We feel that the restaurant is our family and this is our home and it’s very diverse and we support all of our employees and customers.”

Gott was at a Restaurant Opportunities Centers United conference in Washington D.C., the organization that began the sanctuary restaurant movement when the vandalism occurred.

“It was very upsetting that I couldn’t be there, I’m excited to get back,” he said. “That my staff has to deal with it … if I was there, I would be the one cleaning the window, I wouldn’t want them to have to deal with that.”

He said he has since met with U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee’s office to discuss the issue, and that the restaurant has also filed a police report with the Oakland Police Department.

“If this happens here in Oakland, I can’t even imagine what it’s like in other places in the U.S. or other places that aren’t as progressive as the Bay Area,” Gott said.

Talmor said that it hasn’t all been bad news since the vandalism.

“Actually, it turned out into a really positive story. We’ve had a really good response from the community and a lot of support,” Talmor said. “We’ve had customers come and acknowledge what happened and had two different customers that have brought us bouquets of flowers. It’s been just the most positive reaction from the community.”

She added that she didn’t think the vandalism was indicative of Oakland as a whole and that she still had faith in the community.

“Oakland does stand with its immigrants, and most people are loving and great and supportive and awesome,” Talmor said. “I think that what started as kind of frightening and eerie, hateful situation, it turned around. It really is a minority. It does not represent our community.”