A Jewish journalist was reportedly arrested and humiliated for “anti-Muslim” behavior after she protested a grocery employee flaunting a keffiyeh, an article of Arab garb often used in the U.S. to express solidarity with the genocidal terror group Hamas. 

RAIR Foundation USA told Sloan Rachmuth’s story on Friday, explaining, “Rachmuth, a Jewish journalist and political commentator, was arrested at her home in front of her terrified children on November 3, 2024. Her alleged crime? According to Rachmuth, she objected to a supermarket employee at Harris Teeter wearing the controversial keffiyeh, a political symbol widely associated with Hamas and its ambitions to destroy Israel and the Jewish people worldwide.” The employee specifically told Rachmuth that she was wearing the scarf in solidarity with the jihadi “Free Palestine” movement.

Arabs wear keffiyehs in the Middle East, but ever since the October 7, 2023, massacre of Israelis by Hamas, the scarves have been used by antisemitic, radical Westerners and Muslim migrants to show support for jihad-loving Gazans and their terrorist rulers. When Rachmuth turned to social media after finding Harris Teeter (Kroger) employees and executives uninterested in addressing the issue of a keffiyeh-wearing employee, police charged her with cyberstalking and marched her out in handcuffs, the journalist claimed to RAIR.

In what had become a routine over seven years, Rachmuth went to the Harris Teeter on Sunset Lake Road in Holly Springs, N.C., on Oct. 31 of last year. She noticed during her shopping trip that one employee who was handling food was wearing a keffiyeh, which is not only associated with Hamas but also the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and other anti-Israel terrorists. Even the United Arab Emirates and Egypt have, in the past, taken action against activists wearing keffiyehs.

In fact, Rachmuth specifically asked employee Amira M. Fattah why she was wearing the keffiyeh and received the response, “it’s for Free Palestine.” This confirmed the fact that the employee was wearing the scarf for political reasons and in support of the false claim that the Muslim Arabs should control all of Israel and turn it into a nation of Palestine (which has never existed before in history).

In light of this, Rachmuth spoke to store manager Sheronna Irick, who callously replied, “Like it or leave.” Arrest records and police testimony, per RAIR, indicate that Irick was involved in falsely reporting Rachmuth for “anti-Islamic” actions and for getting her arrested after the frustrated journalist, who had contacted Harris Teeter corporate, posted about the employee online in an X post that garnered thousands of views.

A few days after the incident and Rachmuth’s post, police were pounding on her door, per RAIR. The journalist, who is also a mother of two, asked why the police were there, to which an officer reportedly replied, “Something you did made her uncomfortable, all right?” A video shared by the foundation shows one officer telling Rachmuth she was being charged for her social media post. The charge ought to have been an unarrestable misdemeanor, according to Rachmuth. Instead, the journalist was made to pay $1,000 bail after being arrested. Democrat activists and leftist mainstream media accused Rachmuth of being a criminal and extremist. It is remarkable that activists always sympathize with the Muslims who want to commit genocide and never seem to care about the religious rights of Jewish people. 

RAIR argues that “cyberstalking” in this case is a charge without “legal precedent or justification” and that the arrest and smear campaign against Rachmuth could be even more sinister:

This rapid media blitz has left many questioning who contacted the media so swiftly and how they were able to mobilize coverage within hours of her arrest. Just as questions linger over who at Harris Teeter initially called the police, suspicions are growing that this was not an organic reaction but rather a carefully coordinated effort to weaponize the criminal justice system against a Jewish journalist. Many believe this was a deliberate, politically motivated attack meant to silence and intimidate her—setting a dangerous precedent for anyone daring to expose antisemitism or radical extremism in America.

This was reportedly entirely based on the subjective and unproved accusation that the journalist took a picture of the grocery employee in the keffiyeh specifically to embarrass and harass her. The case was so obviously ridiculous, according to RAIR, that even the Democrat Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman dropped all Rachmuth’s charges the day after the arrest. Rachmuth did not, in fact, violate NC statute G.S. 14-196.3, which refers to repeated communications on electronics made with the clear intent to “annoy, threaten, or harass” the targeted individual. Therefore, the journalist’s single post that included photos showing Fattah from the back and side did not violate the statute.

It is encouraging to know that the charges were dropped, but it is disturbing that a Jewish journalist was apparently arrested in North Carolina for sharing her concern online about a blatantly pro-terrorist political statement.