Illinois woman, 64, charged with hate crimes after brawling with pro-Palestine couple in viral Panera clash

A 64-year-old Illinois woman was arrested and charged with a hate crime after an attack on a Palestinian man inside a Panera Bread in suburban Chicago that was captured on video.

Alexandra Szustakiewicz, of Darien, allegedly attacked Waseem Zahran for wearing a Palestine sweatshirt inside the fast-casual restaurant on Saturday. 

She appeared in court Monday for her arraignment on two felony hate crime counts and a misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct.   

A DuPage County judge ordered the woman to have no contact with Zahran or his pregnant wife and to stay away from the Lemont Road restaurant where police said the confrontation occurred.  

Szustakiewicz was at the eatery in the Chicago suburb of Downers Grove 'when she confronted and yelled expletives at a man regarding a sweatshirt he was wearing with the word Palestine written on it,' according to the DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office.

She also allegedly 'attempted to hit a cell phone out of the hands of a woman who was with the man when the woman began videotaping the incident,' it adds.

A complaint filed against Szustakiewicz, who was arrested Sunday, alleges that she 'committed a hate crime by reason of perceived national origin' of the two victims.

DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin said in a statement that 'this type of behavior and the accompanying prejudice have no place in a civilized society.'

Zahran said he was wearing a hoodie with the word 'Palestine' on it when Szustakiewicz approached him and yelled expletives at him while trying to hit his pregnant wife, whom he shielded as she filmed Szustakiewicz with a cellphone.

'She came closer to our face, and then started like asking: "Are you Palestinian?" I was like: "Yes, I am." And then she proceeded to scream in my face,' he told ABC 7 Chicago. 'Then she started getting physical.' 

Zahran told the Chicago Sun-Times it was not the first time he has been harassed for wearing the sweatshirt, and he expects it won't be the last time. He said his family has long faced harassment and threats for being Palestinian, he said.

'Since I was a child, I've seen my mom threatened, parents screamed at, cousins yelled at. But it was a first for me to be attacked,' Zahran told the paper.

He said he tried to de-escalate the situation multiple times, even after Szustakiewicz allegedly hit him in the face and attempted to throw hot coffee on his wife before and after swinging at her multiple times.

Zahran said Szustakiewicz continued swinging at his wife even after he told her she was pregnant.

'I don't care,' he said she replied.

Zahran said in a statement sent on Monday by the Chicago Office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations that he is 'a born and raised American who took his wife out for lunch.'

'I was not able to do that simply because I was Palestinian,' the statement read. 

'I'd rather have the video go out and be public about it than be quiet about it and let her get, you know, go away from it,' he told ABC 7 Chicago.  

CAIR-Chicago Executive Director Ahmed Rehab condemned the attack in the statement.

'We have long seen how European migrants like this woman feel a bizarre sense of entitlement to regularly harass and accost native Palestinians in their ancestral homeland, knowing they enjoy full impunity and knowing their victims have no recourse,' Rehab said.

'Now, shockingly but not surprisingly, that same anti-Palestinian hatred has followed them into their new homeland, here in America, where they were born and raised.'

Szustakiewicz’s is expected back in court on December 16. She's currently out on pre-trial release.