‘Israeli’ woman kicked out from salon in Virginia
Note: AI technology was used to generate this article’s audio.
An ‘Israeli’-American woman was refused service and ejected from Karimi Brows, a permanent makeup and eyebrow salon in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, in the United States, after owner Fatana Karimi learned of her background.
The incident began as a friendly conversation.
The two women discussed Afghanistan—Karimi is Afghan—along with poetry, food, and the customer’s novel featuring an Afghan Muslim character and a Jewish half-‘Israeli’ figure.
A beauty salon in Virginia kicks out a customer for repeatedly talking about ISRAEL and defending it inside the shop. pic.twitter.com/yDYln4Nfib
— The Resonance (@Partisan_12) August 16, 2026
When the client mentioned her own Jewish and ‘Israeli’-American identity, the tone changed abruptly.
According to the customer’s account and circulating video, Karimi ordered her to leave, stating she could not provide service to an ‘Israeli’ because it violated her political beliefs.
Karimi then recorded the confrontation while saying “Free Palestine.”
The customer asked for her deposit back, saying: “You should give me my deposit back. I had no idea you would do this based on my ethnicity.”
In a video of the exchange, the client said she had not initiated political discussion about ‘Israel’ and had come for a service.
Karimi later posted online defending her decision, framing it as a stand against what she called genocide in Gaza and stating that “for me Israel isn’t politics.”
She maintained she had the right to refuse service.
Virginia and federal public accommodations laws prohibit businesses open to the public from refusing service on those grounds.
The customer has indicated she plans to pursue a legal complaint, and some organizations have offered to connect her with attorneys.
The Alexandria case fits a wider pattern in which ‘Israelis’ and those identified as ‘Israeli’ have faced increasing exclusion from ordinary commercial services amid the ongoing assault on Gaza.
In recent years and months, reports have documented ‘Israelis’ turned away from restaurants, hotels, and other venues in places including Germany, Spain, Italy, and Bosnia, often with explicit references to the war or demands that customers disavow ‘Israel’.
Examples range from a Berlin restaurant where an ‘Israeli’ was refused after his accent revealed his background, to a German pizzeria that publicly banned ‘Israeli’ citizens, and Spanish and Italian establishments that ejected or canceled bookings for ‘Israelis’.
