The Hotel Shangri-La in Santa Monica, California, and its proprietor Tehmina Adaya, discriminated against Jewish guests at a charitable event in 2010, a Santa Monica jury ruled on Wednesday, awarding the plaintiffs $1.2 million in damages.
According to the testimony, the plaintiffs, young leaders of the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, held a poolside party on the afternoon of July 11, 2010. As the event commenced, hotel staff confronted the revelers, telling them to remove their banners and barring them from using the pool.
The plaintiffs also said that the hotel’s owner, Tehmina Adaya, a Muslim with Pakistani roots, had ordered employees to “get the fucking Jews” out of the pool.
The employees testified that they were acting on Adaya’s instructions.
The jury found Adaya guilty of violating California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act, which forbids businesses from discriminating on the basis of religion, race, color or sex.
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