L.A. hotel owner charged with anti-Semitism

(JTA) — The owner of the Shangri-La Hotel in Los Angeles is on trial in a civil rights suit based on claims of anti-Semitism.

The hotel owner, Tehmina Adaya, is accused of unjustly shutting down a pool party at the hotel for Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces in July 2010, according to the New York Times.

The Times reported that the event’s organizer, Scott Paletz of Platinum Events, testified that Adaya “was acting out with anti-Semitism against the group.” He said that the announcement shutting down the event came with an anti-Semitic slur.

“Being that I’m Jewish, it absolutely shocked me,” Mr. Paletz testified, according to the Times. “I felt really small.”

Paletz testified that hotel employees told him that the event was being cancelled because many of Adaya’s investors were Muslim.

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