Arab-Americans Say JDL Forced Event’s Cancellation : Tensions: The owner of a nightclub where poetry reading and singing were to occur says he was told to ‘expect trouble’ if fund-raiser for Palestinians proceeded.

Arab-American groups are angry that a planned fund-raiser for Palestinians was canceled Monday night after Irv Rubin, the leader of the militant Jewish Defense League, allegedly told the owner of the nightclub hosting the event that he could “expect trouble.”

Don Bustany, president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said Tuesday that his community was equally disturbed by the JDL’s allegations that the event was designed to provoke members of the predominantly Jewish community in the Fairfax district, where the benefit was to be held.

The fund-raiser was to be a “very discreet program of poetry reading and singing” at Cafe Largo, a restaurant and nightclub across the street from Canter’s delicatessen on Fairfax Avenue, Bustany said.

No demonstrations or other activities were planned for outside the club, Bustany said.

“This was not a group of skinheads wearing swastikas marching through Jewish neighborhoods,” he said.

The alleged threat also upset the local leader of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai Brith, a group that monitors bigotry against Jews.

“It’s thuggery,” said David Lehrer, the league’s Western states director. “An attempt to coerce someone into not having a fund-raiser is outrageous. They’re entitled to have their benefit and their meeting wherever anyone else is.”

Rubin acknowledged Tuesday that he had warned the owner of the restaurant that he was “inviting an angry protest. For them to have an event of that kind in the Fairfax district is akin to bringing a ham and cheese sandwich to a bar mitzvah.”

Rubin said that a protest against the fund-raiser was justified because one sponsor, the Palestine Aid Society, is a “pro-PLO front group.”

Bustany denied the charge, saying the group is a bona fide humanitarian organization assisting Palestinians living on Israel’s West Bank.

Cafe Largo’s proprietor, Mark Flanagan, said Rubin’s threats were first made over the weekend and continued even after the benefit was canceled because the club planned to present the entertainers who had been hired for the event.

Flanagan said he saw Rubin outside of Cafe Largo on Monday.

“If you open, you can expect trouble,” Flanagan said Rubin told him.

Immediately after the confrontation, Flanagan said, he found the club’s door locks sabotaged by still-dripping Crazy Glue. Rubin denied any involvement in the glue incident.

Despite police assurances of protection, the benefit’s organizers decided to call it off. When the threats allegedly continued after the cancellation, the club shut down Monday night.

Bustany said that the selection of Cafe Largo was based strictly on the willingness of the club to host the benefit--the only establishment to agree to it.

“I saw it as a humanitarian benefit,” Flanagan said. “I don’t think patrons should have to be terrorized by some wacko from the JDL.”