Turmoil at Brentwood’s Country Mart: How Hamas Book Sparked Fiery Protest and Tense Fallout

It looks like business as usual at Brentwood’s Country Mart.

Laptops and lattes sit on every table at Caffe Luxxe’s patio. Around the corner, a woman corrals two teens near luxury décor shop Hudson Grace. “Let’s go to Goop real quick,” she declares loudly in directing them toward a pitstop at Gwyneth Paltrow’s curated store. The pastry counter at Farmshop has a queue four deep, though the lunch rush is winding down. One wouldn’t be surprised to see Country Mart regulars like Larry David or Jennifer Garner on a quiet, sunny Wednesday afternoon like this.

The quietude of the scene belies the tumult that occurred here just days before. A few feet from Diesel Bookstore’s entrance, this reporter is scanning a window display when a Diesel staffer approaches from a courtyard nearby. “Can I help you?” he asks. Forgive the direct approach, he adds, but his colleagues are on edge and leery of anyone lingering or taking photos. It’s been a rough few days, and tensions remain in the air. Threats were still flying in by phone and email.

As if on cue, a bubbly regular breezes into the bookstore to take the temperature. “I’m not here with any complaints,” she declares with a wide smile. She says she loves Diesel and jokingly adds that she has spent so much time at the Country Mart over the years that when her husband can’t reach her, he calls the Reddi Chick counter. So naturally she was all too aware of what went down at Diesel the previous week, and says she comes in peace: “It’s a tough world out there.”

Staff hardly needed the reminder. Crisis erupted at Diesel on Sept. 22 when a Jewish woman spotted a book titled Understanding Hamas: And Why That Matters displayed on a table. Offended by its presence, she reportedly alerted another Jewish woman, who went into Diesel to confront employees in what escalated into an emotional tirade that she captured on video.

“This is shameful! In a Jewish neighborhood! Why Hamas matters? Hamas is a terrorist organization,” states the woman, her voice growing louder. “I lived in Israel, I have family in Israel. There was murder on October 7.” A surprise attack led by Hamas claimed the lives of more than 1,200 people in Israel that day, the deadliest in the country’s history, resulting in a brutal and ongoing Israeli military campaign to root out Hamas in Gaza, which has reportedly now claimed the lives of more than 40,000 Palestinians.

On the video, a 17-year-old employee, who identifies as Jewish, responds by saying, “I know plenty of Palestinians that have been murdered over the past year.” Undeterred, the woman continues, “Very sad. We did not ask for this war. Get this out of your bookstore! Unbelievable.” She’s then heard slamming the book on the table as the recording ends.

The video was posted on multiple social media platforms, leading to an organized protest that took place the following Monday afternoon. Several dozen protestors descended on the Country Mart, blocking Diesel Bookstore’s two entrances around 1:30 p.m., according to videos shared on X (formerly Twitter). Protestors chanted and hung an Israeli flag over Diesel’s front window underneath several signs, one of which read, “Do you also sell Mein Kampf?” in reference to Adolf Hitler’s 1925 autobiographical manifesto. As the situation escalated, Diesel’s staff decided to lock the bookstore’s doors and shut off the lights. A protester can be heard multiple times shouting, “they/them,” as a slur against the teenage bookstore employee who is known to identify as nonbinary. Security guards received backup from Los Angeles Police Department officers sometime after 2 p.m., and a standoff ensued that lasted for about 90 minutes, according to local news reports. LAPD officers eventually escorted frightened staffers to their cars. No arrests were made, but damage had been done.

Brentwood, a tony enclave of Los Angeles’ Westside, is home to a long list of boldfaced names including Garner, Paltrow, Reese Witherspoon, Ben Affleck, Disney’s Bob Iger and Dana Walden, Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James and Arnold Schwarzenegger, among many others. Opened in 1948, Country Mart is more than just a rustic, red-roofed outdoor mall where neighbors go for lunch, luxury clothes and jewelry or last-minute gifts. It is, for all practical purposes, Brentwood’s beloved see-and-be-seen town square. Country Mart’s website refers to the destination as a “community center” and a central meeting place over many decades for Hollywood luminaries like Joan Crawford, Elizabeth Taylor, Burt Lancaster, Shirley Temple, Olivia de Havilland and others. Diesel Bookstore, part of a franchise, has been at the Country Mart for 16 years and has hosted authors, families and book-lovers for official and unofficial gatherings.

It is situated between two courtyards and near such businesses as Farmshop, Lloyd’s Barbershop, Christian Louboutin’s boutique, Broken English jewelry store, beauty retailer Cos Bar and men’s fashion brand Sid Mashburn, and not far from James Perse, among other stores. Celebrity jewelry designer Irene Neuwirth, who is Jewish and has shown support for Israel on social media, also maintains a shop there.

Following the incident, employees and business owners around the Country Mart drew lines in the sand defining where they stood on the hot-button issues that sparked the heated confrontation.

“Considering the environment, it was not a smart choice for them to sell that book,” explained one staffer at a nearby boutique who wished to remain anonymous. “You have to know your audience and where you are. Brentwood and the Country Mart are full of Jewish people. It’s offensive to a lot of people.” The woman, who is Jewish, pointed out that Vice President and current White House hopeful Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, who is also Jewish, frequently visit the Country Mart when they are at their Brentwood home. The Wall Street Journal reported that Country Mart employees refer to Emhoff as “Dougie,” and he often shows up alone for coffee and a bagel at Farmshop or to get a haircut at Lloyd’s Barbershop. In the viral clip of the bookstore standoff, Understanding Hamas is situated on a table directly next to Harris’s The Truths We Hold: An American Journey, her 2019 memoir.

“There is sadness on both sides,” interjected another staffer at the same boutique. “I’m not surprised that a protest happened, but there is no wrong answer in this.” The statement was immediately met with tension by her peer, who fired back: “That’s not true. There’s only one right answer — end of discussion. Look at what happened on Oct. 7. People were killed and have since been raped and tortured by Hamas. It’s horrible and offensive to sell a book like that. I won’t ever buy anything there again.” She continued by saying that while the book has been removed from store shelves, it was still being sold on Diesel’s website. She finds that offensive and predicts more fallout. “I have a client who asked me to ship her items because she’s scared to come here,” she added.

In another store, a Jewish staffer offered a sympathetic response. “A book offended people, but that doesn’t mean it’s OK to harass people. They scared [a Diesel staffer] who is a 17-year-old minor. They put [their] face online and threatened [them]. It’s very sad that that happened.” The person called it a “mistake” to have the book so prominently displayed and suggested it should have been placed in a Middle Eastern section alongside other books about the decades-long conflict. “They are a bookstore allowed to carry books with different perspectives. It’s freedom of speech, and I don’t believe in banning books of any kind. But I do understand the anger.”

A staffer at a high-end fashion store at the Country Mart lamented the controversy. “We live in a world where people just read headlines and book covers. Do people even know what’s in the book? Have they read it? Can’t they just walk past and ignore it?” questioned the employee. “The owner apologized and it seemed genuine to me. Can’t we just move on now? Personally, what matters most to me is kindness, tolerance and respect.”

Adding fuel to the fire, Diesel Bookstore’s Instagram account posted, deleted and reposted an apology. It’s gone again, but a statement that doubles as a general introduction to the community remains live. Brentwood residents Richard and Heather Turner assumed control of the bookstore on Aug. 1, after purchasing it from longtime owners Alison Reid and John Evans. “We are passionate readers who believe in the free exchange of ideas and stories,” the post read. “We have no political agenda and have not yet even had the chance to shape much of the content of the store…. We want to tell you definitively, the book in question does not represent our values.”

The previous owners committed to staying on for several months during the transition, but it remains unclear who is responsible for ordering and displaying the book. The new owners responded immediately to the outcry by joining Scooter Braun, the über manager turned HYBE America CEO, on the same Wednesday that The Hollywood Reporter visited Country Mart, for an exclusive visit at L.A.’s Nova Exhibition in memory of the 364 people who were killed by Hamas terrorists while attending the Nova Music Festival.

“The reason I love this bookstore is it is filled always with books that I as a proud Jewish father can share with my children about their heritage. Whether it be Passover or Hanukkah or Rosh Hashanah. This store includes books of all different types of people, religious and cultures, and unfortunately included a title that was filled with misinformation and hate,” he posted to his 3.7 million followers along with a photo of himself and the Turners standing side-by-side with two Nova survivors. “The young 17-year-old book clerk made a mistake based on a lack of education and understanding, and because of this, many have come to unfairly protest this bookstore as anti-Semitic. I’m posting this picture because not only is that not true, but the bookstore themselves made a statement immediately after that was representative of who we are as a community.”

Braun noted how the couple spent three hours at the Nova exhibit. “This is the type of leadership the world needs,” he wrote, encouraging his followers to support them and to keep bookstores alive. The owners declined comment for this story.

A fellow Westside bookstore owner had other thoughts. Zibby Owens is the CEO and founder of Zibby Media, which encompasses an award-winning podcast, boutique publishing arm, a book club, live events and the independent bookstore Zibby’s Bookshop on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica. The Yale University graduate is also an author and editor of multiple books including the forthcoming On Being Jewish Now, out this week and inspired by how life has changed since the tragic Oct. 7 attacks. It features notable contributors like Mark Feuerstein, Jill Zarin, Bess Kalb, Rebecca Minkoff, Amy Ephron and rabbi Steve Leder.

“It was heartbreaking for me as a Jewish person, a Jewish book lover and Jewish bookstore owner to see a book like [Understanding Hamas] prominently displayed and being defended by an employee. I’ve loved Diesel and have being going there forever,” offered Owens, who currently lives in New York. She is a former L.A. resident and frequent Brentwood and Country Mart visitor. “I don’t think bookstores should be espousing hate or supporting terrorists in any way. That’s not the role of a bookstore. … The whole bookstore experience is typically one of pride and positivity. To bring in conflict in this way felt very personal.”

Oscar-nominated screenwriter Jonathan Herman (Straight Outta Compton) described similar emotions over an incident at Skylight Books in L.A.’s Los Feliz neighborhood this past spring. After learning through an entertainment industry activist WhatsApp group that Skylight was selling the book Hamas: From Resistance to Regime by Paola Caridi (an author credited on the book at the center of the Diesel controversy), Herman went straight to Skylight, a place that he had been frequenting for nearly 20 years.

“I decided on my way there that I would buy whatever copies were there, pay for them and make some kind of statement. When I arrived, I got more and more pissed off because it was a really positive book celebrating Hamas as some kind of respectable revolutionary organization. So I set up my phone and recorded my interactions with the workers who were all very polite but acted like they didn’t know anything and couldn’t do anything about it. I paid for the books and started tearing them to shreds. It took a long time, about five minutes, to do it because the book is really thick so they all just ended up ignoring me and pretending as if I weren’t there.”

Herman has never been back to Skylight, which was once his favorite bookstore. “It’s totally fucked up that they would sell a book like that, not only in Los Angeles but in Brentwood where there are a lot of Jewish people. Don’t sell books that will be dangerous to the people who live there,” Herman continued. “There’s nothing journalistic about any of theses books. It’s fake hagiography of Hamas and dangerous text. It’s all fucking bullshit and fucking gross.”

He said he’s disappointed about the amount of misinformation in the air regarding the Israel-Hamas war and the deeper conflicts between Israel and Palestine. He added that he knows how complex and nuanced the history can be, and books like these only reinforce troubling narratives about Israel and Jewish people. “We prefer to have peace.”