Jewish, Israeli restaurants are on front line in war waged by anti-Israel activists - analysis

The targeting of such businesses with vandalism and violence is not new, but with the wave of antisemitic and anti-Israel activism in the wake of the October 7 Massacre, these attacks have crested into a war. Calling the campaign against restaurants a war is not much of an exaggeration, as anti-Israel activists and antisemites see it as an extension of the Israel-Hamas war, and have not abated as the front in Gaza ebbed into a ceasefire.

It is Israel and Jewish communities that fail to recognize that they face a dimension of warfare. Attacks on synagogues are treated as part of a broader problem, but all too often, attacks on Jewish-owned, kosher, and Israeli restaurants are treated as isolated incidents.

Unlike synagogues, schools, and community centers, Jewish or Israeli-related restaurants and cafes have no protection. They are no less visible targets, representing Jewry in broader society, but lack the armed guards or police protection that have become ubiquitous across Europe and North America. Private citizens are left to bear the cost, having their dreams crushed by constant protests and vandalism.

Anti-Israel activists see these attacks as a means of waging war on the economy and culture of Israel and its supporters, though conducted by subterfuge as a just response to supposed crimes. The attacks, like those against Israeli chain Miznon, are professed to punish its owners for purported "complicity" in a supposed Gaza "genocide."

Miznon Notting Hill was picketed by anti-Israel groups led by International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network UK (IJAN UK) on Friday, with a 35-year-old activist arrested for calling for an "intifada." According to TSC Hospitality LTD, the parent company of Erev and Miznon in the UK, this was the seventh time that they had been targeted by protesters.

The alleged "complicity" in "genocide" by Miznon was, according to IJAN UK, co-owner Eyal Shani’s project providing meals to IDF troops and October 7 massacre survivors, and co-owner Shahar Segal’s media liaison work with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Shani was slammed by IJAN UK ahead of the protest for "fueling” IDF soldiers’ “killing spree while offering no sustenance" to Palestinians, but in the same Instagram post, attacked Segal for working with the GHF, which had provided 187 million meals and humanitarian aid to Gazans by the time it ended operations in November. GHF was the wrong type of aid organization, and Palestinians were ostensibly shot en masse while "queuing up for food” in a counterproductive trap.

“Goldie, Goldie, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide," activists associated with Philly Palestine Coalition chanted.

PPC also decried his status as a culinary ambassador for Israel, a partnership with the Tourism Ministry that was enough of a direct tie to an "apartheid government" that warranted boycott, but was indicative of a far greater crime that lay at the heart of the broader campaign.

Goldie, like many other restaurants, was attacked because it was engaged in the supposed theft of Palestinian and Arab cuisine. This great crime has served as an excuse for activist groups to continue their campaign during lulls in fighting in the Levant, but has continued to be wielded during wartime as well.

Yet the excuse is a thin veneer for the real issue that anti-Israel activists have with such businesses. When Falafel Salam was protested in September, though it advertises itself as Middle Eastern food, activists accused it of engaging in Zionist appropriation. The issue is not with food, but the perceived association or identity part, with activists demanding at the protest, "no Israeli food trucks or businesses in our neighborhoods going forward."

Israeli food, as Philly Writers Against the War on Gaza said in a September explanation of protests against Solomonov's holdings, legitimized "the Zionist entity."

"'Israeli' food is not real," wrote Philly WAWOG. "'Israeli' food is a settler fantasy."

Even if the Israeli culinary community somehow excised any dish, ingredient, or method shared with Arab or Palestinian neighbors, the ultimate issue is that it is Israeli, and the existence of such food would mean that Israel exists - An idea that cannot be stomached by anti-Israel activists. They seek to destroy Israeli restaurants not because they want to protest Israeli cuisine, but because they want to destroy Israel.

Cuisine is a key element of culture, and the genocide will never be complete if Israeli culture remains existent. Any and all connections to Israel, regardless of how tangential, merits all manner of attack, from boycott to protest to vandalism.

This is why posting pro-Israel social media content days after the October 7 Massacre was enough to get NYC's iconic 2nd Ave Deli covered in swastikas the same month as the Hamas-led attack.

This is why being owned by an Israeli is enough for the Upper West Side's Effy's Cafe to be spray-painted with messages such as “Free Gaza" and “form line here to support genocide” in March 2024, and for Purple Waves cafe to have its bathrooms vandalized with permanent marker in September. The owner's argument for an apolitical space and hopes for peace and safety for Palestinians did not erase the original sin of being a "Jewish Israeli woman."

Beyond the simple-minded antisemitism that is inextricably present within the anti-Israel community, the ideological opposition to Israeli cuisine is a large component of why the open season also places bounties on Kosher and Jewish-owned restaurants and cafes.

Diasporic Jewish food traditions and Jewish religious food practices have influenced or are reflected in Israeli cuisine, and are evident in Kosher and Jewish eateries. Tantura, which had been subject to constant boycotts and graffiti, had a menu that drew inspiration from various Jewish cuisines to represent the Israeli melting pot.

NYC Israeli bakery chain Breads Bakery's employees sought to form a union to cut ties to Israel. The food, which features Diasporic staples such as rugelach, challah, bourekas, and babka, also included the forbidden act of baking Israeli flag cookies. Breads Bakery participated in the Great Nosh Jewish food festival, which is backed by pro-Israel organizations.

The kosher and Diaspora ties are also why businesses that have no readily apparent Israel connection can be targeted, allowing a brick painted with the slogan "free Palestine" to be thrown through the window of Brookline Kosher grocer The Butcherie in June, or the ransacking of a Kosher restaurant and catering business in Toronto last January.

La Briut's Markham office was broken into and ravaged, spray-painted messages left on the wall reading “Free Gaza” and “F**k Jews,” and a few days before the North York branch was broken into and cash stolen. The campaign, by design or side effect, also allows antisemites an excuse to target Jewish businesses.

With the grandiose militant objective of destroying one aspect of Israel, any means are necessary. There is no tactic that is off limits, save by what is perceived as being digestible by the broader public, so as not to damage the pro-Palestinian movement's reputation.

Damage to a restaurant's reputation, however, seems easy for the public to abide by. New York City's Safta restaurant, which had the words “Zionist Food” graffitied on a door on the recent Yom Kippur, said that it was getting negative reviews on Google “simply for existing.”

“You know, the former Israeli PM who stated Palestinians and Palestine don’t exist? Also pretty interesting to see them use Palestinian food on their incredibly subpar menu,” read one review chiding the restaurant for featuring a framed photograph of Golda Meir. “Service, bad. Customer experience, worse. Perhaps if you are going to support a genocide, you may not want to open a business broadcasting that stance.”

Boycotts are the most prevalent tool, seeking to cut off the cash flow to the businesses. Montreal's Falafel Yoni was placed on a boycott list posted in 2024 by Alliance4Palestine Quebec, Montreal-Nord for Palestine, and Filipinos for Palestinian Liberation Montreal.

Boycott lists bring the added danger of putting a target on the businesses - Falafel Yoni was riddled with bullets in June 2024, though the store was closed at the time and no one was harmed.

Protests like those against Miznon and Goldie are frowned upon and even sometimes condemned, but they are seen as nothing more than protests, not part of a campaign, the asphyxiating grip of a global movement to cut off the circulation of customers and staff by scaring and discomforting them.

The graffiti and vandalization of Jewish-owned, kosher, and Israeli restaurants is constant, and though condemned, usually doesn't warrant national coverage - After all, it is only one restaurant and not a synagogue. The broader damage and impact aren't appreciated.

Miami's Holy Bagels & Pizzeria facade and a US/Israel flag were spray-painted with the phrases “Free Palestine’ and “stop genocide” in June 2024, the fourth time that the Jewish owner’s shops had been targeted since the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7, local 10 News reported.

Bagel Time Cafe had been vandalized in December and October 2023. Los Angeles's Canter's Deli was defaced in November 2023, according to the LA Times, a community mural showcasing Jewish contributions to the city was graffitied with the words “Free Gaza” and “Israel's only religion is capitalism."

“How many dead in the name of greed?” was reportedly scrawled.

In July, activists barged into Athens's King David Burger, throwing flyers that read "“victory to the Palestinian resistance,” and spraying graffiti on the walls that read  “no Zionist is safe here" and "Smash Zionism, fascism, colonialism."

The businesses are also subject to violent attacks, such as March's reported attempted arson against the Rimmon Kosher restaurant in central Madrid, when a man allegedly walked into the crowded business and doused the entrance with some sort of accelerant.

Jewish-owned, kosher, and Israeli restaurants are loci of Israelis and Jews as much as community centers and synagogues, but are softer and more accessible targets for violence. Israeli educator Rami Glickstein was outside the Mr. Broadway kosher restaurant in Midtown Manhattan in October when he said a man gestured at his kippah and demanded to know his religion. The attacker allegedly grabbed the kippah from his head, threw it to the ground, spat on it, and then punched Glickstein to the ground.

In July, a pro-Palestinian activist approached Jewish women at a central London kosher cafe and asked if they were Jewish and if the restaurant was kosher. When the diners said yes, she screamed  “free Palestine,” accused them of killing babies, throwing food at them, smashing their plates, and breaking their phones.

A Leipzig kosher café was attacked by a gang of youths on Wednesday, after a gang of youths was stopped from stealing an Israeli flag on display. The youths returned with six other children and teenagers, and threw full plastic bottles at an employee, who the police said sustained minor injuries to her leg.

The attack continued with the gang shouting racist and inflammatory remarks, and attempting to break into the cafe by striking a window with a display stand.

Some businesses cannot withstand the unyielding assault. Washington DC and Maryland falafel chain Shouk closed its stores in September, with DC for Palestine crediting a Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) "win."

Tantura announced its closure last Tuesday, after being targeted by a campaign that alleged that it was named for the alleged 1948 Tantura massacre. In 2024, the walls and windows were graffitied with "Tantura is a massacre" and "Free Palestine," allegedly by the group the Collective for the Liberation of Palestine (CLP).

The campaign against Jewish and Israeli cuisine is not isolated. According to an April Anti-Defamation League report, of 2596 protests with antisemitic actions in 2024, 252 occurred at businesses. The same yea,r there were 109 antisemitic incidents against Jewish-owned businesses, a 22 percent increase from 2023.

While there are isolated incidents like the vandalism of Palestinian business Habibiz Cafe in Winnipeg last Sunday, there is no other campaign that has been tolerated against private individuals because of their political beliefs, religion, or ethnic identity.

Russia has invaded Ukraine, and Turkey occupies northern Cyprus, but establishments associated with either have not endured an unending assault that has been justified and sanctioned by a vast network of organizations.

This campaign is tolerated because it is not identified as a campaign, and the tactics often stop shy of outright violence. Yet wars can be fought by many means, and they can be waged whether the opposing side recognizes them or not. The evident nature of these establishments means that they are on the frontline of Jewishness in a way that few other institutions are, and unless tactical responses such as cleaning graffiti are replaced by pursuing the marshalling organizations with legal hammer and tongs, these businesses will continue to take casualties.