"In the days after Friday, October 7, the police came to my premises several times a day to check if everything was okay." It is explained by the owner of a small Israeli cuisine restaurant in a neighborhood with a high percentage of Arab population, who, like the rest of the sources that appear in this article, has requested that her name not appear or provide information about her establishment.
"I had tried not to be afraid, but the constant visits from the police made me start to believe that I was really in danger." From there, the restaurateur, with her establishment in full operation for more than ten years and harmoniously integrated into the neighborhood, began to take measures: "The first thing was to prohibit the team from speaking Hebrew among themselves, neither on the street nor in the store". He also removed all references to Israel from his website, his letters and his social networks and ordered the team "not to say that the cuisine is Israeli when someone asks, but rather from the Middle East." That same October 7, when the Hamas attack took place that led Israel to declare a state of war, a friend provided him with pepper spray and a bulletproof T-shirt that he almost always wears.
She is not the only Israeli cook who has found herself in this situation. Of the many contacted, the majority did not want to appear in the report and all agree that they have taken measures such as avoiding stopping speaking in their language and eliminating any reference to their origins in letters, social networks and other media, as well as among the clientele.
But the situation does not only affect Israeli chefs with establishments in Spain, but also Palestinians. After all, they are the visible image for the local population of a conflict that takes place far away. The same thing happens to a hotelier with a couple of restaurants in a large Spanish city, who defines himself as a Palestinian from Israel, who has lived in Spain for nearly thirty years. The businessman explains that his parents and brothers, all residents of a city in Israel in the north of the country, are experiencing "a real ordeal because of what is happening, in addition to being forced to remain silent." This is because the Israeli Parliament has just approved an amendment to the Anti-Terrorism Law that could punish those who express their solidarity with Gaza with prison sentences. "Even Arab parliamentarians in Israel have to keep quiet, so I am afraid to give my name in case this could somehow affect my parents and siblings."
All of them – he assures – already have a plan B designed to leave the country if the conflict spreads to Lebanon, something that today seems feasible. "On the one hand, my family is reluctant to leave their land, but we have never seen Israel so angry," says this restaurateur. "The audience at my place is mostly Spanish, many from the neighborhood. During these days I have noticed that people stop more at the door than before when they see that the cuisine is Palestinian, that there is more curiosity and a little more clientele and that many "The usual people come to ask me how we are experiencing the situation. If they ask me, I tell them, if not, I prefer not to talk about it," says the businessman, who at some point claims to have felt fear: "On more than one occasion I have feared that something would happen in my place, someone do something."
This same fear is shared by another Jewish restaurateur from Barcelona, who claims to "live in permanent terror that something will happen, that someone will attack the restaurant. I have the feeling that something very serious could happen while Europe looks the other way. Each Every day I arrive at the store at opening time expecting to find some graffiti, some Fuck Jews, something like that.'" This Israeli who has lived in Barcelona for fourteen years explains that from the beginning he prohibited the team from speaking Hebrew and eliminated any reference to Israel in the different media. He also spoke with his press agency to eliminate references to his country of origin in his communication and, when asked by customers about the origin of his dishes, he forbade the team from mentioning his country.
But the hotelier couldn't do anything with what was already published and a few days after the war broke out he began to notice the consequences. "A very successful Instagram account had published about us and suddenly hateful comments began to arrive. The ridicule reached such a point that they had to remove the publication," explains this chef, very affected by the situation. "A few days ago a client with mental health problems came in, very upset and with a backpack on his back. He started to scold us in an incomprehensible language, which had some Spanish and some English, there was no way to make him see reason. He sat at the bar and both my team and I had the worst moments of our lives, because at that moment we were sure he was going to fly into the air. My hands were shaking, I could hardly finish the service. Finally a colleague He accompanied him outside and he left, but it was a few minutes of terror for everyone," he explains. This chef points out that since October 7 he has not been able to cook, although he affirms that little by little he is regaining his calm. "Cooking is about giving happiness and, especially in the first days, I realized that my food was not the same, it did not come out the same."
To the fear that a misfortune could occur in their premises, common among Palestinian and Israeli restaurateurs, we must add another concern: that of the restaurant going bankrupt. This is explained by the Israeli hotelier who owns a small establishment with just a few tables. In addition to having lost Israeli tourists from its clientele, it must be added that bad reviews can destroy the reputation of a place like yours and, consequently, cause it to close. "I have another friend, who also owns an Israeli restaurant, who has started to receive bad reviews on Google, all one-star reviews and negative comments. I think people don't get the idea of the damage this can do to a business small, to the point of having to close it, and that is one of my fears lately. Several bad reviews alone can make the public stop coming and that can be the end," he explains.
On the other hand, despite the visits from the authorities, the precautions that she has been forced to take in recent weeks and the tension that is still felt, things have not changed much in her restaurant, which welcomes tourists, residents of the neighborhood and also Arabs and Jews. "Since I opened, I get along well with everyone and this has not changed nor will it change. In fact, my father was born in Tangier and the Arabs in the neighborhood call me paisana." The same thing happens in the case of Palestinian restaurants: "I have Jewish customers who came often and continue to come, and our treatment has always been cordial," says the Palestinian hotelier.
For his part, another Palestinian hotelier says that things have changed a lot for him since the war broke out. "Many more people come than before to talk to us and express their solidarity, to form a community, to make us feel that we are not alone. I have realized that they want to understand what is happening and that is why they ask me many questions," explains this businessman who claims to be feeling the warmth of the local population and their solidarity with the Palestinian people. The Jewish chef from Barcelona thinks the same: "Here the population is totally pro-Palestinian, especially in certain neighborhoods."
"What is happening" is still the crux of the matter, something that paradoxically coincides with practically all the restaurateurs consulted (also those who did not want to appear in the article) regardless of their origin. They all make the argument that Europeans are poorly informed about the history of Israel and Palestine and also that citizens believe fake news that ends up benefiting one of the sides.
Both Israelis and Palestinians also agree that Western governments, especially in Europe, do not take a strong enough position and tend to support the opposing side. "You have allowed Europe to be filled with extremists," said an Israeli and a Palestinian restaurateur in practically the same words.
