Israeli restaurant chain in US closes due to prolonged pro-Palestine boycott
Shouk, a kosher vegetarian restaurant chain that operated in Washington, D.C. and its surrounding areas for the past decade, has shuttered its final location following a sustained boycott campaign by pro-Palestinian activists.
The chain, co-owned by an American Jew and an Israeli Jew, served vegetarian Middle Eastern fare such as falafel, hummus, and lentil stews. Since the start of the war in Gaza, pro-Palestinian groups had urged locals to boycott the chain, accusing its owners of “appropriating Palestinian cuisine” and denouncing the business for “collaborating with Israeli apartheid” due to its import of Israeli products and brands.
owners, Dennis Friedman and Israeli entrepreneur Ran Nussbacher, told The Guardian — in a report that surveyed the impact of boycotts on various Israeli-linked institutions — that sustained harassment and financial losses made it impossible to continue operations. “The ability to continue to operate wasn’t there,” Friedman said in the interview. “I feel terrible because Shouk wasn’t a political place; Shouk was a place for people to come together. To become a target and be mislabeled and thrown into things that aren’t true is unfortunate.”
The activist group DC for Palestine celebrated the closure in a social media post that read “BDS wins in Washington,” calling it “local BDS win.”
The closure, which forced Friedman and Nussbacher to lay off their remaining 30 employees, came just days before Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire.
https://www.ynetnews.com/food/article/s1r6kvcpel
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