King David Burger, a new kosher restaurant in Athens, was vandalized by a group of anti-Israel protesters on Saturday night, the owner, Zvika Levinson, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.
“I was shocked,” Levinson told the Post. “It has taken us by surprise.”
The restaurant opened shortly after Shabbat ended at 10 p.m., and just 12 minutes later a group of individuals entered, throwing flyers and spraying anti-Israel messages on the walls, including “no Zionist is safe here.” The flyers featured the words “Free Palestine” in English, or “victory to the Palestinian resistance” in Greek, alongside the pattern of a keffiyeh.
While the group was vandalizing the restaurant, they were shouting “go back to Israel,” “stop killing babies,” and the like, Levinson added.
“One of my employees who was inside said he wanted to get out, and he was told, ‘stay there if you don’t want to be injured.’”
The Post also spoke to the manager – Sivan – who said that the employees are not Israeli and were “pretty scared because they are not used to it.”
Both Sivan and Levinson said that the police were standing nearby, but it still took 15 minutes for them to arrive at the restaurant. The police presence also did not seem to have deterred the “hooligans.”
“They didn’t care,” said Levinson. “They didn’t even put on masks.”
If anti-Israel protesters are identified, they will be arrested
After the general police came, three officers from the hate crime department came and took reports from the employees for about two hours. The officers told Sivan that if they are able to identify the group, they will arrest them; otherwise nothing will happen.
“That was very upsetting,” she told the Post.
Nevertheless, when Israeli customers who showed up after the incident were told what happened, they decided to sing and dance and chant “Am Yisrael Chai.”
King David Burger was established a month and a half ago to provide Mehadrin kosher food to visiting Israelis.
Given that tens of thousands of Israelis visit the city every day, Levinson hopes that the mayor will take this incident seriously.
“This kind of thing will affect Israelis. On Ermou St. [the location of the restaurant], you hear Hebrew like you are in Israel.”
“The mayor will have a lot of things to lose if he doesn’t prevent things like this.”
The Post reached out to the mayor of Athens and the local police for comment.