A Philadelphia software engineer posted a video of protesters circling a falafel restaurant run by a James Beard Award winner who is Jewish. The protesters associated the chef and owner with Israel's bombing of Gaza.
Taking to social media on Sunday, a man identifying himself as Jordan, who works for Bloomberg, posted the video and some details about what he observed.
"Goldie, Goldie you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide," the protesters chanted.
"They continued their march down the street, but not before vandalizing the front windows," he wrote. "To clarify, I witnessed them placing stickers on the front door and windows of the restaurant. I just walked by," and the stickers read "Free Palestine" and "This is Genocide."
"Serving falafel" is genocide? Questioned Jordan.
Former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum explained that the restaurant Goldie is run by Michael Solomonov, who has a number of establishments in the area bringing culinary creations from Israel to the United States.
Calling the protesters an "antisemitic mob," Frum said, "They demand a boycott of Jewish goods. Michael Solomonov is a James Beard Award-winning chef. He makes some of the best hummus outside Israel, as well as outstanding lamb and other dishes. It all ships via Goldbelly. If you want to send a message of your own to the boycotters, you can do so here."
Middle East expert Eli Kowaz, a policy adviser to the Israel Policy Forum, explained that Solomonov has long been an "outspoken advocate of Israeli-Palestinian peace."
Alex Zeldin, columnist at "The Forward" on U.S. Foreign Policy and Jewish communal concerns, reposted the video as well, noting that the owner of a falafel shop has no power to "anything about Israel's military campaign against Hamas. What you're looking at is people normalizing antisemitic incitement against their Jewish neighbors."
See the video below or at the link here.