ETA - threatened restaurant owners
Photo: AP
Basques cook up terror attack
Embassy cancels Israeli food event in Basque region of Spain after receiving terror threats. Chef: Always sad to find out world doesn't like us
Four leading Israeli chefs were invited to the Basque region in Spain in honor of Israeli food month, but just days before the chefs set out they received a call from the Israeli embassy in Spain: "Don't come. The food month is cancelled due to terror threats from the Basque terror group."
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Wednesday was supposed to mark the grand opening of the Israeli food month in the tourist city of Hondarribia in the Basque region of Spain. It was meant to be a unique project organized by the Israeli embassy in Madrid in cooperation with the Basque region government, the Hondarribia hoteliers and restaurateurs association and the local municipality.
The plan – four Israeli chefs would spend a month working at two local restaurants, one of which is a Michelin starred restaurant, and serve Israeli gourmet cuisine. From the embassy's perspective it was an opportunity to present Spaniards with a new facet of Israel, one beyond the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The embassy worked tirelessly to organize the event and arranged for four of Israel's leading chefs - Rokach 73's Eyal Lavie, The Dining Hall's Omer Miller, Mika catering's Mika Sharon, and Mahneyuda's Yossi Elad - to attend. However last Thursday, four days before the first chef, Omer miller, was set to leave for Spain, the chefs received a call notifying them that the Israeli food month was cancelled following threats from the Basque terror group ETA.
"It's always sad to find out that the world doesn't like us" Chef Omer Miller was quoted by the Yedioth Ahronoth daily as saying. "We live in a bubble, and when something like this happens, it proves that we are suffering from sweeping lack of sympathy on a global level. The political aspect doesn't interest me, I just wanted to cook, make people happy and introduce them to Israeli cuisine."
Apparently the call from the embassy was preceded by real-life drama: The restaurant owners who were supposed to act as hosts to the Israeli chefs got threats from the Basque terror group, which supports the Palestinian struggle against 'Israeli occupation'.
The group told the restaurant owners that if the Israeli chefs were to stay there it would harm the restaurants. The threat caused a panic and led the restaurant owners to announce that they refuse to host the event.
Israeli sources said that the threats against the Israeli event expose what Israel has been claiming for a while now – that there is a connection between Basque terror groups and Palestinian terror groups. According to the sources, Israel has proof that ETA trained together with Palestinian terror elements in Lebanon and Venezuela.
"It saddens us to know that terror threats and violence lead to the cancellation of a cultural event," noted Israeli diplomatic sources.
Sarit Sardas-Trotino contributed to the report
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