A planned launch event for a new Berlin restaurant by Israeli chef Eyal Shani and entrepreneur Shahar Segal was canceled over the weekend following an anti-Israel protest — one led in part by Israelis and members of the Jewish community in Germany.
The restaurant, Gila and Nancy, was expected to open this week but will now launch in about three weeks, organizers said. The postponement follows a wave of online campaigns and calls for boycotts targeting Israeli-owned businesses, including Shani and Segal’s culinary ventures.
Protesters gathered outside the Berlin location as part of a campaign that began on social media, calling for a boycott of the restaurant over its Israeli ownership. Among the demonstrators were not only pro-Palestinian activists but also Israeli citizens and Jewish activists, some of whom had previously celebrated online after another Shani-Segal restaurant in Melbourne was vandalized earlier this month.
The involvement of Israelis in the protest drew particular anger from the restaurateurs.
“It’s unpleasant, surprising, and infuriating that this backlash is coming from Israelis themselves,” Segal told Ynetnews. “But we will continue opening more places and telling our story — our Israeli story — to anyone who’s willing to hear it. The Israeli identity is a core part of the experience, and we won’t dilute that to make others comfortable.”
In recent weeks, Israeli-linked businesses around the world have faced growing pressure amid heightened tensions related to the war in Gaza. The wave of boycotts and demonstrations has increasingly included participation from members of the Israeli diaspora, sparking internal divisions and heated debate within Jewish communities abroad.
Shani, best known for his Miznon restaurant chain and as a judge on MasterChef Israel, warned that the recent surge in anti-Israel sentiment is increasingly crossing into antisemitism.
“Hatred and love for Israel move in cycles,” he said. “But what we’re seeing now is something new — a wave of hatred rising around the world that inevitably becomes antisemitism. And antisemitism, once unleashed, is like a genie from a bottle. You can’t put it back. It’ll take years.”
Shani called on Israelis to respond by doubling down on cultural presence abroad.
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“To continue being Israelis in the world, we must reshape the way we express our identity,” he said. “Let’s take the good and the special in us and turn it into something only we can create. Now more than ever, the answer is to keep going — keep building places that show the world who we are. One restaurant is worth a thousand hatreds.”