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War battered their Berlin hummus bar. But the Israeli-Palestinian partners behind Kanaan see a way forward.
(JTA) — BERLIN — At a hummus restaurant in Berlin’s leafy neighborhood of Prenzlauer Berg, war has come knocking many times over the last two years. Recently, it came with the threat of closure.
Jalil Dabit, a Palestinian, and Oz Ben David, an Israeli, have run the business together for 10 years. The last two saw Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the devastating war that ensued in Gaza, killing tens of thousands of Palestinians and largely reducing the enclave to rubble.
Dabit and Ben David named their restaurant Kanaan — a Hebrew and Arabic word for the ancient land they both call home, before it was known as Israel or Palestine.
They have a mission beyond bringing the best hummus to Berlin. They turned Kanaan into a local symbol of Israeli-Palestinian dialogue, organizing free programs that teach about cooking and prejudice. One project joined Palestinian refugees who fled Gaza during the war together with members of Berlin’s Israeli community to cook under one roof. A rainbow sign outside the restaurant reads, “Make hummus not war.”
But in August, the partners issued an emergency plea.
“Kanaan is facing closure,” they announced to customers. “The year 2025 was tough. War, economic uncertainty and a sharp drop in revenue have brought us to a point where we cannot continue without your help. If nothing changes in the next two weeks, we will have to close Kanaan.”
Dabit and Ben David have continuously fended off the Gaza war’s encroachment on their business. On Oct. 7, 2023, they closed for six days. Ben David said he felt driven to quit after his friend was killed and his family members hid in their safe room from the Hamas attack on Kibbutz Be’eri. Dabit coaxed him back from despair.
The unlikely duo supported each other even as their message cost them Israeli and Palestinian friends from home. Ben David grew up in Ariel, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank; Dabit comes from Ramle, a mixed city in central Israel where his family has lived for hundreds of years. He had 16 family members in Gaza when the war broke out, all of whom since escaped to Australia.
In Berlin, their restaurant has been tested by tensions over the war. Both far-right and far-left factions have protested the “normalization” of an Israeli and a Palestinian working together.
In July 2024, Kanaan was vandalized after hosting a Jewish-Muslim brunch. The attackers shattered wine glasses, destroyed furniture, spread excrement and left hate messages throughout the restaurant. With nothing stolen, police suspected the vandalism to be motivated by hate. Months later, an Israeli woman was assaulted by four people while wearing Kanaan’s signature pin, which depicts a heart divided between the Israeli and Palestinian flag. One of the attackers shouted “Israel muss weg,” or “Israel must go,” while they knocked the woman to the ground and kicked her.
More recently, Ben David said they faced a downturn in revenue. Their customers were dwindling and they struggled to keep up with rising costs and high rent. He reached out to an email list of previously loyal customers, asking for feedback about why they weren’t returning. The responses weren’t about the food.
One answer came back clearly: People couldn’t figure out how to place Kanaan’s message of dialogue and coexistence. “‘We don’t understand if you are pro-Israel or pro-Palestine.’ That’s something that we heard a lot,” said Ben David.
Another response came down to fatigue with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After reading and watching news about the war for two years, when they finally had a break, many customers said they’d rather go out for sushi or Italian food.
Two weeks from bankruptcy, Ben David and Dabit tried to explain the restaurant’s significance to their community. “Kanaan was never just a restaurant,” they wrote on social media. “It’s a place where Israelis and Palestinians work together, where all guests eat together, where food is more than just enjoyment. … It’s a bridge between people.”
The following weeks saw a stunning change in fortune. Kanaan filled up again with a 300% increase in diners. Catering orders poured in, while many customers bought vouchers for the future. The support wasn’t just financial, said Dabit.
“When people react to our call, they give me — not just Kanaan, but also Oz and me — they give us the energy to continue,” he said. “They show us that we’re doing something right, even though it’s a really bad situation, but we’re doing something right.”
For now, the restaurant can keep going. And the partners have new inspiration for their persistent hope: Back home, the first phase of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas saw the last 20 surviving Israeli hostages returned in exchange for 1,968 Palestinian prisoners on Monday, as scenes of ecstatic reunions and continued grief washed over Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.
Dabit and Ben David said they were filled with joy and relief, mixed with yearning for a lasting peace and reconciliation.
“The ceasefire feels like a breath of fresh air after so much suffering,” said Dabit. “It’s bittersweet, but it’s an opportunity for change. This is our chance to write a new narrative for our future.”
In Kanaan’s backyard, the Gaza war triggered a sharp rise in antisemitic and anti-Muslim incidents across Germany. It also drove a fraught debate over Germany’s relationship with Israel, which became central to German national identity after the Holocaust. Unlike other European countries that have recently recognized a Palestinian state, including the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Portugal and Spain, Germany has declined to do so.
Pro-Palestinian protests in Berlin have also led to government crackdowns. In April, German immigration authorities ordered the deportation of three European nationals and one U.S. citizen over their alleged activity at pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Three of the orders cited Germany’s responsibility toward Israel — a doctrine known as the country’s “Staatsräson,” or “reason of state.” (All the protesters have appealed and won measures for interim relief.)
Dabit and Ben David plan to shape the conversations about Israelis, Palestinians, Jews and Muslims in Germany through projects beyond their restaurant. On Nov. 5, they will publish a cookbook titled “Kochen ohne Grenzen,” or “Cooking Without Borders.” The book collects their recipes while also sharing their kitchen with Berliners from around the world — including rabbis, imams and priests who cook together.
During a recent phone call between Dabit in Ramle and Ben David in Berlin, they jokingly interrupted each other’s stories about their families with accusations of “propaganda.” Turning serious, Dabit said, “I’m optimistic because I see the beauty of every person. If I couldn’t see the beauty, I couldn’t be with you for 10 years, Oz.”
“That’s true,” replied Ben David. “You managed to take a settler from Ariel and make him your best friend, like your brother.”
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Lawmakers seek 100-foot buffer zone around houses of worship to protect prayer goers from protests
(JTA) — A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a federal legislation Thursday in the House and Senate aimed at protecting houses of worship from disruptive demonstrations, following a series of protests outside of synagogues this year.
The Right to Worship Act was introduced by Sens. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, and Elissa Slotkin, a Michigan Democrat, alongside Reps. Brad Knott, a North Carolina Republican, and Tom Suozzi, a New York Democrat. It would establish a 100-foot “buffer zone” around houses of worship during religious services — mirroring similar legislation recently enacted in New York.
“The First Amendment guarantees every American the right to freely exercise their faith, and Congress has a duty to ensure that guarantee is met,” Cruz said in a statement Thursday.
The legislation would also establish civil penalties for offenders and provide pathways for individuals, including state attorneys, to seek court orders and damages in federal court. While the legislation would target protesters who knowingly disrupt scheduled religious services, houses of worship would not be required to make their schedules public.
The bill’s sponsors say the measure is aimed at conduct rather than the content of protesters’ speech.
“No one should have to push through a hostile crowd or shout over a bullhorn in an attempt to pray,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO and national director of the Anti-Defamation League, which helped lawmakers draft the legislation.
It’s the latest attempt at passing federal legislation aimed at insulating houses of worship from protest, following Suozzi’s “SACRED Act” legislation, a similar bill he introduced in April but which has not progressed in the House.
Those efforts have now been joined by Slotkin, who is Jewish, and Cruz, who has often taken aim at antisemitism within the Republican coalition over the past year.
“Exercising your right to worship should not require you to exhibit particular courage as you enter your synagogue, church, mosque, temple, mandir, or gurdwara,” Suozzi said in a statement.
The New York City Council passed a local buffer zone bill in March following a series of pro-Palestinian protests outside of synagogues that hosted Israeli real estate expos. While Jewish groups and leaders heavily advocated for the measure, it also faced opposition from civil rights leaders who said it would have a chilling effect on First Amendment protections.
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Lawmakers seek 100-foot buffer zone around houses of worship to protect prayer goers from protests appeared first on The Forward.
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Over 95% of Canadian Jewish university students report exposure to antisemitism
(JTA) — Nearly all Jewish students surveyed on Canadian university campuses said they have experienced or witnessed antisemitism, according to a new government-commissioned report.
The survey from the Department of Canadian Heritage found that 95.7% of Jewish students said they were exposed to antisemitism, with 70% saying their university did not take antisemitism seriously and 22% reporting physical violence against Jews.
“Antisemitism on Canadian campuses is neither isolated nor episodic,” said Jack Jedwab, the report’s main author, at a press conference in Ottawa on Wednesday. “It can reasonably be described as systemic.”
The surveyed students anonymously detailed rhetoric, discriminatory treatment, vandalism, intimidation and physical attacks from their classmates as well as professors and administrators. Some 45% said they experienced Holocaust denial or distortion often or sometimes, and 65% said they encountered it “at least rarely.”
One respondent said they had witnessed a friend who wears a kippah being chased out of a school building by a group of students who shouted, “There is a Jew … let’s get him.”
Another student described a professor writing that “we need to kill all Zionists, that she had worked with them and saw how evil they were.” Students also said they were pressured by peers and professors to give their opinions on Israel because they were openly Jewish.
Some 36% of respondents complained about course content or classroom discussions that “they experienced as antisemitic or biased,” while 34% said “a professor introduced Jews, Judaism, Israel, or Zionism when unrelated to the course subject.”
The survey, out Wednesday as part of a report titled Campus Antisemitism and Student Experiences, included about 900 Jewish students from schools across Canada. It was originally conducted for the government’s special envoy on antisemitism, a role that Prime Minister Mark Carney’s administration dissolved alongside an Islamophobia envoy earlier this year.
Carney replaced those offices with a new Ministerial Advisory Council on Rights, Equality, and Inclusion, which he announced in June after saying that the country was “failing Jewish Canadians.” The new council was introduced as a push to unify the government’s approach toward combating systemic prejudice, but some Jewish groups decried the elimination of distinct envoys.
Pressure has mounted on Carney’s administration to stem the tide of antisemitic attacks in Canada since 2023, including gunfire at Jewish schools and synagogues and attacks on Jewish businesses and community centers.
On the same day the report was released, an Oklahoma-based organization called Jewish Tulsa made news for urging President Donald Trump’s administration to offer refugee status to Jewish Canadians.
“With the urgency around the challenges and the inaction we see in Canada, an asylum pathway makes sense,” Joe Roberts, who leads the conservative think tank, told The Canadian Press. He said that his family moved from Ontario to Tulsa after witnessing antisemitic graffiti in his neighborhood.
Martha Piper, former president of the University of British Columbia, said the campus antisemitism report revealed “a shocking presence of campus antisemitism throughout this country along with a troubling institutional failure to respond.”
“The results suggest a university culture that is not welcoming to Jewish students and systemically tries to exclude and vilify them,” said Piper.
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Over 95% of Canadian Jewish university students report exposure to antisemitism appeared first on The Forward.
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British Conservatives face backlash for nominating a former neo-Nazi for local office
(JTA) — LONDON — Britain’s Conservative Party has defended its decision to endorse a former neo-Nazi activist as a candidate in next year’s local elections despite his imprisonment for crimes including racially aggravated harassment of Jewish former Labour MP Luciana Berger.
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said the candidate, Joshua Bonehill-Paine, had demonstrated rehabilitation through his work in countering extremism. Berger, who was prominent in the last decade for her many battles against antisemitism on the right and in her own party, said in a statement that Badendoch “got this very, very wrong.”
“This case still haunts me,” Berger, who is now a peer in the House of Lords, posted on X on Tuesday afternoon. “I feel a bit sick reading well known commentators debate his selection today and say that ‘these are precisely the people we need in public office’.”
Bonehill-Paine, 33, was imprisoned for more than two years after being convicted of multiple crimes. Bonehill-Paine had called himself “a proud antisemite” while planning a 2015 rally that aimed to undo the “Jewification of Great Britain.”
Bonehill-Paine will run for the Crewkerne South seat on Somerset Council in southwest England in May 2027, less than a decade after his release from prison in 2018. His incarceration came after he was prosecuted for sharing what a judge described as “vile” antisemitic material ahead of a planned neo-Nazi demonstration, as well as for racially aggravated harassment after publishing a series of antisemitic blog posts targeting Berger.
Among other slurs, he referred to Berger as an “evil money-grabber,” depicted her as a rodent and said the number of Jewish Labour MPs was “a problem.”
According to the Guardian, Bonehill-Paine said the Conservative Party and his local branch were aware of his past before selecting him. He told the Guardian that since his release from prison he has spoken publicly against antisemitism and extremism and has completed government-backed radicalization and counter-extremism programs.
The Conservative Campaign Headquarters responded to a Jewish Telegraphic Agency request for comment by relaying Badendoch’s remarks to reporters in Surrey on Tuesday morning.
“I think people can look at me and know that I’m not a person who would be recruiting neo-Nazis,” said Badenoch, who was raised in Nigeria and who has become an outspoken critic of rising antisemitism in Britain. “Josh is someone who actually has been certified by the Home Office to train police officers on antisemitism and on countering extremism.”
She acknowledged Bonehill-Paine’s conviction but said he has “shown contrition for his crimes, has been rehabilitated and is spending every day working to solve the very problem which he knew he had caused previously.”
She added that he is “actively working to help communities, especially Jewish communities and this is what I want to see.”
The backlash from Jewish organizations has been swift . Board of Deputies of British Jews Vice President Karen Newman stated, “It beggars belief that any party would select as a candidate a multiply convicted felon and the founder of a far-right group called National British Resistance.”
She also noted that the board had contacted the Conservative Party “to set out our concerns and call on them to rescind his selection and review their vetting processes.”
The Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council put out a separate joint statement saying they had declined the Conservative Party’s invitation to meet with Bonehill-Paine, stating that his “crimes targeting Luciana Berger and others mean that he still faces ongoing legal restrictions.”
They added, “Whilst we do believe in the possibility of rehabilitation, this should not in this case entail selection as a candidate for a major political party, and the impact of this decision on the victims ought to be a central consideration.”
Both organizations said they had agreed to meet with members of the party “to discuss their decision-making processes and to urge them to rescind this decision.”
The Jewish Labour Movement called the decision “truly appalling,” saying that Bonehill-Paine’s record, and particularly his attacks on Berger, should have disqualified him from elected office. “This is a former Neo-Nazi who was sent to prison for racially abusing a Jewish politician,” the group said.
Berger represented Liverpool Wavertree from 2010 until 2019 and entered the House of Lords last year. During her tenure she received constant antisemitic abuse, both online and in person, and was the target of several criminal incidents involving extremist harassment.
Bonehill-Paine did not respond to JTA’s requests for comment.
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post British Conservatives face backlash for nominating a former neo-Nazi for local office appeared first on The Forward.
