Owner of Philly restaurant targeted in Palestine protests is official Israeli govt propagandist and Biden ally

The Biden White House and top Democrats have denounced Palestine solidarity activists as antisemites for protesting outside an Israeli-owned restaurant in Philly. Its owner happens to be an official Israeli government propagandist with close ties to the Biden White House.

(Article by Alexander Rubinstein republished from TheGrayzone.com)

If powerful Democrats are to be believed, it was a night of shattered glass in Philadelphia, PA this December 3. Local Palestine solidarity activists calling for a ceasefire in a war that has left 16,000 civilians dead in the besieged Gaza Strip stopped for a few minutes outside an “Israeli-style” falafel shop and shouted chants accusing the business of supporting Israel’s ongoing massacre. Beyond leaving a few stickers on the restaurant’s windows, they did no damage and moved on.

The restaurant in question was not just some random mom-and-pop eatery that fell victim to an anti-Semitic pogrom. It is owned by celebrity chef Michael Solomonov, an Israeli government culinary ambassador who appears in Department of Justice Foreign Agent Registration Act documents as an official propagandist for the country’s Ministry of Tourism.

Solomonov is also a prominent campaigner for the Biden presidency. Since the full-scale war was launched this October, Solomonov’s restaurant group has been funneling money to the Israeli Defense Forces through a non-profit.

“Our protest was not organized around Goldie’s whatsoever. We were marching to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire and made a brief 2-4 minute pit stop to call out Michael Solomonov’s complicity and financial support for an apartheid government. We also stopped at Starbucks to chant near identical chants,” Natalie Abulhawa, organizer with the Philadelphia Free Palestine Coalition, told The Grayzone. “The claims that we stopped by Goldie’s because of the owner’s religious beliefs are naive and dangerously untrue,” she said.

Abulhawa added that Solomonov’s fundraising was the real reason for the protest: “Our Jewish brothers and sisters were out there marching and chanting with us.”

Within hours of the protest, a chorus of Democratic Party elites chimed in to condemn the rally. The White House on Monday denounced the protesters outside of Philadelphia’s Goldie restaurant as “antisemitic and completely unjustifiable.” Douglas Emhoff, husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, spoke with the restaurant owner days later, telling him that President Biden, VP Harris, and the “entire Biden-Harris Administration will continue to have his back.” Emhoff went on to claim — without evidence — that protesters “yelled antisemitic chants.”

Protestors in Philadelphia stand outside of a Jewish & Israeli owned falafel restaurant

“Goldie, Goldie you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide” pic.twitter.com/yF7hQwev66

— Jordan Van Glish (@thatJVG) December 3, 2023

“Targeting a Jewish business because it is Jewish is antisemitism, pure and simple,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer chimed in. “Tonight in Philly, we saw a blatant act of antisemitism,” wrote Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, adding “a restaurant was targeted and mobbed because its owner is Jewish and Israeli.”

According to rally organizers, Solomonov’s restaurant was not targeted because it was Jewish or even Israeli-owned. Instead, they demonstrated outside its premises because of its direct connection to the government overseeing the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza.

The Goldie restaurant is owned by Democratic insider and Israeli government operative Michael Solomonov’s CooknSolo restaurant group, and has been channeling money to the IDF through the Friends of United Hatzalah NGO. United Hatzalah recently described itself as “a significant component of the war effort.” The NGO’s founder, Eli Beer, personally met with President Joe Biden and addressed congress in an effort to shore up support for a military aid package in late October.

Read more at: TheGrayzone.com