Between mundane posts on the Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, Facebook page—rental listings, furniture for sale, a woman seeking a cat dermatologist—a battle has erupted over a newly opened Palestinian restaurant whose owners are critical of the Israeli government.
The restaurant, Ayat, is part of a small chain owned by Ayat Masoud and her husband, Abdul Elenani. The Ditmas Park menu includes a seafood section titled “from the river to the sea,” a controversial slogan that the Anti-Defamation League considers antisemitic and a call for “Israel’s destruction through violent means.”
One aggrieved Facebook commentator derided the phrase as “openly genocidal.” Many Palestinian advocates, Elenani included, insist that the decades-old slogan is merely a non-violent rallying cry for justice.
“Our interpretation on it is just simply freedom and rights to the Palestinian people between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea,” he said. “We’re just against the Zionist mentality of, like, eliminate or flatten Gaza now.”
“Our neighbors are Jews, our friends are Jews, we work with Jewish people all day every day. We do not hate Jewish people. It’s the opposite,” he continued. “Judaism and Islam, they are the two most similar religions.”
Elenani said he attempted to clarify his position to the Facebook group, but his comments were censored by administrators. (An admin told The Daily Beast that all “explicitly political” posts were removed.)
He said he hoped to say that his “brand” consists of two elements: “Number one is that I will always mention the occupation of the Palestinian people. And number two is that we will always advocate for peace.”
Many members of the Facebook group have made statements supporting the restaurant and offering flattering reviews of its food, while others have said they will not eat there as long as the slogan remains on the menu.
The situation mirrors other controversies that have boiled over since the start of the Israel-Hamas War on Oct. 7. Across the country, and in some cases the globe, businesses have been protested, review bombed, and boycotted by customers angry about their owners’ positions on the conflict.
The latest debate is unfolded in a gentrifying community known for Victorian mansions and homes often used in TV shows and movies. Positioned just south of Prospect Park, it is not only ethnically diverse, but also in terms of “race and class and educational background,” one resident said.
Dahlia Schweitzer, who moved to Ditmas Park in 2020, dismissed Facebook comments defending Ayat as “virtue signaling from people who somehow think that they are making a political statement by eating at this restaurant and posting ad nauseam about it online.”
Schweitzer was particularly offended by the “river to the sea” language, she told The Daily Beast. The restaurant may claim “they’re just advocating for freedom,” she said. “But they’re poking the hornet's nest. And they know what they're doing.
“The best analogy that I could think [of] is if a restaurant that had southern food had the Confederate flag on their menu, and tried to spin it as ‘Oh, this is just southern pride.’ And it’s like, you know, Don’t be coy.”
The debate over Ayat morphed into a debate over how the Facebook group was handling posts.
Another resident, who asked not to be named, echoed that argument, claiming that Elenani and Masoud are “obviously trying to instigate.” The resident added that she intends to contact the local community board to see whether Ayat is flouting permit requirements for its outdoor seating. (Elenani said the business is compliant.)
Following Hamas’ attack on Israel in October, Masoud and Elenani’s restaurants were subjected to online attacks and review bombs. In the months since, during which the Israeli military commenced a brutal assault on Gaza, the intensity of those comments has diminished, Elenani said. Business is still slow at his Staten Island location, but the other restaurants are operating at their normal levels.
Ditmas Park resident Lisa Javaherikia said she found the criticism of Ayat “kind of unnerving” and also unexpected in light of the area’s diversity: “You walk one block over, you have a Haitian community, you walk the other direction it’s a Yemeni community, you walk in another direction it's very Orthodox Jewish.”
Javaherikia recently visited Ayat and posted in the group about the “ahhhhmazing food.” Concerned about blowback from other commenters, she had nearly opted not to post. “Then I was like, ‘You know what, fuck that.’” In Javaherikia’s view, the restaurant’s owners “have a right to say what they want, and I have a right to go or not.”
Schweitzer thinks the humanitarian situation in Gaza is “a horror and a nightmare” for civilians, but she nonetheless believes Ayat overstepped.
Another Ayat critic—asked whether they would defend a pro-Israel restaurant if the situation were reversed—argued to The Daily Beast that it would be “fine” to openly support the Israeli government or military, so long as the restaurant didn’t “blatantly say anything against the Palestinians.”
Other residents simply appear to be exhausted by all the noise. The “armchair activists on both sides… are losing their minds,” one group member said.
Added another person in a post about Ayat on Tuesday: “I had the best babaganoush ever in there, that’s all I wanted to say.”
On Wednesday, posts from locals raving about the food at Ayat—with no explicit political content— flooded the Facebook group. The comments on those quickly devolved into a now-familiar debate, with a sprinkling of group members pushing for an end to that debate.
By 9:30 p.m., the administrators of the group had addressed the brouhaha with a decision to temporarily require that all posts be approved by moderators.
“This decision wasn't made lightly,” the announcement said. “We understand the importance of free expression and the role this group plays in our daily interactions. However, our priority is to uphold a space where all members feel safe and valued.”
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