Restaurant Cantinho do Avillez vandalized by a group of pro-palestinian Audience.en

red Ink and papers pasted to the door of the restaurant Cantinho do Avillez Porto accusing the chef José Avillez of "collaborating with the occupation by the zionist". It was in this way that, on Friday, movements pro-palestinians reacted to the presence of’avillez in the festival, Round Tables that will take place in Israel until the 26th. The group José Avillez does not make any comment on the incident.

The chef is one of thirteen invited many international restaurants to cook in tel Aviv and returned this Sunday to Portugal after a week at the restaurant the host Nithan Baht. Since it was known the trip to Israel that Avillez began to receive pressures, through email and social media, to boycott the festival. The protests are not aimed at only Avilez – all chefs present have been subject to similar pressures for having decided to participate in this second edition of the Round Tables.

According to the newspaper "The Times of Israel", the authors of the protest will be the activists of the movement Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions (BDS). On its website, the BDS explains that the gastronomic festival "tries to whitewash the violent repression of human rights of the palestinians by Israel". In some restaurants, like the Musket Room in New York city, or the L Ami Jean in Paris there have even been demonstrations at the door.

THE BDS accuses in particular the Spanish Government, which on paper is opposed to the settlements israelites illegal" "associate your name to the event to the side" of the Golan Heights Winery, a producer of wines that benefit from the occupation and annexation by israel of the Mountains, the Golan". In the text that can be read on its website, the BDS describes the campaign that organized in the social networks, with more than "480 tweets and hundreds of messages on the pages of Facebook" appealing to the chefs to boycott the event.

According to Lusa, the blog Portuguese solidarity with Palestine “Palestine Wins” refers, in a publication dated 10 November that “activists against the regime of the israeli occupation and apartheid launched an appeal [by the letter]" Avilez, signed by the Association in April, the Collective Mumia Abu-Jamal, the Committee of Solidarity with Palestine, the Council of the Portuguese for Peace and Cooperation, the Group Action Palestine, the MPPM – Movement for the Rights of the Palestinian People and for Peace in the Middle East, the Panthers Pink – Front of Combating Lesbigaytransfobia and SOS Racism.

Yair Bekier, one of the organizers of the Round Tables (which is a private initiative sponsored by American Express and in partnership with the ministries the israelites of Foreign Affairs and Tourism and the city of tel Aviv) told the AUDIENCE that in the past year, in the first edition, of the 300 restaurants around the world that contacted "290 said that they do not". Despite this, the Round Tables took off with seven chefs guests, and this year has switched to the 13, involving already cooks of greater international projection. The aim is now the model of the festival to other countries, starting possibly by Moscow.