Police will investigate radical attack in the restaurant of Avilez – Diário de Notícias – Lisbon

The chef decided not to file a complaint but the PSP will investigate the act of vandalism alleged to be anti-Israel to their restaurant. PJ and SIS are sensitive to the attack

The attack with the red paint to the front of the restaurant Cantinho do Avillez, in Porto, on Friday, will have been done by the alleged activists in the pro-palestinian movement the global BDS (Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions), according to the newspaper israel The Times of Israel. Given the supposed political context of the act of protest, and the PSP will investigate the case and try to identify the authors, in spite of José Avillez has declared yesterday to the DN that was not going to complain. According to police source, the issue is that the vandalism assumes here the outline of a public crime given the context of extremist political protest. If the Public Prosecutor understand, the investigation of the case goes to the Judicial Police. The same source added that the judiciary police and the SIS will already be aware of the attack and to their respective authors.

the owner of The space, the chef José Avillez – criticized the movement for having gone to tel Aviv to participate in a food festival – devalued the act and will not even lodge a complaint. “Call vandalism to what they did, which was to paint a few walls-and-paste some papers, is excessive. I made no formal complaint to the PSP Port and I am not going to do,” said the chef to the DN, yesterday, to the arrival in Portugal.

the facade of The restaurant was painted with red paint on Friday and it has been pasted papers on which, according to news published yesterday, if you could read phrases such as “Freedom for Palestine”, “Avillez collaborates with the occupation zionist” and “Inbound: a dose of white phosphorus”. Avillez not witnessed anything since it was still in Israel, but added that the PSP was to the restaurant after the attack to record the event and identify some of the employees from the chef that were present. “When the trip was scheduled, we received some e-mails of activists desincentivarem my participation,” said the chef, guaranteeing that “there were no threats in these calls”.

The festival, Round Tables, in tel Aviv, which takes place from 6 to 26 November, invited 13 cooks the world’s top, to lead the kitchen – each one of them, for a week – a restaurant israelite. The event is sponsored by American Express.

José Avillez sees what happened in your restaurant of the Port as a “crash course” and remember that is not connected to any political support to Israel. “If the meeting food was in Palestine would also. The kitchen of the israeli-palestinian interests me greatly. The policy would not realize. As said the other, I is more cakes!”.

November 10, before the chef left for Israel, a group of associations and Portuguese groups linked to the international movement for BDS published a petition entitled: “Chefs international, among which are José Avillez, sponsored by the business illegal settlement israelites”. In the below-signed followed an appeal of the activists “to chef Jose Avilez, owner of the restaurant Belcanto in Lisbon, for this to annul its participation in the culinary event in tel Aviv titled Round Tables”.

The appeal is part of an international protest that brought together over 140 human rights organizations against the participation in the event of gourmet restaurants, among which L”Ami Jean in Paris, and the Musket Room in New York city.

Jose Falcon supports the activists

The organization SOS Racism was one of the signatories. The face of this association, José Falcão, guaranteed to DN that did not participate in the act of vandalism to the front of the Cantinho do Avillez, in Porto, “but that these activists may have done is nothing compared to what is to be done by Israel in the settlements”.

José Falcão still considers that “the participation of the chefs at the event was very sad, because the regime israel has not respected all the recommendations of the UN in relation to the occupation of the settlement”.

Faced with the devaluation of Avillez in relation to the attack, Jose Falcon commented: “I Think as well that don’t complain. After all, they have taken an attitude in the face of an act that is much worse”.