Six days after the Hamas attacks on Israel, a restaurant known for serving some of Berlin’s best hummus announced it would reopen its doors.
The restaurant, Kanaan, had been hastily shuttered as Jewish communities across Europe wrestled with a rise in antisemitism. But, as the world watched in horror as war gripped his homeland, Oz Ben David knew the time had come to reopen.
“If you are closing up, you are surrendering to terror,” he said. “We will not agree to this kind of language of fear.”
The decision hinted at the singularity that has defined Kanaan since it opened in 2015. The fruit of a project by Ben David, an Israeli, and Jalil Dabit, a Palestinian, the casual restaurant has long sought to straddle one of the world’s most divisive conflicts over a culture-melding menu that serves up dishes such as shakshuka lasagne and hummus ragout.
At the heart of Kanaan’s offering is the unlikely duo of Ben David, who spent his teenage years in an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, and Dabit, a Palestinian Arab from central Israel. The two met in Berlin, bonding over a shared vision of serving up a cuisine inspired by their heritage. “We take the best of both sides – we want to show what’s possible,” said Dabit.
Their efforts are to get an official nod this week. On Wednesday, the pair will sit down with Germany’s president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, to share their thoughts on how best to address the tensions sparked locally by the conflict in the Middle East.
What Ben David is keen to discuss is the country’s hard line on pro-Palestinian rallies and expressions of support for the Palestinian people. German police have responded to a rise in antisemitism by pre-emptively banning several rallies that sought to express solidarity with the Palestinian people.
“You see a ring of Germans around Jewish protests and you see a ring of German policemen around the pro-Palestinian ones,” he said.
Officials have cited concerns over dangers to public order to explain the stance, as well as the country’s historical responsibility towards Israel given Germany’s role as the perpetrator of the Holocaust, in which 6 million Jews were murdered. It is a political consensus that has remained even as disquiet grows over Israeli strikes that have killed more than 10,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, and left 2.3 million civilians suffering shortages of water, food and medicine.
“I understand they have good intentions but they miss the point by choosing a favourite,” said Ben David. He pointed to Muslim communities in Germany. “They need to feel like they belong here. They need to feel that this country can feel their pain.”
It’s a view that has been weeks in the making. On 7 October, as news broke that Hamas militants had killed more than 1,400 people in what was described by the US president, Joe Biden, as the “deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust”, Ben David reeled, swiftly shutting down the restaurant.
“I was overwhelmed,” he said. He lashed out angrily at Hamas, telling Dabit: “I wish that we will destroy Gaza.”
The response from his partner shocked him. “I was full of hate, full of anger and he hugged me,” said Ben David. “He had faith in me and I had fear in me.”
Dabit said he understood his friend’s anger at what Hamas had done. “I felt the same,” he said. “How could they do something like this? You’re not fighting for the Palestinians, you’re making a problem for the Palestinian people.”
In the days that followed, Dabit called Ben David constantly to check in on him. It was a small gesture – but one that convinced Ben David that the restaurant needed to reopen to help those grappling with the pain of watching the war play out from afar.
The decision – taken amid a rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia – was a gamble, particularly for a restaurant whose opening party in 2015 had been met with protests and threats. “Of course we were scared,” said Ben David. “We didn’t really know that nothing would happen.”
The alternative, however, was to continue living in fear. “We need to give a place for the fear, to respect it but still be brave enough to cross through it,” said Ben David. “We’re taking those walls down.”
People have since poured through the restaurant’s doors, embracing it as a safe space, said Ben David. “People are coming because they’re looking for an island of peace. A lot of people are getting lost in the violence of both sides at the moment,” he said. “It’s very scary to be scared. And you hear it from both sides.”
Not everyone has welcomed their overarching message, however, which calls for peace above all.
“People think it’s not strong enough. Jalil’s hearing it from his Palestinian family that it’s not enough for them and I’m hearing it a lot from the few Israeli friends I have left,” said Ben David.
“I always tell them, ‘We’re not fighting any narrative. We put the Palestinian narrative equally next to the Israeli narrative,’” he added. “And then we try to find the bridges between them.”
