Vandals ransacked an Israeli-Palestinian restaurant in Berlin, smashing wine glasses and defiling the space with “disgusting acts” a week after it hosted a queer Jewish-Muslim brunch, its owners have said.
Kanaan, a casual eatery in the Prenzlauer Berg district of the city, has attracted national attention since the 7 October attacks on Israel by Hamas, for its message of “unity over hate”. Its owners, Oz Ben David, an Israeli, and Jalil Dabit, a Palestinian, have called it an “island of peace”.
After the attack, which occurred at the weekend, Ben David and Dabit posted on Instagram to seek support and donations from the restaurant’s loyal patrons.
“A week ago, we hosted a beautiful Jewish-Muslim brunch at Kanaan Berlin, a morning filled with unity and love,” they wrote, referring to a running series of LGBTQ+ events the restaurant puts on.
“We received some online responses following the event, but nothing more than that … until this morning.”
Next to a photograph of overturned chairs and spilt wine, they said the restaurant had been targeted by a “despicable act of vandalism” in which nothing was stolen.
“Despite this cowardly attack, we want to make one thing clear – Kanaan will not cower to threats and hate,” Ben David and Dabit said.
Ben David said the restaurant, which was founded in 2015, is called Kanaan “because that’s what the land was called before it became Israel and Palestine”. Its slogan is: “Make Hummus Not War.”
He said that the vandals had spread faeces on the floor and the walls of what he calls their shared “temple” and had broken furniture and smashed bottles from the bar.
Ben David said he would travel to the Middle East next month to support joint projects with Dabit, who is now with his family in Ramallah, aimed at fostering understanding between Israelis and Palestinians – a goal he admitted had become ever more elusive since the war in Gaza broke out.
About 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israel on 7 October. Israel’s subsequent military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 39,000 people, mostly civilians, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
“It’s so hard to speak about peace. It’s much harder now to convince people, to pull people and push them toward peace,” said Ben David.
“I want to make the difference and to be part of the solutions and not to hunt the problems and to point fingers.”
This week Kanaan scaled back its opening hours to allow for the clean-up and police investigation but vowed to keep operating. A Berlin police spokesperson confirmed it had launched an inquiry.
Ben David said a €15,000 fundraising goal to cover lost “equipment, furniture, and income” had been surpassed in the first 24 hours thanks to donors from across Germany.
Kanaan intends to continue the campaign to finance “projects that promote Israeli and Palestinian coexistence and foster political education for tolerance and mutual understanding among young people in Germany”.
