‘Disgusting’ Tel Aviv eatery lies after disrespecting Memorial Day

“Who are you repulsive people who don’t bother to stand for a minute at the siren and instead continue sitting and eating?” asks outraged local.

By World Israel News Staff

A Tel Aviv restaurant that remained open on Memorial Day evening and did not respect the 8 p.m. siren commemorating fallen IDF soldiers has come under fire on social media, with Israelis pledging to boycott the eatery.

Nearly all of Israel’s restaurants, cafes, shops, convenience and grocery stores shuttered their doors in the late afternoon, as is the custom in the country to mark the beginning of Memorial Day, which starts after sunset.

Even in secular, liberal Tel Aviv, a local ordinance mandates that businesses shut their doors by 7 p.m. on Memorial Day – although most close down several hours before the cut-off.

But Ask Doner, a shawarma restaurant and bar on Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff Street, kept serving customers far after all of the other eateries in the area closed down and the holiday officially began.

Outraged Tel Aviv resident Omer Gershon posted a picture of the restaurant, with customers waiting to order inside and others dining al fresco on the sidewalk outside the business, along with an angry caption.

“What is this disgusting eatery that needs to be open on Memorial Day evening? And who are you repulsive people who don’t bother to stand for a minute at the siren and instead continue sitting and eating?” read Gershon’s post, which immediately went viral.

Gershon’s post and pictures were reposted by journalists and mainstream media outlets, gathering more attention.

“Even if this is the last place [on Earth] that offers water, I will never step foot in this place,” wrote journalist Sivan Cohen Saban.

Ask Doner was then flooded with negative Google reviews, earning the restaurant a super-low 1.2 star rating.

But rather than apologizing, the owners of Ask Doner accused Gershon of lying. They published a photo of the restaurant darkened and closed, claiming that Gershon’s post was “fake news” and an attempt by a “bad person to hurt” the business.

Gershon immediately fired back, posting a screenshot of metadata from his phone, proving the picture was taken at 8:01 p.m. He challenged the restaurant owners to prove their image of the supposedly closed eatery was taken at the time when they claimed.

Though it’s unclear how he obtained the document, Gershon then posted a fine issued to Ask Doner by the city of Tel Aviv for 730 shekels ($200.)

The document clearly stated that the restaurant was being penalized for remaining open on Memorial Day evening. Information on the document indicates that the fine was given at 8:21 p.m.

“Friends, it is important for me to say that I did not upload this post in hopes of mob justice and violent discourse,” Gershon wrote.

“It just pained me to see people sitting and not bothering to take a minute out of their lives to honor the memory of the fallen.”

Israel Memorial DayMemorial DayTel AvivYom Hazikaron