Lebanese owner expels Israelis from Sinai eatery over Gazan ‘genocide’

The woman defended both Hamas and Hezbollah for acting against Israel.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

An Israeli couple was evicted from a restaurant in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula after the owner accused them of supporting “genocide” in Gaza, Mako reported Monday.

About a week ago, Y. and her husband, David, traveled by taxi to a campground with an eatery at Ras a-Shaitan beach, which had received good reviews, including from Israelis.

The gate to the compound was closed, and the taxi got stuck trying to turn around, so the couple went in to see if someone could open the gate.

The place was completely empty, but the owner arrived a few minutes later, opened the gate, and allowed them in for drinks, even though she said she normally took customers only by reservation.

They started chatting with her, and when she told them she was Lebanese, they said they would love to visit her country and believed one day Israel and Lebanon would be at peace.

She rejected the idea, Y. said, “and talked about how Hezbollah was established because ‘we occupied their territory,’ that the same happened with Hamas, and that genocide was happening in Gaza.”

The couple tried to defend Israel, saying the country had only reacted after a long period of not responding to attacks, but “as soon as I told her she was wrong, she got angry and told us to get out of there.”

The couple wished her a good evening and left in the taxi, whose Egyptian driver then told them the owner had berated him for bringing Israelis to her establishment.

Y. posted about what happened on a travel group she belonged to, and dozens of Israelis reacted by criticizing the restaurant on Google, she said.

The owner responded to the negative reviews, writing in poor English: “David we have honor in have asked you to leave our restaurant after we welcomed you even though you had no reservations. And as you have denied the genocide happening in Gaza, we have no pride in hosting a guest of your level of dignity or humanity.”

The single star given to her restaurant, she added, had nothing to do with its quality but was solely “your reaction to being kicked out of it.”

The support the couple received online was touching, Y. said. “It was truly amazing and showed our strength as a people. She had to close the option to leave a review.”

Y. added that this incident was very much an exception to their vacation experience in Sinai, which was “amazing.”

“I wouldn’t want to keep Israelis away from there, but only from this specific place,” she said. “Egyptians really don’t behave like that. They were nice and kind to us, and after we told some locals what happened to us, they were really angry that she treated us like that.”