Against the background of the threats to open the restaurants during the closure, the restaurateurs announced a mass protest tomorrow, at the same time as signing the peace agreement at the White House • Chef Yuval Ben Neria:
A closed restaurant in the marina during the Corona period
Photo:
Reuters
Closed restaurant in Tel Aviv
Photo:
Yossi Zeliger
Doc restaurant in Tel Aviv
Photo:
Coco
The announcement of the closure, which will begin this coming Friday, left many restaurateurs last night (Sunday) angry, desperate and mostly confused about their future, both in the coming weeks but also in the long run.
Some of them are threatening an uprising and others have already "surrendered" and are preparing to close the restaurant.
Meanwhile, the "Strong Restaurants Together" Association has announced a "breaking the dishes" protest against the closure, which could lead to the dismissal of thousands of workers in the restaurant industry.
The protest will start tomorrow at 19:00, at the same time as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's signature on the White House peace agreement with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
During this time, many restaurateurs across the country are expected to step out of their businesses and break plates on the floor as an act of protest.
Taizo restaurant chef Yuval Ben Neria, one of the leaders of the protest together with the restaurateurs' association, did not rule out the possibility of keeping his business open even during the closure period. "It very much depends on what the government will offer in return," he told Israel Today.
"It is impossible to leave us like this, without an adequate compensation plan, without a solution for the workers. Until now we have not even received the funds for the closure in April. Our flow does not allow us to continue to exist in this way and we will have to make difficult decisions."
"With our nails we managed to crawl out of the last quarantine," Ben Neria continued.
"The upcoming closure simply does not allow us to continue to exist so we will do everything we can to survive. Does that mean opening the restaurants in closure? I do not know yet, but we must understand that we are in total uncertainty. Our employees will also not get what they need from Social Security To receive in order to live. We need to see what we do and how we conduct ourselves within this outline. "
"Hence the big protest planned for tomorrow. We want to explain to the decision makers and the public that it is impossible and we can not continue to be transparent. The collective punishment imposed on us for not being able to apply it to other places and other sectors - not acceptable to us. Attack it and what we do, that way we will not accept it humbly and certainly without war.
On the possibility of a restaurant revolt in closure, the esteemed chef said: "I got to talk to a lot of my colleagues and everyone is currently considering their steps. We are not threatening anything at the moment except for very active resistance and a very large protest. Everything is currently on the table and we are exploring all options. I guess "We will decide in the coming days how we continue in this struggle. There will be no peace here."
"All options remain on the table," he concluded.
We are law-abiding and do not threaten to break it.
We want to respect decisions - but they cannot be respected if they are one-sided and do not allow us to exist.
We have not yet reached this stage where we involve our guests or other people from outside.
At the moment we are only considering our steps but we will not make the decision in silence and humility.
Certainly when it comes to some kind of spin and the fact that prayers are confirmed in synagogues on such and such a scale, and we are told 'you are silent, let's slip it and deal for three weeks'.
Chef Bernardo Belchovich, one of the owners of the "Gan Gan Sipur" group, also attacked the decision on the closure: "Unfortunately, the government is fighting a disease with weapons that will exacerbate it, in every way. Another closure is a death blow to the Israeli economy and cause more serious illness."
"At the current level of morbidity, the government wants to gather all patients in homes and exacerbate the morbidity instead of preparing and rehabilitating the health system? There is no exit plan here and we will find ourselves in a few months in another situation. I hope the Israeli economy succeeds but I am pessimistic."
