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NY Palestinian Restaurant-Jewish Customers WEB & USAGM
November 29, 2023
LanguageEnglish
Transcript/ScriptUSAGM SHARE
((PLAYBOOK SLUG: NY Palestinian Restaurant-Jewish Customers
HEADLINE: New York Palestinian Restaurant and Its Jewish Customers
TEASER:
PUBLISHED AT: 11/29/2023 at 11:45am
BYLINE: Johny Fernandez
CONTRIBUTOR:
DATELINE: New York City
VIDEOGRAPHER: Johny Fernandez
PRODUCER:
ASSIGNING EDITOR: Tsikhanenka
SCRIPT EDITORS: Tsikhanenka, Mia Bush, David Jones
VIDEO SOURCES: VOA,
PLATFORMS: WEB__TV_X__RADIO_X_
TRT: 3:25
VID APPROVED BY: MAS
TYPE: TVR
UPDATE: ))
((INTRO))
[[Following the October 7th attacks in Israel, both Palestinians and Israelis are ill at ease. In Manhattan - one restaurant is uniting the two groups despite their differences. Johny Fernandez reports from New York City.]]
((NARRATOR))
Ayat restaurant in the East Village is Manhattan’s latest hot spot.
Owner Abdul Elenani says his restaurant has several locations in the suburbs of the Big Apple, but he always wanted to bring Palestinian cuisine to the heart of New York City.
((Abdul Elenani, Ayat Owner))
“I felt like there was a need for that because there wasn’t any. I haven’t seen any restaurants labeled Palestinian. You see Iranian, Persian, Pakistani, Indian, but never actually Palestinian.”
((NARRATOR))
But his timing was off. He opened the new location just days after the Hamas attacks of October 7th in Israel. His business experienced a serious backlash online, coming primarily from Israel.
((Abdul Elenani, Ayat Owner))
“The beginning was bad. We were getting a lot of hate messages. One-stars reviews.”
((NARRATOR))
Elenani believes the negative reactions were provoked by an online post he wrote about the situation in Gaza.
((Abdul Elenani, Ayat Owner))
“I just posted about how all these mothers are losing their children. I’m a brand-new father. I just had a baby on October 20th, and I can’t imagine for a single second losing my baby now.”
((NARRATOR))
Help came from where Elenani least expected it – some members of the Jewish community stepped up to support the restaurant.
[[Radio: New York City pediatrician Michael Harris is a frequent customer.]]
((Dr. Michael Harris, Jewish Customer))
“I’m Jewish. I’m Ashkenazi and Sephardic. My mom is a Jew from Libya, and my dad is Ashkenazi Jew from eastern Europe.”
((NARRATOR))
New York City pediatrician Michael Harris is a frequent customer. He says he loves the restaurant, although he disagrees with the political messages some of its décor might carry.
((Dr. Michael Harris, Jewish Customer))
“It was a little upsetting, some of the things on the menu. It says from the river to the sea, which does call for the Palestinian state. From the Jordan river to the Mediterranean Sea, which essentially dismantles Israel as a Jewish state. So that I didn’t love.”
((NARRATOR))
Despite that, he says, he wants to live in harmony with his neighbors.
((Dr. Michael Harris, Jewish Customer))
“It think co-existing, I think dialogue, accepting the other, just recognizing the legitimate rights of both sides to their own country and states.”
((NARRATOR))
Elenani says the decor and menu words are left for interpretation.
[[Radio: Again, Ayat owner Abdul Elenani]]
((Abdul Elenani, Ayat Owner))
“Some people interpreted it as way to kick out all the Jews. Keep it as a full Palestinian state. When I looked it up, it literally meant freedom for Palestinians.”
((NARRATOR))
Lindsey Weiss is another Jewish New Yorker who says her curiosity to learn more about the Palestinian culture keeps her coming back.
((Lindsey Weiss, Jewish Customer))
“Coming into a Palestinian restaurant, a Palestinian space, and enjoying Palestinian food and culture, gets closer to imagining what that multicultural peaceful place might look like.”
((NARRATOR))
She believes Jewish and Palestinian groups have more similarities than differences and food is the one element bringing both groups together.
((Lindsey Weiss, Jewish Customer))
“Food is really important, so I think coming from that place of common ground and exchanging cultures and putting them in conversation with each other and realizing that again we have so much more in common than we have different, and our goals are actually much more in common than they are different.”
((NARRATOR))
In a time when peaceful relations seem hard to imagine, this restaurant is showing how two communities can coexist and work together.
((JOHNY FERNANDEZ, VOA NEWS, NEW YORK))
NewsML Media TopicsArts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
NetworkVOA
Embargo DateNovember 29, 2023 11:34 EST
BylineJohny Fernandez
Brand / Language ServiceVoice of America - English, US Agency for Global Media
