Back in October, Hash Tayeh, the founder of Australia’s biggest independently-owned burger chain Burgertory, was filmed at a Melbourne rally leading chants of ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’.
This is peaceful and genuine act while they keep chanting hateful speech and raise hitler photos. This is the CEO of big burgers chain #burgertory pic.twitter.com/JMklhA6Bwg
— Guy Peleg (@AnnoymousGiraf) October 29, 2023
He later tried to assure Jewish Australians that he was neither antisemitic nor wished Jews any harm.
On Monday, the Jordan-born entrepreneur wrote ‘an open letter to my Jewish friends’ following a wave of criticism for his involvement in the protest and calls to boycott his restaurants.
He vehemently rejected the allegation he held anti-Semitic views and claimed he was a ‘voice for peace’.
‘At no stage have I ever called for harm to any individual, and I want to emphasise that I have deep and meaningful friendships with members of the Jewish community.’
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Mr Tayeh said ‘violence or eradication’ was against everything he stood for and he loved humanity too much’ to be anti-Semtitic – but stopped short of apologising directly.
Instead, he sought to explain there were different interpretations of the slogan.
‘Unfortunately there are two very stark differences in interpretation of the chant “From the river to the sea”, but from first-hand account (sic) I can assure you there is no one I know that means it in the sense that we want Jewish people dead or Israel eradicated,’ he wrote.
He also said he was proud to have opened one of his stores in a heavily Jewish neighborhood as proof as to how we can co-exist.
“I was genuinely proud to have my store in the heart of Caulfield. I knew Caulfield was [in] the dominant Jewish area, and I opened my store there, being loud and proud letting everyone hear that yes, I am a Palestinian.
“For me, that was a beacon of unity and hope, and an example to the world of how Palestinians and Israelis can coexist, can support each other, can love each other.
That store was firebombed in November, prompting an anti-Israel protest at a nearby park opposite a local Synagogue, even though there was no evidence the firebombing was racially or politically motivated.
Fast forward to now, and Tayeh – much like his burgers – seems to be full of bull.
He has been caught spreading unadulterated antisemitism on social media:
I am not sure what sharing a post about Jewish involvement in the porn industry will do to Free Palestine, let alone a post from a Nazi account, which also claims ”the Holocaust is the root of woke culture” and that ”Jews go to synagogues to plot and scheme.”
And this is not the only recent example of his antisemitism. Yesterday he shared a libel reminiscent of the medieval blood libel of Jews as child killers:
There is absolutely no chance this occurred, yet Mr Nothingburger is spreading it, seemingly because he really does not like Jews very much.
Here’s hoping those Jews of Australia who do not keep kosher will boycott Burgertory, not to mention all decent people disgusted by this plate of antisemitism served with lies.
