Back in October, not long after the Hamas massacre, 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
After some backlash, he claimed he meant it peacefully.
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.
Not that it should surprise anyone following his antics, but he was serving up a load of bull – something that has been reaffirmed by a recent rally in Melbourne, where Mr Nothingburger showed just how much he truly stands for “peace”:
Melbourne, Australia – No peace, No ceasefire – that is seemingly the public call of #Burgertory CEO Hash Tayeh
— Menachem Vorchheimer (@MenachemV) April 17, 2024
Little wonder Australia’s social cohesion is broken@australian @theheraldsun @ZionistFedAus @3AW693 @theage @ZionistFedAus @VictoriaPolice @AlboMP @PeterDutton_MP pic.twitter.com/eivkCgG7U7
By adamantly and angrily opposing the idea of a “ceasefire”, Tayeh is showing how he supports Hamas fighting, while keeping innocent Israeli hostages.
We got a bloody preview on October 7 as to what “From the River to the Sea” truly means. If you believe this angry man opposing a ceasefire has a different interpretation of this chant, I have a cheeseburger to sell you.
