The kosher restaurant HaCarmel in Amsterdam, which has repeatedly been the target of anti-Semitic aggression in recent years, will close its doors in September. That’s what the son of the deceased owner has announced on social media†
The Israeli-Dutch Sami Bar-On, who died suddenly this spring at the age of 67, ran HaCarmel for more than twenty years. Son Daniel continued the restaurant after his death, but that is “unfortunately harder than expected”, he writes on Instagram on Thursday. “Every day there are guests who ask if I am the owner, which doesn’t feel that way because this was my father’s business for 22 years.” The family has now “with pain in our hearts” decided to close the restaurant permanently.
HaCarmel in Amsterdam South was repeatedly the target of threats, graffiti and vandalism in the past five years. This made it a symbol for the increasing sense of insecurity among Jewish Dutchmen – and a magnet for even more attacks.
In 2017, the Palestinian-Syrian refugee Saleh A. smashed the windows at CaHarmel. Images of that attack caused a nationwide wave of outrage. Two years later, A. struck again, this time with an iron pipe and attempted arson. He was convicted for both attacks.
In January 2020, Hassan F. placed a fake bomb in front of HaCarmel’s doorstep. In March this year, another man who had called the restaurant 31 times to verbally abuse and threaten Bar-On was in court. HaCarmel’s windows were also repeatedly spat under and smeared with eggs. The restaurant was structurally secured.