A new Palestinian-Arab-owned restaurant in Brooklyn, New York sparked controversy for including the phrase 'From the River to the Sea' on its menus, the Daily Beast reported.
The restaurant, Ayat, was opened earlier this month in the Ditmas Park neighborhood and is the third to be opened from a small chain owned by Ayat Masoud and her husband, Abdul Elenani.
The seafood section of the restaurant menu features the term 'From the River to the Sea' a call for the complete destruction of the State of Israel and its Jewish citizens between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. The phrase is featured above the menu options in larger print than anything else on the page.
The menu also features a picture of a crying Arab woman together with the phrase “down with the occupation.”
Local residents strongly criticized the menu for its political and divisive content on a community Facebook page, with one calling the menu "openly genocidal."
The owners insist that they merely mean to say that there should be equality between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea and that they are not antisemitic. However, critics compared this to a southern restaurant defending flying a Confederate flag and stated that the couple knew how offensive the language they included on the menu was.
Elenani told the Daily Beast: "Number one is that I will always mention the occupation of the Palestinian people. And number two is that we will always advocate for peace.”
The restaurant features Palestinian flags on its walls and propaganda paintings depicting evil Israelis oppressing Arabs.