In November 2015 head chefs from nine famous restaurants in New York,
Los Angeles, London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Rome and Athens spent
a week cooking in Tel Aviv as part of a PR initiative to bring
international prestige to Israel’s culinary scene. The Round Tables
culinary show is sponsored by Israeli government ministries, the Tel
Aviv Municipality and businesses operating in illegal Israeli
settlements.

Over 130 civil society groups wrote to the
restaurant chefs calling on them to cancel participation from this
complicit initiative that whitewashes Israel’s oppression of
Palestinians.

The initiative is even more tasteless as it comes
on the heels of brutal Israeli repression against Palestinians
protesting for their rights and freedom in the Occupied Territories and
inside Israel. Racist incitement by Israeli officials and public against
Palestinians has reached shocking and unprecedented levels.

During
the Round Tables in apartheid Tel Aviv, concerned citizens from around
the world have expressed their dismay to those restaurateurs who have
been participating in this effort of whitewashing Israeli crimes.