A Melbourne restaurant lost 90 per cent of its bookings overnight after posting a message of support for the Jewish community in a local Facebook group.
Mediterranean Greek Tavern co-owner Perry Le Greco told news.com.au that he was “blown away” by the reaction to his post in support of the business’ Jewish customers.
The restaurant is in the Melbourne inner south eastern suburb of Elsternwick, which has a large Jewish population.
Mr Le Greco said that he couldn’t sleep after seeing footage of the conflict and wanted the restaurant’s Jewish customers to know he was thinking of them.
The post, which was accompanied by a Jewish flag, read: “To all our Jewish customers, we are thinking of you in these difficult times. We hope that your family and friends are safe back home in Israel. The events of the past few days have been hard to watch and our thoughts and prayers are for the safety of all. The Jewish community have been fantastic friends over the last 22 years to our humble Mediterranean Greek Tavern.”
Mr Le Greco said it was met by a flood of comments, some positive but many negative, while the business also received abusive phone calls.
“I was showing some compassion and humanity, nothing else and I had people calling me a ‘f***ing dog’ and saying ‘You’ve chosen a side you f***ing bastard’ and calling me a ‘f***ing Jew lover’.”
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He added that the calls were not from Palestinians or members of the Lebanese community but rather from “very well spoken Australian people”.
“That was the most frightening part of it,” he said.
The fallout saw a 90 per cent cancellation rate for the following week, with people also making bookings that turned out to be fake, he said.
“On the Saturday night, no one showed up.”
Mr Le Greco said the following week bookings were down 80 per cent.
“When I opened the book yesterday we had no one booked for the week. That never happens.”
But the situation has now reversed after local MP, David Southwick, mentioned the plight of the business on a Melbourne radio program yesterday.
Mr Le Greco said that the response has been “overwhelming” with more than 200 messages and phone calls of support, adding that he didn’t have enough staff last night to cope with the influx of customers.
“I thank the community because what they’ve done has blown me away.”
But while the restaurant is back on track, Mr Le Greco warned that there was a dangerous undercurrent brewing in his local community.
“There’s an anti-semitic feeling that is festering at the moment,” he said. “The Prime Minister needs to be speaking about this.”
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The abuse copped by the Mediterranean Greek Tavern followed a backlash against popular Melbourne-based bakery Lune Croissanterie, after a private message questioning Israel’s right to exist sent by one of its owners was leaked.
Lune Croissanterie co-owner Cameron Reid has since apologised for the message.
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