Threats over ‘anti-Israel messages’ shut Pittsburgh’s Conflict Kitchen

A restaurant in the US city of Pittsburgh which caused a stir by printing what critics called "anti-Israel messages" on its food wrappers has closed after receiving death threats.

According to its mission statement Conflict Kitchen, in the collegiate Oakland neighbourhood, "only serves cuisine from countries with which the United States is in conflict" and "rotates identities every few months in relation to current geopolitical events". Run by artist Jon Rubin, it had served Palestinian food and hosted events, discussions and performances since October 6.

On Friday, the restaurant posted on Facebook: "We have received a letter today containing death threats and we will be closed until the credibility of the letter can be established by the Pittsburgh police. We hope to reopen shortly." Police had not commented on the validity or otherwise of the threat, which was reportedly sent to them.

On Saturday, Conflict Kitchen released a statement about the food wrappers. It read: " The Post-Gazette's (and other media and lobbying groups) insistence to continually misrepresent our food wrappers as 'anti-Israeli messages' shows a distinct lack of research into what is actually on the wrappers, a reinforcement of right-wing accusations, and thoughtlessness about our current situation. Like we have done for four years with every other country of focus, our food wrappers contain the viewpoints of multiple people within our focus country on a wide variety of topics. Our Palestinian interviews are no different."

The wrappers carry text in sections headed "food", "settlements", "resistance", "marriage/dating", "religion in daily life", "the Palestinian Authority", "movement & travel", "food customs", "Nakba" and "olive trees".

The "settlements" section includes: "The Israeli settlements in the West Bank perform three key functions. The first is territorial; it's about fragmenting and isolating Palestinian communities. The second is to control the distribution of resources. Water, land and government services are taken away from Palestinians and given to Jewish settlers.