When Gazala Halabi arrived at her restaurant, Gazalas’s, last Sunday morning, she wasn’t prepared for what would happen later in the day: Hundreds of Jewish and Israeli New Yorkers lined up to dine at her establishment.
In recent months, she told the New York Jewish Week, her restaurant was broken into twice and was vandalized with “Free Palestine” graffiti, and has been subject to a slew of 1-star reviews on Google and several harassing phone calls. Halabi grew up in Israel as a member of the Druze religious community and serves Middle Eastern staples like hummus, tabbouleh and kebabs.
“It was seriously annoying,” Halabi said of the attacks on her restaurant, similar to those many Jewish and Israeli establishments have experienced in New York since Israel’s war with Hamas began in the wake of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack. “After what happened here, I was down and nervous.”
But when the crowds showed up on Sunday, Halabi said her mood brightened considerably. “I don’t care anymore,” she said about the vandalism, noting that when the restaurant opened at 11 a.m. that day, it was already full.
“By 12 o’clock, God bless, the whole block was filled with people and [Israeli] flags coming to support,” Halabi said. “I’ve never felt as strong as that day.”
The Druze community numbers less than 1,000,000 worldwide, with the largest communities residing in Syria, Lebanon and Israel, where they make up approximately 1.6% of the population. The Druze tend to be patriotic members of Israeli society and serve in the Israel Defense Forces; the relationship between Jewish and Druze soldiers is sometimes referred to as a “covenant of blood.”
Source - JTA/New York Jewish Weekly/X - Video source - Yaelbt/X