The ″Azura″ restaurant in Jerusalem: Cooking between the extremes

[Public Diplomacy Network]

The "Azura" restaurant in Jerusalem

Cooking between the extremes

04/11/2015 - In the midst of the ongoing Middle East conflict, there are many places where Jews and Palestinians have worked together peacefully for years. At the restaurant "Azura", for example. Daniella Cheslow reports from West Jerusalem

Moshe Shrefler runs "Azura" together with his three brothers and his father, Ezra, who emigrated to Israel from the Turkish city of Diyarbakir in 1939. For more than half a century, people have been flocking to their restaurant at the Mahane Yehuda Market in West Jerusalem to relish hearty meat stews that have been simmering for hours over the kerosene stove.

Half of the 30 employees are Palestinian: cooks, cleaning staff and dishwashers who all live in the eastern part of the city. The other half are Israeli waiters. "My Palestinian employees come here to make money," says Shrefler. "They have been working for me for years and I trust them. Naturally, one of them might end up going off the rails, but what can I do about that? I have a business to run!"

Since the beginning of last month, Palestinians have killed seven Israelis in shootings, stabbings and attacks with cars. At least 31 Palestinians – including the attackers – were killed in clashes with the Israeli security forces. A renewed wave of violence has shaken Jerusalem. Israel has deployed hundreds of extra police officers, and the army has set up checkpoints in many East Jerusalem neighbourhoods.

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