IJAN STATEMENT: STOP FEEDING GENOCIDE

The International Jewish Antizionist Network statement on the Friday, January 9, 2026 protest at the Miznon restaurant, to denounce owner Shahar Segal's direct involvement in the genocide in Gaza and co-owner Eyal Shani's support for the genocidal IOF.

Founded in 2007, IJAN is an international network of antizionist Jews who proudly stand in unwavering solidarity and joint struggle with the people of Palestine and the Palestinian liberation movement, including the right of Palestinians to resist those committing genocide and an ongoing colonial expansion on their homelands. In standing in our histories of fighting alongside all oppressed and persecuted peoples against racism, fascism, authoritarianism and colonialism, we see it as a deeply urgent moral and political obligation to target and expose Zionist institutions in our communities for facilitating, funding and profiting off of genocide.

The protest at Miznon is a fulfillment of this mandate. Protesting genocide enablers is an act of conscience and protected by the rights to speech and assembly.

What is Miznon and its relationship to the "Gaza Humanitarian Foundation" ("GHF")?

Miznon is a "Mediterranean street-food restaurant" operated by Shahar Segal, an "Israeli" businessman and restauranteur. He has otherwise described himself in a recent interview with National Public Radio in the United States as a propagandist for the "Israeli Defence Force."

Segal, who runs restaurants in New York, Melbourne, Berlin, and "Tel Aviv," among other cities, has consistently used his businesses over the last two years, to feed "Israeli" soldiers participating in the maiming, slaughtering and starving of Palestinians. Segal says:

“We closed our restaurants and immediately converted [three of] them into food factories, producing 3,000 to 4,000 meals a day and driving them to army bases in the south."

Having served as the former spokesperson of the "Gaza Humanitarian Foundation," Segal is not just feeding genocide, but has a unique responsibility for the forced starvation of Palestinians in Gaza and the use of aid as bait for massacres -- breaches of the Geneva Convention.

Co-owner and celebrity chef Eyal Shani, also a proud Zionist, is quoted as saying:

"It is the duty of each and every one of us to do everything in our power to annihilate these despicable murderers, not leaving a trace of their existence..."

How did the "Gaza Humanitarian Foundation" function as a "death trap"?

In April 2025, in an all-time first under international law, the criminal "Israeli" regime banned the United Nations aid organization, UNRWA, from providing life-saving aid to Palestinians under siege. To quiet the ensuing pressure from the international community, the United States and "Israel" founded the fraudulent organisation, "Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF)" as a front for continuing the man-made famine and mass murder of people in Gaza. A group of 20+ UN experts stated:

“The GHF, a non-governmental organisation created by Israel in February 2025, with US support, to allegedly distribute aid in Gaza, is an utterly disturbing example of how humanitarian relief can be exploited for covert military and geopolitical agendas in serious breach of international law.”

Beyond this exploitation, the GHF, in coordination with Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), designed and facilitated systems that intentionally lured starving Palestinians into massacres. American soldier and whistleblower Anthony Aguilar describes "Israeli forces shooting unarmed Palestinians approaching or leaving [food distribution] points — often killing them or wounding them...” and personnel as using "lethal munitions, stun grenades, tear gas, firing at or near the crowds to disperse the crowds [waiting for food].” This project of starvation and degradation perpetrated by IOF and American soldiers on the ground was referred to by UNICEF as a "real life hunger games."

The following is chilling testimony from a Palestinian on the ground in Gaza:

"I arrived at 2am and as dawn broke, a quadcopter drone approached the crowd and spoke in broken Arabic: 'You will now enter to receive the food. There is a limited time -- you must all leave before it runs out. You must all stick to the time.' ... People rush in screaming -- it felt like the Day of Judgment. When the time runs out, the quadcopter comes back again, ordering people to retreat and leave the yard immediately. No one listens -- everyone is busy picking food off the ground. ... Then an Israeli tank takes position on a nearby hill overlooking the distribution point. It opens fire on the crowds. People scream and run. No one cares about anyone -- they step over the bodies struck by bullets."

In its period of operation between May and October, the GHF oversaw the barbaric execution of over 2,500 starving Palestinians in cold blood and the injury and systematic dehumanisation of thousands more at its sites. Finally, as a result of unanimous disgust of the international community, including widespread calls for its dismantlement by UN experts, international bodies and human rights organizations, the GHF was forced to cease operations in October 2025.

The exploitation of "antisemitism" in order to shield war criminals

British politicians, mainstream media and the Zionist lobby have responded to the International Jewish Antizionist Network's protest of Miznon, owned by vile and complicit individuals, with the usual fabricated moral hysteria of "antisemitic hate speech" and "endangerment of local Jewish communities." This weaponization of antisemitism is echoed in across the UK and in the United States, where synagogues are misused by Zionist Rabbis as a shield for the illegal sale and theft of land in the West Bank, and fundraisers for the genocidal pursuits of the IOF.

The cynical and consistent ommission of our reasons for protesting religious, cultural and other "Jewish-coded" Zionist institutions serves to justify authoritarian and escalating repression of anti-genocide sentiment and work. The portrayal of our protest as mindless Jew-hatred is deliberate and by now, predictable, serving to cover up the real reasons we were there: to protest against Zionists enabling and participating in genocide, masquerading as your friendly local restaurant.

The Metropolitan Police's racist ban on the term "intifada," a word literally translating to "uprising" or "shaking off" in Arabic, and the further criminalisation of its use by antizionist Jews and all who stand in solidarity with Palestinians, is part of the British state's attempt to outlaw and try to crush any and all forms of Palestinian resistance to genocide and fascism. This is part of the racist dehumanization of Palestinians. In a genocide, all people and governments of conscience rise up against it; all colonized people seek to "shake off" their oppressors. We must rise with the Palestinian people, to isolate and expose racist and genocidal individuals, institutions and organisations, who participate in and support the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people.

What is cultural boycott and why do we do it?

During the anti-apartheid struggle, in which numerous IJAN members participated and organised, a key aspect of the boycott against apartheid was the cultural boycott - isolating businesses, artists, sports teams and professional associations that participated in and profited from South African apartheid. The Zionist regime in Palestine is highly dependent on its links with western countries for its survival -- in fact, to a much greater extent than the apartheid regime was in South Africa. Art, music, sports, trade union, professional and academic links all serve to sustain and normalise apartheid and ethnic cleansing in Palestine, as do links in the hospitallity industry. Behind Miznon's veneer of fine dining and ambience, Palestinians in Gaza and in Israel's prisons are literally being starved to death.

Moreover, the owners of Miznon give comfort, encouragement and support to the Israeli Occupation Forces, who are carrying out a genocide, the crime of crimes. We have not just a right, but an obligation to expose this, protest against them and persuade local people to boycott their restaurant. Given the centrality of food being used as a weapon of war in the Gaza genocide, including the butchery perpetrated at the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution sites, the idea of sitting down to a fine meal at Miznon really does leave a bad taste in the mouth.

IJAN demand: 'stop feeding genocide, all nourishment to resistance'

We invite all people of conscious to boycott Miznon in the UK and everywhere, and all restaurants owned by Shahar Segal.

We demand an end to the racist criminalization of the word "intifada" and a reinstatement of the freedom of speech.

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