‘Island of peace’: Israeli-Palestinian restaurant in Berlin to close – but live on as TV series

Original article by Deborah Cole in Berlin

An Israeli-Palestinian restaurant in Berlin conceived as an “island of peace” will close in the spring, but its Jewish and Arab owners say their dream will live on in a television series based on their unlikely partnership.

Kanaan, a decade-old casual eatery in the Prenzlauer Berg district of the German capital, gained an international profile for its message of “unity over hate” after the 7 October attacks on Israel by Hamas and the outbreak of the Gaza war.

Now as the owners Oz Ben David, an Israeli, and Jalil Dabit, a Palestinian, say they will wind down operations, the German production company Traumfabrik Babelsberg has announced plans for a miniseries based on Kanaan.

Called Breaking the Binary, it is described as a politically charged “dramedy” with echoes of The Bear, the hit US series set in a hectic restaurant kitchen.

The German show will tackle “the difficulties faced by the two protagonists between social expectations, economic pressure and personal contradictions”, the producers said.

Participants will include the author and journalist Mirna Funk, who was born in East Berlin to a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother, the Arab-Israeli actor Yousef Sweid, whose credits include Game of Thrones and Unorthodox, and the screenwriter and director Thomas Mielmann.

Kanaan, German for Canaan, was founded in 2015 and boasts a multi-ethnic team, serving up remixed specialities like shakshuka lasagne. Its slogan is: “Make Hummus Not War.”

The 120-seat restaurant became a neighbourhood mainstay and a potent symbol of dining across religious and political divides.

Germany’s president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, invited the owners to his Berlin palace in late 2023 to share their thoughts on how best to address the tensions sparked locally by the conflict in the Middle East.

Ben David used the occasion to call out the country’s often hardline on pro-Palestinian rallies and expressions of support for the Palestinian people.

The restaurant’s premises were ransacked in 2024 after it hosted a queer Jewish-Muslim brunch and the owners have faced persistent anonymous threats.

Soon after the attack, Berlin’s mayor, Kai Wegner, visited Kanaan in a show of support that coincided with its regular drag brunch, calling the restaurant “exemplary” in trying to conquer seemingly intractable divisions. An online fundraising campaign to help rebuild drew nearly €30,000 (£26,000).

Ben David and Dabit told the Guardian Kanaan would now shut its doors “probably in March” owing to economic factors, the bite of German bureaucracy but also the fraught political environment.

“People say: ‘Unless we have a good reason to go out from the house and to spend some money, we want to do it in some quiet Italian place, a Japanese place, without the whole story behind it,’” Ben David said, describing a “political overdose” among patrons over the Middle East conflict.

Dabit, speaking by telephone from Ramla, a mixed Israeli city of Arabs and Jews, called the impending end of Kanaan “bittersweet”. But he is excited about the television series, which he and Ben David are helping to shape with input on the writing and character development.

“It was hard but after I talked with Oz we understood it is the best thing to do,” he said of closing the restaurant. “It’s like if you have a child and release him to the world – it’s a good thing.”

Ben David agreed the next step felt like a new beginning, with a chance to spread their message of mutual understanding to a wider audience with the TV series and a Germany-wide cooking tour beginning in April.

“It’s no longer (just) a story of Israelis and Palestinians but about people who disagree and still can dream and envision something together,” he said. “Hopefully we will reach more hearts.”