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Tel Aviv kebab shop slammed for staying open on Memorial Day

The ASK Donor restaurant received a $200 fine for refusing to close its doors.

The Aşk Doner kebab shop operates as usual as Israelis usher in Memorial Day, April 24, 2023. Source: Twitter.
The Aşk Doner kebab shop operates as usual as Israelis usher in Memorial Day, April 24, 2023. Source: Twitter.

A kebab shop in Tel Aviv is being slammed on social media for remaining open on Monday night as Israel ushered in Memorial Day.

The Aşk Doner restaurant on the popular Dizengoff thoroughfare continued to serve clients while the siren marking the start of the solemn day sounded across the country.

Omer Gershon used Facebook to post a picture of the goings-on with the accompanying message: “Who are you, disgusting café, to be open on the eve of Memorial Day? And who are you repulsive people who don’t bother to stand for one minute during the siren and instead continue to sit and eat [expletive].”

Gershon also shared a photo of the 730 shekel ($200) fine the restaurant received for refusing to close its doors to customers.

The post went viral after it was shared on Twitter by Israeli journalist Sivan Cohen Saban, who wrote that she would never step foot in Aşk Doner “even if it was the last place [in the world] offering water.”

On the eve of Memorial Day, commercial businesses throughout Israel close by 8 p.m. and stay closed until 6 the following morning.

Aşk Doner is located close to where three Israelis were murdered in an April 2022 terrorist attack, and where Or Eshkar sustained fatal bullet wounds during a similar shooting in Tel Aviv on March 9.

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