BERLIN (JTA) — At a hummus restaurant in Berlin’s leafy neighborhood of Prenzlauer Berg, war has come knocking many times over the last two years. Recently, it came with the threat of closure.

Jalil Dabit, a Palestinian, and Oz Ben David, an Israeli, have run the business together for 10 years. The last two saw the bloody Hamas-led October 7, 2023, onslaught on Israel and the devastating war that ensued in the Gaza Strip.

Dabit and Ben David named their restaurant Kanaan — a Hebrew and Arabic word for the ancient land they both call home, before it was known as Israel or Palestine.

They have a mission beyond bringing the best hummus to Berlin. They turned Kanaan into a local symbol of Israeli-Palestinian dialogue, organizing free programs that teach about cooking and prejudice. One project joined Palestinian refugees who fled Gaza during the war together with members of Berlin’s Israeli community to cook under one roof. A rainbow sign outside the restaurant reads, “Make hummus not war.”

But in August, the partners issued an emergency plea.

“Kanaan is facing closure,” they announced to customers. “The year 2025 was tough. War, economic uncertainty and a sharp drop in revenue have brought us to a point where we cannot continue without your help. If nothing changes in the next two weeks, we will have to close Kanaan.”

Dabit and Ben David have continuously fended off the Gaza war’s encroachment on their business. After the October 7 massacre, they closed for six days. Ben David said he felt driven to quit after a friend was killed and family members were forced to hide in their safe room during the Hamas attack on Kibbutz Be’eri. Dabit coaxed him back from despair.

The unlikely duo supported each other even as their message cost them Israeli and Palestinian friends from home. Ben David grew up in Ariel, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank; Dabit comes from Ramle, a mixed city in central Israel where his family has lived for hundreds of years (many Arab Israelis identify as Palestinians). He had 16 family members in Gaza when the war broke out, all of whom have since fled to

© The Times of Israel