A pizza store in Fürth, Germany, has caused outrage by banning all Israeli customers in protest against the war in the Gaza Strip, local media reported Wednesday.

The local Jewish community in the southeastern state of Bavaria denounced the move as a throwback to the antisemitism of Nazi Germany, while the Israeli Embassy in Berlin also said it showed a return to the 1930s.

The owner of the store, identified by Israel’s Ynet outlet as Pizza Zulu, confirmed to the media that he had put up a poster banning Israelis, but insisted it was not intended to be antisemitic.

An image of the poster, which was displayed in the entrance to the store, was circulated on social media.

“We believe that the children of this world should not be harmed under any circumstances,” it read. “We are part of civil society and will therefore not stand idly by like the rest of the world. That is why we have decided to protest. Our protest has no political, let alone racist, character.”

“Israeli citizens are not welcome in this establishment,” it continued. “Of course, they will be welcome again as soon as they decide to open their eyes, ears, and hearts.”

“Such exclusion is simply shameful and horrific,” the chairwoman of the Jewish Community of Fürth, Julia Tschekalina, told the dpa news agency.

She said it was antisemitism reminiscent of Nazi Germany in 1933.

“That’s how it started back then, too,”........

© The Times of Israel