The first kosher restaurant in Jordan - and probably the entire Arab world - has switched to more-standard fare, and its Arab and Israeli partners are at each other's throats.
The 400-seat Istanbul Restaurant opened with great fanfare June 1, a symbol of the October 1994 peace treaty between the Hashemite kingdom and Israel that was supposed to open up a new era of harmony.The symbol died a week ago when the Istanbul opted out of the menu geared for Jews who observe their faith's strict dietary laws and who usually brought their own edibles with them on visits to this Muslim country.
Only a handful of the estimated 60,000 Israeli tourists who have poured across the desert border in the last year frequented the eatery, a block from the Israeli Embassy.
Khalid Mohammed Ali, the Arab partner in the enterprise, accused his Israeli partners of failing to pay their share of the $15,000 cost of renovating and running the restaurant.
"My Israeli partners deserted me when they saw that the business wasn't doing well. Now I'm in debt and I don't know what to do," he said.
Pinchas Sela, one of the three Israeli partners, denied Ali's accusations, and said he plans "to settle this dispute peacefully."
"We want to continue doing business with them," he said in a telephone interview from his home in Haifa, Israel. "(Ali) used to complain that there was no business, but when we visited we found no food in the fridge."
Ali, a 29-year-old Palestinian who lost his home in Al-Qabab village - between Lod and Ramleh - when Israel was created in 1948, said his support for peace with Israel has outlived his kosher venture.
But he had a cautionary word for his countrymen as he surveyed the empty restaurant, now offering Lebanese cuisine, and its three waiters lounging around empty dining tables beneath pictures of Jerusalem and King Hussein.
"Jordanians must have guarantees before they get into business with any Israeli," he said.
Ali said he was being sued by some of the restaurant's employees because he could not pay their salaries.
"They're jobless because working with Israelis affected their reputation. Also, I lost my Jordanian customers because they think it's become an Israeli hangout," he complained.
Roughly two-thirds of Jordan's 3.9 million residents are Palestinians who fled or were driven from their homes during the 1948 and 1967 Arab-Israeli wars. They are wary of dealing with Israelis, whom they view as occupying their homeland across the Jordan River.