DUTCH RESTAURANT REPLACE ISRAEL NAME WITH PALESTINE IN PLACE MAT

Rotterdam, 6 Sha’ban 1436/May 24, 2015 (MINA) – Released on the Twitter account of a local Dutch politician, the photo shows the signature place mat of Dutch restaurant Le Souq, which has replaced the name of Israel with Palestine.

Released on the Twitter account of a local Dutch politician, the photo shows the signature place mat of Dutch restaurant Le Souq, which has replaced the name of Israel with Palestine.

A Dutch restaurant has replaced the name of Israel with Palestine in its signature place mat, Press TV reported.

According to reports on Saturday, the owners of Le Souq restaurant at Rotterdam’s Market Hall removed the name of Israel from their map, citing gastronomical reasons.

The move was brought into the limelight after a pro-Israel regional politician noticed the change on the restaurant’s place mat.

“A new country in the Middle East?” Jan Hutten, the regional chairman of the right-wing Christian Democratic Appeal party of the Netherlands, wrote sarcastically on his Twitter account in reference to the inclusion of the name of Palestine in the map.

Le Souq’s owner, however, claimed that the change was induced by culinary, and not political, reasons.

“Our restaurant only deals with the flavors of the Middle East,” said Nadia Afkir in an interview with the Dutch Algemeen Dagblad daily, adding that “the ancient Palestinian kitchen, the producer of the delicious maglubi and the kunefe dishes that we are passionate about” is one of the attractions of the place.

The map “names countries producing the dishes and products with which we work,” she went on to explain.

Rotterdam’s Market Hall, inaugurated last year by Queen Maxima of the Netherlands, is a large complex of business offices, eateries and apartments.

Back in 2013, Scholastic Inc, the world’s biggest publisher of children’s books, also erased the name of Israel from a map included at the beginning of an adventure story. (T/P4/R04)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)