On October 31st, @phillybike.onyourleft, an anti-fascist, anti-Zionist social cycling collective in Philadelphia, posted a flyer promoting an upcoming “Boycott Ride” in Rittenhouse Square to show solidarity with Palestinians and raise awareness around the boycotts of Zionist business establishments. The post named Dizengoff, K’Far Cafe, and Goldie (businesses owned by ‘Israeli’ “culinary ambassador” Mike Solomonov), and Schlesinger’s Deli, Mac Mart, and Huda, all restaurants whose owners have made statements and/or raised funds in support of the Zionist entity’s occupation, apartheid, and genocide in Palestine.
Since then, Zionists have mounted a coordinated campaign to discredit and villainize the organizers and detract from their anti-genocide message, including a flurry of near-identical statements disingenuously conflating Zionism with Judaism and invoking Kristallnacht (the anniversary of which falls the day after the event), a cynical take that is not only offensive to the historical victims of Nazi persecution but an intentional distraction from the actual pogroms currently taking place in the West Bank and the wholesale destruction of life and livelihood in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and Iran.
Though Boycott CookNSolo did not organize the boycott ride, we support common sense boycotts that arise from community knowledge and information sharing. Our boycott specifically targets CookNSolo and the affiliated business Soom Tahini, but every business that subscribes to the genocidal ideology of Zionism is subject to boycott and has no place in our city.
We call for the boycott of CookNSolo because:
They raised over $100K in October 2023 for United Hatzalah, an organization that provides medical supplies to and coordinates with the IOF (Israeli Occupation Forces) and has played an active role in spreading genocidal propaganda.
They hosted numerous free dinners at their restaurants for IOF soldiers before deployment to Gaza, for pro Israel lobbyists and politicians, and for organizations supporting the Zionist project like Birthright.
They fired employees for expressions of support for Palestine.
Solomonov has worked as an official “culinary ambassador” for the state of Israel’s Ministry of Tourism, viewing his promotion of “Israeli” food as a way to promote the state of “Israel”: In 2019 he said, “What we've done in the kitchen [...] has been so much more productive for Israel than had I become a soldier.”
CookNSolo have a longstanding relationship with the Jewish National Fund, an organization foundational to the creation of the Zionist entity which offers direct support to the settlement movement. In 2025 Michael Solomonov and his business partner Steve Cook were recipients of the JNF Tree of Life Award for their substantial financial contributions. Solomonov also partnered with the Jewish National Fund on a culinary institute located in the Galilee (northern “Israel”), a project designed with the express purpose of increasing settlement and building industry in the North.
Soom tahini, which is used in all CookNSolo restaurants as well as in their grocery store hummus line is marketed as a local “woman owned” business but is produced in “Israel”, including as recently as 2018, in an illegal settlement. The business was founded by the Zitelman sisters, one of whom is a settler and oversees production alongside her husband, an Israeli sesame importer. The sisters have made several public statements denying genocide and the family is deeply involved in Zionist organizations and causes.
We do not answer to enraged supremacists, fake civil rights organizations whose primary purpose is defending a genocidal apartheid state and demonizing resistance to its actions, or politicians who have at every turn facilitated the ongoing slaughter, starvation and dispossession of the people of Palestine, Lebanon and Syria and the grotesque war crimes the US state has committed against Iran. It is the duty of every free person who believes in justice to confront the supremacist ideology of Zionism wherever and whenever it is expressed.
These businesses, through their support of the so-called “State of Israel,” uplift and attempt to normalize cultural theft and genocide. While Zionists may react by rushing to businesses and institutions where they feel they can safely express their hatred, understand that they are increasingly isolated and reviled. As the political ideology of Zionism dies a long deserved death these businesses will die with it. Free Palestine.