Two kosher restaurants in Strasbourg, France, have said that couriers for the Deliveroo food delivery app have refused to pick up orders because of their antisemitic attitudes.
According to one of the restaurant owners, a Deliveroo delivery man came to pick up a food order on January 7th and asked what type of food the restaurant served. After being told it was Israeli cuisine, the courier remarked, “I don’t serve Jews” and cancelled his order.
Another kosher restaurant in the city reported a similar experience, but it remains unclear whether the delivery driver was the same man or another Deliveroo courier, according to a report by French newspaper Les Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace.
Following the incidents, the restaurants filed discrimination complaints to the French National Office of Vigilance Against Antisemitism (BNVCA).
Raphael Nisand, a lawyer representing one of the restaurants, stated: “It is now up to the diligence of the police authorities and the prosecutor.” According to the newspaper, an investigation has been launched into the matter.
“The only way for restaurants to survive at the moment is ‘click and collect’, so you have to operate through delivery drivers. And it’s worrying to know that delivery drivers have this kind of reaction to restaurateurs as well as to customers,” Nisand said.
Deliveroo, meanwhile, said that it had contacted both restaurants, and stated: “We are taking this incident very seriously and immediately opened an internal inquiry.”
Antisemitism remains a growing problem in many parts of France, with a report released in 2019 stating that the year before had seen a 73 per cent increase in antisemitic incidents.
One of the most recent episodes in France took place last month in the no-go suburbs of Paris when a Jewish family was physically attacked while celebrating Hanukkah.
The incident saw a group of people yell antisemitic slurs at the Jewish family while they listening to Hebrew music in their car, before the assailants started throwing glass bottles at them and shaking their car.