German Pizzeria Owner Bans Israelis From

First, a Flensburg store drew outrage for banning Jews. Now a celebrated Fürth pizzeria has posted a discover banning Israelis. Here is the proprietor’s background and how the story unfolded.

Fifty-year-old Gaspare Squitieri was born and raised in the small city of Sarno, Italy, 21 miles east of Naples. Squitieri has been working in the pizza business since he was 13 years previous. He has lived in Germany since at least 2014, where he teaches skilled pizza programs at Accademia della Pizza Deutschland in Nuremberg.

Gaspare Squitieri opened his pizzeria in partnership with Matteo Celentano in Fürth, Germany, on October 20, 2019, under the identify Naples – genuine Neapolitan Pizza. Squitieri and Celentano parted methods in 2021, and Squitieri renamed his institution Pizza Zulu. The pizzeria relocated to its current handle, Königstraße 81, in September 2023. The emblem above the door options an illustration of Squitieri with a beard and bald head. Squitieri has earned a repute as one of the best pizza cooks in the world. In 2023, Pizza Zulu was ranked as the best pizza in Germany, fifth best in Europe, and thirty second best in the world.

Then, on Wednesday, September 24, every little thing modified when Squitieri posted, in plain view of all the shoppers, a signal on the restaurant’s wall noticeboard that banned Israelis from his institution. Suddenly, Pizza Zulu’s laborious‑received repute for culinary excellence was no longer the main target.

The signal read as follows: “Liebe Kunden, wir lieben alle Menschen, egal woher sie kommen. Wir glauben, dass die Kinder dieser Welt unter keinen Umständen angetastet werden sollten. Wir sind ein internationales Team. Wir gehören zur Zivilgesellschaft und werden daher nicht wie der Rest der Welt tatenlos zusehen. Deshalb haben wir uns entschieden zu protestieren. Unser Protest hat keinen politischen, geschweige denn rassistischen Charakter. Israelische Bürger sind in diesem Lokal nicht willkommen. Natürlich werden sie wieder willkommen sein, sobald sie sich entscheiden, ihre Augen, Ohren und Herzen zu öffnen.”

The English translation reads: “Dear customers, we love all people, no matter where they come from. We believe that the children of this world should not be harmed under any circumstances. We are an international team. 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 is not political, let alone racist. Israeli citizens are not welcome in this establishment. Of course, they will be welcome again, as long as they choose to open their eyes, ears, and hearts.”

Squitieri’s e-mail inbox shortly stuffed up with hate mail, and the pizzeria software program also went down. Pizza Zulu’s cellphone rang all day with crank calls, while others left death threats. The reactions of members of the group ranged from disappointment to outrage, and they claimed that they might never set foot in the restaurant again. After two to three hours, Squitieri eliminated the signal.

The Botschaft Israel (English: Embassy of Israel) in Berlin issued a swift rebuke on X. “The 1930s are back, this time in Fürth. At the door of a local establishment hung: ‘Israeli citizens are not welcome here.’ This is neither a protest nor a misunderstanding. This is crystal-clear antisemitism. That’s how it started back then: step by step, sign by sign. Police, prosecutors, and courts must take action. Jewish life must be safe and visible in Germany – everywhere, at all times.”

Journalist Andreas Thamm, from the Berlin daily newspaper Taz, studies the next dialog with Gaspare Squitieri. “At 50, I’m sitting here in front of you like a little kid who stole an apple. I didn’t mean to.” Squitieri said that help wasn’t reaching the people in Gaza and he could not bear seeing the photographs of ravenous youngsters, and that European nations had been turning a blind eye. Squitieri said that he wished to inspire people to take motion, to spark a dialogue. 

“That was our goal,” he said. “I realize we did it completely wrong. It was worded completely stupidly. We completely missed the mark.”

Squitieri says he isn’t involved with Israel, but that he had to put the phrase Israeli because the battle is not occurring in Morocco. “I tried to do it in the stupidest way possible.” Squitieri claims he wished to “bring Palestinians and Israelis to the table. Look, my plan was simple. I’ll move around and cause a bit of chaos. I never expected this huge chaos.” Squitieri says he was naive and that the poster was put up inside (as opposed to exterior) and had been eliminated after two or three hours.

Journalist Minh Anh Nguyen from the regional online news portal Nordbayern studies that Squitieri insisted that his signal was not supposed to be anti-Semitic and that it didn’t comprise any insults. Journalist Andreas Thamm from Taz claims that Squitieri put out a ready written assertion that states he’ll contact the representatives of the Jewish group and that he’s keen to pay attention.

Dr. Ludwig Spaenle has been the Commissioner for Jewish Life and Against Anti-Semitism, for Remembrance Work and Historical Heritage since 2018, when the workplace was established.

Spaenle criticized the actions of Squitieri. “The fact that a restaurant is excluding Israeli citizens and banning them from the premises is intolerable. In doing so, the pizzeria owner is making adults, children and young people from Israel responsible for what the Israeli government decides and implements.” Spaenle called for civil society to “react appropriately to the incident.”

Julia Tschekalina, chair of the Jewish Community of Fürth, said, “Such an exclusion is simply shameful and terrible.” Tschekalina said the incident was anti-Semitic, and it reminded her of 1933. “It started like this back then too.” 

Tschekalina said she would take into account urgent fees for incitement to hatred and racially motivated discrimination.

The Jewish Museum of Fürth is 300 ft from Pizza Zulu. Daniela Eisenstein, the director of the Jewish Museum since 2003, said, “I’ve been thinking about inviting the owner. We offer anti-Semitism workshops here.”

Fürth and Nuremberg: Holocaust Background

At the onset of WWII, Fürth had roughly 35,000 residents. The Jewish population of Fürth was about 5 p.c of the whole population. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum paperwork that the Nazis deported 1,784 Jews from Fürth during the Holocaust. This quantity contains the Jews who dedicated suicide to keep away from deportation.

Fürth is 5 miles to the west of Nuremberg, which was the first ceremonial and propaganda hub for the Nazi Party from August 1927 until the invasion of Poland in September 1939. Nazi rallies had been held in Nuremberg in 1923, 1927, 1929, and then yearly beginning in 1933 when Hitler rose to energy. The 1939 rally was cancelled due to the invasion of Poland. Many of the black-and-white movies of Hitler addressing large crowds had been filmed in Nuremberg.

Relevant Facts

The United Nations (UN) deliberately underreports the quantity of help coming into the Gaza Strip. On August 19, 2025, the UN claimed that 3,553 vehicles of help had entered Gaza since May. However, the Israeli authorities put out a assertion via the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), stating that the quantity of vehicles that entered the Gaza Strip during that time period was 9,200. Aid enters Gaza via three entrances, two in the south and one in the north. The UN ignores the help coming into via the northern entrance. The UN also ignores help coming into Gaza via airdrops or help that isn’t coordinated by UN companies.

Furthermore, the overwhelming majority of the help that enters Gaza is stolen by the terrorist group Hamas. According to the United Nations’ own studies, Hamas has stolen practically 90 p.c of all the help that has entered Gaza since the battle started. In 2024 alone, Hamas earned 500 million {dollars} by stealing help and then reselling it at inflated costs to Gaza residents. In fact, if the world, including President Trump, hadn’t stored pushing Israel to keep sending in help, the IDF would have been ready to starve Hamas and most probably would have wrapped up the battle within months of October 7, 2023.

In the feedback part of my column last Friday, “German Shop Owner Bans Jews From Store,” a number of RedState members requested some great questions. RedState member ibt requested, “If he had written ‘Israelis’ instead of ‘Jews,’ would that have been OK?” Emptypockets requested, “What does he think antisemitism is?” And RubyCupCake requested, “How is I CAN’T STAND YOU not antisemitism?”

So what precisely is the definition of antisemitism? And whom precisely was Squitieri prohibiting from his institution? The issue of antisemitism will probably be addressed first, adopted by the literal writing of Squitieri’s signal.

The definition of antisemitism has diverse from nation to nation since the phrase first appeared in the late nineteenth century. But in 2016, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) developed a working definition of antisemitism that has since been adopted by 46 nations, including Germany, Israe,l and the United States.

The IHRA’s working definition of antisemitism states: “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

Immediately after the definition, the IHRA clarifies: “Manifestations might include the targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity. However, criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.”

Israel has 9.8 million residents. Of those 9.8 million, 2 million are Arabs and half a million are neither Arab nor Jewish (Druze, Bedouin, or others). Of the two million Arab Israeli residents, 90 p.c are Muslim and 10 p.c are Christian. Therefore, the phrase ‘Israelis’ contains adherents of the three religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Most people are ignorant of the fact that not all Israelis are Jews. This is why the IHRA says: “Manifestations might include the targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity.” To decide if the phrase ‘Israelis’ is antisemitic, content, context, notion, and intent must be taken into account. If ‘Israelis’ is used to imply only Jewish residents, then that usage could also be antisemitic. If “Israelis” is used inclusively to imply all residents, then that usage is unlikely to be antisemitic. Does Squitieri know that not all Israelis are Jewish?

Assuming Squitieri knew that not all Israelis are Jewish and that he used the phrase ‘Israelis’ to refer to the complete population, this opens a different dialogue. The literal translation of Squitieri’s signal wouldn’t prohibit any German Jew dwelling in Fürth from coming into his institution. It also would not prohibit Jews visiting Germany from nations other than Israel from coming into his institution. However, banning all Israelis would probably be illegal in Germany regardless of whether or not Squitieri was referring to Jews or all Israelis. The Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungsgesetz (AGG, General Equal Treatment Act) prohibits discrimination based on nationality and gives civil remedies; prison legal responsibility would require extra components under German prison law, such as intent to incite hatred.

In the earlier event, Reisch’s observe in his entrance window banning Jews from his store in Flensburg, Germany, was virtually actually antisemitic due to the use of the phrase “Jews,” mixed with the sentence, “I just can’t stand you.” However, in the case of Squitieri’s signal in Pizza Zulu, the information display that it’s a little more nuanced. At best, what Squitieri did was extremely silly and idiotic. At worst, it was antisemitic and intentional. And there may be a large gray space between those two extremes.

Now that the information have been laid out, I look ahead to the ideas and feedback from the RedState group.