By Joe Piette |
November 13, 2026
Philadelphia
A pro-Israel mob, with participants coming from as far away as New Jersey, New York and Florida, staged a violent confrontation on Nov. 8 against a bike-ride protest urging a boycott against Philadelphia restaurants that support genocide in occupied Palestine.
Philadelphia, Nov. 8, 2026. Photo: Joe Piette
Starting at Rittenhouse Square and spreading to nearby neighborhoods, the pro-Israel zealots repeatedly pushed, shoved and threatened over 100 keffiyeh-wearing people and 50 supporters on foot. The pro-Israel fanatics seized and pulled clothing and hair, hurled racist slurs and insults, screamed Islamophobic profanities and targeted Arab and elderly women in particular. They threw nails and tacks at bike riders and snatched riders’ flags, signs and banners.
There were several incidents where rabid pro-Israel individuals surrounded anti-Zionists and punched and kicked them while yelling threats such as, “You’ll never work in this city again!” and “I’ll f—king kill you!”
The attackers falsely accused the boycott supporters of being Nazis, while they themselves threatened injury and death to activists wearing “Jews say let Gaza live” T-shirts and anyone else who showed a modicum of empathy for the people of Palestine. Significantly, among the mob participants were people wearing clothing identified with the IDF (the genocidal Israel Defense Forces) and JDL 613 Brotherhood, an extremely violent, pro-Israel, Islamophobic organization named after the viciously anti-Arab, racist Jewish Defense League. (tinyurl.com/d33tfcaa)
U.S.-Israeli genocide in Palestine
The confrontation took place as a 3-year-long genocide by “Israel,” financially and politically supported by the U.S., has killed over 74,000 Palestinians and destroyed much of Gaza.
As Palestinian activist and writer Susan Abulhawa said when she testified at The Hague on Nov. 11: “Whole families have been erased from the civil registry. Hospitals, universities, mosques, churches, bakeries, libraries, archives have been reduced to rubble. Hunger and starvation run rampant. And so does the infestation of rodents and the spread of contagions. More journalists have been killed in Gaza than any moment of conflict in modern memory.” (tinyurl.com/4zbncvjz)
The Zionist state has expanded its violent land-grabbing, deadly pogroms to the West Bank and Lebanon, killing thousands of people in the process.
The U.S. support for that genocide is one of the reasons most candidates endorsed by AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) were trounced in elections in every state on Nov 3. The mob action in Philadelphia was undoubtedly designed to tell people that while AIPAC and other pro-Israel forces may have lost ground in recent elections, they still have influence over powerful politicians still in office and the corporate news media.
Bike ride against complicity with Israel
In many cities, activists are combining their love of running, biking, yoga or reading through organized group efforts to educate themselves on the struggle for a free Palestine and other issues. Since February, Philly Bike On Your Left has organized bicycle rides, first against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) terror and later against Israeli genocide in Palestine.
The rides consist of six to 20 riders, carrying Palestinian flags and wearing keffiyehs and political shirts to show their support for fighters against genocide in Gaza. The plan on Nov. 8 was to ride a route past six restaurants with reputations for supporting Israeli genocide and end their ride with political education.
“We’re a non-violent, social cycling page grounded in shared values,” Philly Bike On Your Left explains on Instagram. “We stand firmly against racism and oppression of all forms, including fascism, antisemitism, Islamophobia and colonialism.”
The group states: “There are business owners in our community who have raised funds for the Israeli military, hosted Israeli soldiers, were praised by [Israel’s Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu or expressed support for Israel. How we spend our money is a reflection of our values.
“Political boycotts are a tool that ordinary people have used for hundreds of years, from the [1955-1956] Montgomery Bus Boycott to boycotts of Amazon. We firmly stand with Indigenous Palestinians in their support for freedom and justice. Let us be clear: the reason we are calling for a boycott of these businesses is because of their support for Israel.” (tinyurl.com/ykhkftb3)
Zionists’ campaign falsely charges antisemitism
That extreme Zionist zealots gathered in Rittenhouse Square on Nov. 8 was due to a massive propaganda campaign that began Nov 2 falsely accusing the bike riders of organizing antisemitic intimidation of innocent Jewish restaurants reminiscent of the 1938 Nazi Kristallnacht. (tinyurl.com/weyata5w)
In the following days leading up to the planned bike protest, the Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia released daily statements, excerpted on the front pages of the Philadelphia Inquirer and other U.S. mainstream news media, unjustly characterizing the bike protest as “Jew-Hatred, plain and simple.” Without any basis in fact, they falsely claimed the bike ride was planned to coincide with the eve of the 88th anniversary of Kristallnacht. (tinyurl.com/29wjc38r)
Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker, City Council member Rue Landau, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Sen. John Fetterman and others — all Democrats — made statements widely shared on radio, newspapers, television and online news condemning the anti-genocide activists, inaccurately claiming they were antisemitic. (tinyurl.com/4yczs65c)
The nonprofit organization JewBelong put up billboards at 14 locations across the city disparaging the boycott protest. (tinyurl.com/dbfvudy5)
Kristallnacht was the 1938 Nazi-organized pogrom that resulted in the destruction of Jewish-owned shops, homes, synagogues and other institutions and murders, including of children — the beginning of a genocide that killed millions of Jewish people.
The bike ride had no similarity at all with Kristallnacht. On the other hand, similar to Nazi practices in Germany over eight decades ago, Zionist residents of illegal Israeli settlements, protected by IDF troops, have been destroying olive trees, shops, homes, mosques, whole villages, towns and other institutions in the West Bank for years.
Anyone who resists is violently attacked, imprisoned or killed by Zionist soldiers or armed settlers.
In fact, it’s rational to say that Israeli-organized Kristallnachts have been used to displace Palestinians from their ancestral homes and lands since before 1948. That’s why advocates are calling for a boycott of the restaurants which raise funds to make Zionist violence possible.
Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism
According to a statement on Philly Bike On Your Left, their action has been “grossly misrepresented,” and “Any suggestions about the timing of our ride are simply false.” Cyclists involved with the group have received death threats and have been subjected to doxxing with the release of personal information.
Activists have been holding similar bike rides since May. Last month raucous anti-genocide protesters disrupted Zionist Chef Mike Solomonov’s “A Taste Of Home” event at the Highmark Mann Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia. (workers.org/2026/10/95532) The bicycle group decided to follow up with a Nov. 8 ride targeting six specific restaurants whose owners have supported Israel’s occupation of Palestine.
Celebrity chefs Solomonov and Steve Cook, the owners of CookNSolo, materially and ideologically support the ongoing occupation and genocide of Palestinians. The restaurant group’s profits from one day, over $100,000, were donated to United Hatzalah, an Israeli medical non-profit that has supplied the IDF with protective and medical gear. Solomonov also booked and paid for multiple, lavish private dinners for IDF members preparing to deploy to fight for Israel.
A boycott of CookNSolo is also promoted, because the company’s entire culinary empire is premised on the mission of using food and culture to promote the State of Israel. In the words of Solomonov, “What we’ve done in the kitchen … has been so much more productive for Israel than had I become a soldier.” (boycottcooknsolo.com)
Solomonov owns three of the restaurants targeted Nov 8 by the boycott ride — K’Far Cafe, Dizengoff and Goldie. Another, Schlesinger’s Deli, made a $5,000 donation to Philly Stands With Israel Fund and held a fundraiser for the elite Shaldag Unit of the IDF. Owners of the other two restaurants have also materially or ideologically supported Israel in the past few years. (tinyurl.com/z4bcr6mb)
A Philly Bike On Your Left Instagram post on Nov. 11 stated: “After a huge electoral loss for the AIPAC agenda, this show of violence towards the Palestinian movement and Palestinians was manipulated and manufactured through social media by the ADL, Jewish National Fund and pro-Israel media, using AI graphics with misinformation.” (IG @phillybike.onyourleft)
Samantha Anderson and Laura Mezhyrichi, two trans women who were pro-Palestine participants Nov. 8, wrote in a statement: “Meanwhile, leaders of prominent pro-Israel organizations, including Michael Balaban, Ross Glick and Yisrael Benavraham, have indicated that the strategy used to stop the bikers will be a strategy pursued elsewhere…In other words, this constitutes a new phase in the strategy of Zionists in the United States, and it is crucial that we challenge it rhetorically. “
