The Berlin branch of a well-known Tel Aviv restaurant owned by famed Israeli chef Eyal Shani and his business partner Shahar Segal has closed after two opening delays, several protests against it, and just eight months of operation.

The restaurant, an offshoot of the Tel Avivian “Gila and Nancy,” which opened in August 2024 by the Eyal Shani and Shahar Segal food group, was originally slated to open in Berlin in June 2025.

The first opening was initially postponed after a protest was held over Segal’s ties to the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

The second, was postponed after pro-Palestinian activists protested outside restaurant, and according to Shani, threats and concerns for the safety of the restaurant’s employees prompted the delay.

The restaurant eventually opened in September 2025, its launch accompanied by a violent protest in which tomatoes were thrown and threats were made at diners.

According to protesters, the demonstrations were not aimed at Israeli businesspeople in Berlin in general, but rather at Shahar Segal himself, who participated in the controversial project of the Gaza Humanitarian Aid Fund (GHF) and served as its spokesperson for about two weeks.

Segal’s involvement made him a target for protesters. “We are not demonstrating against Shahar Segal and his restaurant because he is Israeli; we are doing it because he was part of a genocide. We won’t let genocide benefactors open restaurants in our city. If you starve people in Gaza, don’t come feed people in Berlin,” Yuval Carasso, one of the organizers of protests outside the restaurant, told Haaretz in August.

Shani and Segal’s restaurant group operates more than 40 restaurants worldwide, from Melbourne to New York, including the Michelin-starred Shmona restaurant in Manhattan.

The backlash to Segal’s restaurants has been global. Earlier this summer, protesters in Melbourne smashed windows at a branch of Miznon, and in Tel Aviv, cultural venues housing Segal’s restaurants publicly distanced themselves from him. One of them, the popular Teder complex in Tel Aviv, said it “strongly opposes the existence” of GHF and described its work as using humanitarian aid “as a tool of control over civilians.”

Since the outbreak of the war, institutions identified with Israel have become focal points of protest in various countries, including restaurants managed by Israelis or former Israelis. “Gila and Nancy” in Berlin is, for now, one of the most prominent expressions of the growing difficulty for Israeli restaurateurs to operate in the international arena since the war began. The group chose not to comment on the restaurant’s closure.