‘No place for Zionism’: Why some vegans are starting beef with Israeli chefs
Activists are compiling lists of ‘Zionist vegan’ restaurants to boycott
Chef Guy Vaknin at his vegan restaurant Anixi in New York City. Courtesy of City Roots Hospitality
By Hannah Feuer September 18, 2025
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Israeli-born chef Guy Vaknin just wants to feed people plant-based meals.
But lately, it seems geopolitics is getting in the way. Earlier this week, several vegan Instagram accounts called for a boycott of his New York City restaurant group, City Roots Hospitality — accusing Vaknin of failing to condemn Israel.
“There is no place for Zionism within the vegan movement,” the Instagram account “Vegans for Palestine” declared to its 14,000 followers.
Vaknin, known for pitching his vegan sushi on Shark Tank and competing on Hell’s Kitchen, said in an interview that he has avoided publicly commenting on politics, even after several of his friends were killed on Oct. 7, for fear of blowback. Now, he said, people are making inaccurate assumptions about his views — and the online attacks have left him shaken.
“The vegan community is, for some reason, very, very harsh against me,” he said. “I am promoting plant-based eating, but the fact that I came from Israel changes everything for them.”
In an Instagram post, Vegans for Palestine said it did not target Vaknin for where he was born, but instead accused him of “NOT actively advocating for the liberation of Palestine.” The account also said Vaknin, who served in the Israel Defense Forces before moving to the U.S. in 2005, had failed to disavow his military service, which is compulsory for all Israeli citizens. Vegans for Palestine did not respond to the Forward’s request for comment.
Vaknin isn’t the only Israeli vegan who has been ousted by certain factions of the plant-based community. A growing online chorus insists that staying silent on the conflict in Gaza puts your vegan bona fides at risk.
In the vegan subreddit, heated debates about Israel and Palestine have become par for the course.
“He’s just an opportunistic Zionist with a plant-based diet. A real vegan would not support a genocidal regime,” a user wrote in the vegan subreddit about New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, who is vegan and a vocal supporter of Israel.
“You absolutely can’t be vegan if you support Israel,” another user commented.
The irony is that Israel is one of the most vegan-friendly countries in the world; about 5% of its population follows a plant-based diet, compared with 1.5% in the U.S. Tel Aviv has been dubbed the “vegan capital of the world” and hosts an annual vegan festival that attracts tens of thousands. Domino’s Pizza locations in Israel offer a soy-based cheese option, and the country has a booming plant-based startup scene.
The Israeli government has leaned into this reputation. The IDF offers vegan faux leather boots and plant-based meals for soldiers, and the army has boasted about how it is “the most vegan army in the world.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has participated in “meatless Mondays,” and in 2020, he became one of the first world leaders to sample lab-grown meat. The country’s vegan boom has also spawned tourism initiatives, including vegan-themed Birthright trips and government-sponsored food tours for bloggers to showcase Israel’s thriving plant-based scene.
Those campaigns have fueled accusations of “vegan-washing,” the idea that Israel promotes its vegan culture to distract from its treatment of Palestinians — similar to accusations of “greenwashing” or “pinkwashing,” that is, using support for environmental and LGBTQ+ causes to deflect attention from other harmful practices.
Those arguments are familiar to Ori Shavit, a vegan food blogger and Israeli food critic. But she differentiates between critiques of the Israeli government — many of which she shares — and excluding individual Israelis from the vegan movement.
Shavit recalled being told she couldn’t speak at a vegan food festival in Oslo, Norway, because she was traveling with a group organized by the Israeli Embassy. She reached out directly to the organizers, explaining that she wasn’t there to promote Israel’s policies but to advocate for animal rights, a cause “that is important all over the world.” She was ultimately allowed to speak, provided she communicated with the festival herself rather than through the embassy.
At a vegan event in Montreal, Shavit said, an attendee asked her, “How come Israelis are so compassionate about animals? Why don’t you care about Palestinians?” She told them that she opposed the violence and wanted peace, but her purpose there was to talk about veganism, not geopolitics.
“If I can bring peace, it’s through the food on my plate,” she recalled saying. “My opinions are not always the same as what my government is doing. But this is not why I came here.”
Estee Raviv, an Israeli chef and author of the cookbook Oy Vey Vegan, has experienced similar tensions. She said she’s never felt embraced by her local vegan community in Portland, Oregon, which she views as hostile to Israel. She first became vegan because she noticed it helped with her digestive issues, not to participate in progressive politics.
“My point of views do not resonate with theirs,” she said. “And so I’m OK. I wouldn’t want to be part of it.”
For Vaknin, who has now been in the U.S. longer than he has lived in Israel, the backlash to what he views as an apolitical business is bewildering.
“There is a very loud and annoying minority that is chasing me without knowing my stance, who I am, what I am, what I stand for, nothing,” he said. “Am I happy with the war? Hell no … but it has nothing to do with me.”
