This week, the façade of Tantura, an Israeli restaurant in Lisbon, was vandalised by pro-Palestine demonstrators who wrote sentences such as “Tantura is a massacre” and “Free Palestine”.
Located in the traditional Bairro Alto quarter of Lisbon, the restaurant is the life project of an Israeli couple who travelled to Lisbon for their honeymoon and were charmed by the city. The menu offers Mediterranean food inspired by the dishes they ate in their childhood, cooked by their grandmothers who had come from Iraq, Tunisia, Romania and Poland.
This is not the first act of vandalism that occurred in Portugal. Since 7 October 2023, the country has witnessed many graffiti. The first was at the Kadoorie Mekor Haim Synagogue in Oporto, a few days after the massacre carried out by Hamas.
Later, Portuguese companies operating in Israel as well as Lisbon City Hall were vandalized with red paint on their façades, while the centre of Vila Nova de Gaia was covered in swastikas.
