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Midtown Kosher/Halal Food Cart Fight Is Real Life "Palestinian Chicken"
By
Ben Yakas
Published Feb 15, 2015
Modified Feb 16, 2015
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Feb 15, 2015
Modified Feb 16, 2015
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Wedged between important EXPOSÉS on Bill Clinton's SEX LIFE and HOT TAKES on the LIBERAL LIES of Jon Stewart, the NY Post stumbled upon a bitter turf battle between Kosher and Halal carts in Midtown which is straight out of Curb Your Enthusiasm. In which case, does this make the NY Post social assassins?
Jewish food cart Holy Rollers set up shop near Rockefeller Center, on 48th Street off Sixth Avenue, last Monday. But apparently, a halal cart run by a group of Egyptians isn't too happy about them getting in on their location. Now the two sides are locked in "a veritable falafel fatwa."
“This guy is hungry — hungry for money,” bellowed 48th Street Sabrett-slinger Mohamed Mossad, who along with nearly a dozen others successfully kept [Yisroel] Mordowitz off the block. “I have a family, too!”
“Why doesn’t he go to 47th Street?” Mossad shouted, referring to the Hasidim-heavy Diamond District. “He’s just coming to this particular spot, and he wants to grab it from me — and kill me, actually. Kill my business.”
The halal blockade has, inevitably, led to racial accusations and rhetoric being thrown around.
“This is not Palestine!” one vendor shouted, according to Mordowitz.
The kosher vender said, “They’re trying to say that the Jews in Israel are pushing people out, so don’t do it here.”
Mordowitz said one rival even followed managing partner Yosef Salzbank around in a Jeep Cherokee, making sure he parked the cart far enough away.
“I said, ‘Why are you terrorizing me?’ ” Mordowitz recalled.
But the halal hawkers say they’re not the haters.
“He said I am a terrorist. He says I bombed the Twin Towers. That’s racist,” recalled Mossad, who insisted his objections have nothing to do with religion.
“To me, it’s not about him being a Jew.”
This is all like a micro-version of the classic Curb episode "Palestinian Chicken," in which Larry David gets torn between a delicious Palestinian restaurant and Jewish friends protesting its new location. If only this Midtown argument could also be solved with some hot anti-semitic sex.
Tagged
curb your enthusiasm
food carts
halal
kosher
ny post
palestinian chicken
street vendors
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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