Eateries go on spring roll strike
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's Asian restaurants went on a one-day spring roll strike Tuesday in protest over government plans to rid kitchens of foreign chefs, and said sushi and noodles would be the next items off the menu.
The restaurants are angry at government plans to purge Japanese, Chinese and Thai eateries of Asian cooks and replace them with Israelis as part of a broader program to cut the number of foreigners working in the Jewish state.
The Israeli Ethnic Restaurant Organization said the country's 300 Asian restaurants refused to serve spring, or egg, rolls -- among their most popular dishes -- Tuesday, and planned a follow-up strike in two weeks for sushi and noodles.
"Today there is no egg roll and in two weeks time there will be no sushi and noodles," Arnon Volosky, head of the organization, told Reuters.
Israel attracts virtually no immigrants from Asia since anyone seeking citizenship here must prove they have Jewish family or links to the country.
Seeking to plug a gap in the labor market during the first Palestinian uprising, Israel allowed foreigners to work in the Jewish state. But now it is trying to limit those numbers to create more jobs for Israelis.
This year the government is granting 500 permits to Asian chefs compared with 900 last year. Next year no permits will be issued, although restaurants willing to pay twice the average national salary will be allowed to employ chefs as "experts."
The government argues Israelis can be trained.
"Everyone can make Chinese food it's not impossible to learn," said Shoshana Strauss, a lawyer working on foreign worker issues for the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor.
Asian restaurants first started dishing up chicken chow mein and Thai green curry to Israelis about 30 years ago and have evolved into a 1-billion-shekels-a-year ($275 million) industry.
Sushi has proved a massive hit, particularly in the secular coastal metropolis of Tel Aviv and the city's 100th sushi restaurant opened last month.
Volosky said his organization had asked Israel's Supreme Court to force the government to rethink the decision, arguing it could force many out of business or make them inflate prices to cover the salaries needed to secure "expert" visas for chefs.
(Editing by Matthew Jones)
