Celebrity pizza chef Jason Tarraf lashed over anti-Israel barbs
A video by Jason Tarraf, known as The Manoush Man, suggesting Israelis have stolen land and ‘appropriated’ a popular spice has been condemned as ‘dripping with prejudice and peddling stereotypes’.
Celebrity pizza chef Jason Tarraf has been condemned by Jewish community leaders for claiming Israelis stole land and appropriated a popular Middle Eastern food in a video “dripping with prejudice and peddling anti-Israel stereotypes”.
The clip shows Jason Tarraf, known to his thousands of social media followers as The Manoush Man, laughing and sneering at a Jewish food website’s post about the spice za’atar, with the caption: “First the land, then the food, and now za’atar – Israelis will claim anything they can’t even pronounce”.
Tarraf’s followers have posted comments like “colonisers and thieves”.
Other videos on his Instagram account appear to show him in Lebanon about five months ago firing an automatic weapon alongside friends at an unoccupied hillside.
Photos show Tarraf with an AK-47 style automatic rifle and a pistol tucked into military webbing and holding a Lebanese flag.
When one fan comments on Instagram: “Everyone will do their part to protect our lands”, Tarraf replies: “inshAllah bro”. Another commenter says: “Fu** IL (Israel). Tarraf responds: “f@them all bro”.
The Australian is not suggesting he was involved in any kind of military action against Israel.
Anti-Defamation Commission chair Dvir Abramovich described the Tarraf video as “a toxic cocktail of distortion that takes aim at Israelis with inflammatory claims about za’atar, accusing them of cultural theft and land, seeking to delegitimise their rightful heritage”.
“It’s a venomous hit job, twisting culture, history, and identity to push an ugly agenda,” said Dr Abramovich.
“This video peddles toxic stereotypes, painting Israelis as thieves while erasing the multicultural truth of Israel – a nation built by immigrants from across the Middle East and North Africa, where za’atar is an inseparable part of their heritage.”
Dr Abramovich said the video wasn’t about za’atar but an attempt to spread propaganda. “The claim that Israelis ‘can’t even pronounce’ za’atar isn’t just an insult – it’s pure incitement designed to stoke hate and division. Food should unite us, not be turned into a weapon of hostility.
“Za’atar is a symbol of shared culture, not a pawn in this twisted narrative.”
Tarraf, whose parents migrated to Australia from Lebanon, quit his job as a mortgage broker four years ago to help at his father’s Mt Lewis Pizzeria in Bankstown in southwest Sydney.
The family’s signature dish was manoush – a Lebanese-style of pizza – and Tarraf used TikTok and Instagram to build his brand around it. One video of Tarraf cooking gained more than 200,000 views. He also appeared in a segment on the Seven Network’s Sunrise program dancing on a table at the restaurant alongside presenter Sam Mac.
In an interview with news.com.au last year, Tarraf said: “My parents created Mt Lewis Pizzeria for our community – those, like them, who migrated to Australia with barely any money to create a better life for themselves and their families, giving them a healthier, affordable food option, which also reconnected them to their home.” He was contacted for comment.
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