A chain of Israeli restaurants in Washington DC has been forced to close all of its branches after a backlash from pro-Palestinian protesters.

The Israeli and Jewish-American co-owners of Shouk, which opened its first branch in 2016, were left with no choice but to shutter the business because of boycotts and demonstrations orchestrated by pro-Palestinian activists.

The Middle Eastern food chain was featured on a list compiled by the organisers of DC for Palestine’s “Apartheid? I Don’t Buy It” campaign in March, aimed at “restaurants that culturally appropriate or sell Israeli settlement products”.

At its peak, the chain, which sold plant-based food, had five locations in and around Washington and had hundreds of positive reviews on TripAdvisor, with diners praising its “hip casual vibe”, “fluffy pita” and “top-notch tahini”.

But according to DC for Palestine, the kosher vegan chain and its owners, Dennis Friedman and Ran Nussbacher were “complicit in Israeli apartheid”.

“I don’t agree with that [accusation] because the intention of Shouk was pure, and good,” Mr Friedman told Fox News Digital.

“When my business partner came to me, it wasn’t, ‘Let’s make Israeli food.’ He wanted to make plant-based food that reminded him of his childhood and home. That was the core of where we started to build the recipes. For the most part, Shouk has been promoted as Mediterranean, plant-based, and Middle Eastern.

“Very rarely have we claimed anything else. That’s why Shouk is written in both Arabic and Hebrew in all the stores – because we are a place to bring everyone together.”

Mr Friedman added that the shops “really became a target” following the Hamas October 7 attack, especially the Georgetown branch, which serves a large Muslim and university student population.”We had everything from little children coming into the store during a busy lunch screaming ‘Free Palestine’ while their parents videoed for social media,” he said, adding that, at one point, pictures of dead Palestinian children were tacked up in the shop’s windows.

Jinan Deena, a Palestinian chef who helped organise the boycott against Shouk, claimed the restaurateurs should acknowledge the Palestinian roots of the fare they served.