The restaurant of a popular chef in Portugal was vandalized by anti-Israel activists while he was participating in a culinary festival in Israel, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported Saturday.

Cantinho do Avillez, José Avillez’s restaurant in Porto, was splattered with red paint Friday night while Avillez was in Tel Aviv. The protesters also defaced the restaurant with messages such as “Free Palestine,” “Avillez collaborates with Zionist occupation” and “Entrée: A dose of white phosphorus.”

Avillez was participating in the Round Tables culinary festival, a promotion sponsored by American Express that gathered popular chefs from around the world.

“The BDS movement has shown its real face,” Robert Singer, CEO of the World Jewish Congress, said in response to the incident. “They have proved to be no more than a group of vandals. This was an act of anti-Semitism. Targeting a chef in Portugal just because he took part in a festival in Tel Aviv is despicable. These self-declared human rights activists are actually quite the opposite: They spread hatred, not human rights.”

French chef Stéphane Jégo was harassed on Twitter by anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activists because of his participation in the festival. Jégo fired back on social media, describing them as suffering from “an affliction [hitting] people who are, at best, misinformed, mix everything up or at worst biased and dishonest.” Jégo also noted that France’s highest court had ruled that BDS was an illegal form of discrimination.

[Photo: Boa Onda Produções / YouTube ]