‘I don’t deliver to Jews’: Police launch investigation over Deliveroo driver remarks in France
Food delivery brand will ‘end worker’s contract’ once investigation is complete
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Your support makes all the difference.A police investigation has been launched in eastern France over accusations that at least one Deliveroo driver in the city of Strasbourg has refused to deliver food items from Jewish restaurants.
Police in Strasbourg said Monday that two Jewish restaurant owners in the area filed a racism complaint against the food delivery company last Thursday, and that “an investigation is underway to identify the suspects”.
Le Parisien newspaper reported that the restauranteurs’ lawyer, Raphael Nisand, said the owners “recount basically the same scenario” in which “they prepare an order and the courier asks: ‘What kind of food is this?’ The owner says it is Israeli food.
“Then the courier says: ‘Oh no, I don’t deliver to Jews’ and cancels the delivery,” Mr Nisand said.
It is not yet clear if both restaurants were targeted by the same driver, or if multiple antisemetic Deliveroo couriers are operating in the eastern city of Strasbourg.
Mr Nisand added that on Sunday he decided to file complaints against the courier(s), as well as Deliveroo, on behalf of the Israelite Consistory of the Bas-Rhin department.
“The Bas-Rhin Israelite Consistory considers it unacceptable that deliverers working for Deliveroo openly practice anti-Semitic discrimination,” its president Maurice Dahan said in a statement.
The delivery platform reportedly said it had reached out to the two restaurant owners, and that they were “taking this incident very seriously”, before later releasing a statement about the incident.
“Deliveroo takes a zero-tolerance approach to any form of antisemitic language, actions and discrimination,” the London-based business said, adding that it “took immediate action to address this incident”.
“We condemn any act of this nature in the strongest terms,” Deliveroo said, noting it had launched its “own internal investigation”.
“The rider will have their contract with Deliveroo ended with immediate effect once we have carried out the necessary due diligence to confirm the reports,” the company added.
Meanwhile, a host of angry French residents reacted to the news with one man, Ethan, saying he offered “total support for the Jewish community who are and make France”.
Another man, Loup Blanc, tweeted: “Do not understand [how] religion passes over humanity in 2021.”
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