High-profile Burgertory CEO issues open letter to Jewish community after video surfaced showing him chanting anti-Israel slogan at Melbourne protest - but he stops short of apologising

EXCLUSIVE A high-profile founder of a gourmet burger chain has been forced to publish an open letter to Melbourne's Jewish community explaining why he was filmed leading anti-Israel chants at a protest - but stopped short of apologising. Hash Tayeh, 32 -who founded Burgertory in 2018, which has since become Australia's biggest independently-owned burger chain - was filmed at a pro-Palestine protest in Melbourne on Sunday. Hash Tayeh, 32 - who founded Burgertory in 2018 which has since become Australia's biggest independently-owned burger chain - was filmed at a pro-Palestine protest in Melbourne on Sunday It has been also been used by terror organisation Hamas as a rallying cry to drive the Jews from the state of Israel. Mr Tayeh, who also led chants of 'Shame, shame USA, how many kids did you kill today', originally shared the footage on his Instagram page, which has now been switched to private following a wave of criticism for his involvement in the protest Mr Tayeh vehemently denies that he holds anti-Semitic views and has called for 'peace and unity, an end to killing and suffering on both sides' Mr Tayeh said ‘violence or eradication’ was against everything he stood for and he loved humanity too much’ to be anti-Semtitic - but stopped short of apologising directly.