Rami Ykmour: RASHAYS restaurateur calls for the Palestinian flag to be lit up on the Sydney Opera House – as he unleashes on the government over ‘double standards’ in the Israel conflict

A prominent restaurateur has made a heartfelt plea for the Sydney Opera House to be lit in the colors of the Palestinian flag, following the bombing of a hospital in Gaza.

Rami Ykmour, owner of popular restaurant chain RASHAYS, posted an impassioned video on social media on Wednesday, calling out what he sees as double standards from the Australian government in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine.

Mr Ykmour told Daily Mail Australia he felt compelled to speak out after waking up to the devastating news that around 500 people had been killed in the bombing of Gaza City’s al-Ahli hospital.

The devastating fireball has sparked a vicious blame game between Hamas and Israel, with the terrorists claiming it was the result of an Israeli airstrike, while the IDF blamed Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another militant group, for a failed rocket.

‘ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!’ Mr Ykmour wrote on Instagram alongside the video.

“Now more than ever, the world needs us to stand together and stop the violence. How can you sleep at night when this is happening in the world?’

“Last Sunday we woke up to devastating news of innocent civilian lives lost in the Middle East,” the 48-year-old said in the video, referring to the horrific attack on Israel carried out by the terrorist group Hamas.

“And today we woke up once again to the fact that innocent lives were being lost in the Middle East.

‘This time in a hospital, in an Anglican hospital.

“More than 500 lives have been lost today,” Ykmour, who lives in Sydney’s inner west, said in the video.

“Now I wonder if our government will act in the same way as what happened last Sunday?

“Are they going to light up the green, white and red of the Opera House and other iconic buildings in Australia?”

New South Wales Premier Chris Minns two weeks ago ordered the iconic sails of the Sydney Opera House to be lit in blue and white to support the people of Israel after the Hamas terrorist launched a wave of horrific attacks in which 1,400 people died.

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists marched to the Opera House in protest, with some marring the demonstration with anti-Semitic chants.

“People are in just as much pain as they were last Sunday,” Ykmour said.

“I just hope people hear me, I just hope the government can hear me, I hope our ministers can hear us and I hope they come out and share the loss of last night with us.

“The innocent mothers who were delivering babies, the babies who were there, the children, the grandparents who were in a hospital that was supposed to be a safe place.”

Mr Ykmour said he was “absolutely shocked” by the continued bloodshed in the Middle East.

“My heart goes out to everyone, to all the citizens who have lost their lives, because no one deserves what is going on and it is time that we all stand up and say enough is enough,” he said.

“We just can’t watch, how can we sleep at night, how do we sleep while this is happening in today’s world?”

Mr Ykmour told Daily Mail Australia he was “devastated” when he woke up to the news of the Gaza hospital bombing on Wednesday.

“It’s very hard to understand, you know, I’m a father, I’m a husband, and to think that there are families going through what they’re going through,” he said.

He said the Australian government must stand with Palestine, just as it had stood with Israel when the country was attacked.

“For the sake of other Australian families who have relatives in the Middle East, they must show the same kind of compassion they have shown for Israel,” he said.

“They should bring us together, the last thing we need here is more division.”

Mr Ykmour said he believed Australian media coverage of the conflict was biased towards Israel.

“I look at the BBC and other international reporting and what we see here is very skewed,” he said.

‘At the end of the day we are all human beings, it doesn’t matter whether someone is Israeli or Palestinian.’

On Tuesday night, a massive explosion ripped through Gaza City’s al-Ahli hospital as it was being used to treat and shelter thousands of civilians amid the ongoing conflict.

The devastating attack has sparked a vicious blame game between Hamas and Israel, with both sides blaming the other for the destruction and angrily denying it was their fault.

US President Joe Biden, who flew to Tel Aviv, has spoken out, telling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that it “appears” not to have been caused by Israel but instead “by the other team.” It is not clear whether he was referring to Islamic Jihad or Hamas terrorists.

Palestinian officials said Tuesday’s horror explosion was caused by an Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) airstrike, while officials in the Jewish state insisted it was the result of a “misfired” rocket launched by the terrorist group Islamic Jihad.

Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed at least 2,778 people and injured 9,700, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Nearly two-thirds of the dead were children, a ministry official said.

Another 1,200 people in Gaza are believed to be buried under rubble, alive or dead, health authorities said.

More than 1 million Palestinians have fled their homes – roughly half of Gaza’s population – and 60 percent are now in the roughly 9-mile area south of the evacuation zone, the UN said.