The Industry and Trade Ministry is looking into allegations that restaurants were granted permits to import foreign workers to cook Asian food but failed to uphold their obligations and served only Israeli food. In at least two cases, the ministry has asked the Immigration Police to open an investigation.

The decision to allow "mixed" restaurants hire foreign workers was made by Industry and Trade Minister Ehud Olmert, under pressure from the restaurateurs, at a meeting last year in the minster's office. Attending the meeting were attorney David Libai, who was representing the Apropos chain, ministry director-general Ra'anan Dinor, the legal advisor to the ministry, Apropos executives and other senior officials.

The ministry says "Olmert was impressed by the arguments of the employers that the permits for specialist ethnic cooks in mixed restaurants was necessary to keep those restaurants going, thus enabling them to provide jobs to Israelis. The permits were given on the basis of claims made by the employers, who backed up their claims with menus that they said proved they offered Asian food.

Apropos, which went to the High Court of Justice to get permits for its foreign cooks, claimed that it had been offering its customers Thai food for years and that it could not suddenly cease employing Asian cooks. Thus, the ministry decided that restaurants serving ethnic Asian foods, in addition to a "regular" menu, get half the allocation of foreign worker permits that go to Asian restaurants of the same size. The employers are also supposed to train Israelis to replace the Asians in the future.

Thus, for example, in accordance with the new arrangement, Nafis, a chain that advertises "Enough Chinese, enough Italian; it's time to eat Israeli," received permits to import 16 Chinese cooks on the basis of a declaration it would serve Asian food in the future. And at least one of the Chinese brought in has said that he works in construction.

Or Yehuda restaurant Sa'id, which serves Middle Eastern food and is popular with politicians and celebrities, also has permits for eight foreign workers. David Moshe, a Sa'id manager, said the restaurant was known for its shwarma and wanted to hire eight Turks. But according to the Industry and Trade Ministry, restaurants that hire foreigners must declare they serve Asian food. Sa'id's owners said they needed experts, but Moshe said the work consisted of skewering meat, something Israelis are not prepared to do for NIS 22 an hour, plus social benefits.

Inspectors have been conducting spot checks at the restaurants in recent weeks and found contradictions between the declarations made by the restaurants and what the inspectors found on the scene in at least two cases.

Ministry sources said the two restaurants cited were Nafis and Sa'id and that information about the cases had been sent to the Immigration Police for further action.