A mob of pro-Palestinian protesters recently assaulted an Israeli tourist in Athens in broad daylight, with the incident captured on video by the victim.
“I went out toward the gym with my phone in hand. The phone was giving directions in Hebrew, and as I was walking, four guys heard the Hebrew and asked if I was Israeli. I said yes and kept walking, but they started cursing at me and chasing me,” he told “Morning News” host Niv Raskin.
The video of the incident in the Greek capital shows a man with what appears to be a British or Irish accent aggressively chasing the Israeli and swinging an object at him that appears to be a flag or banner with a pole.
The victim asked, “Are you going to touch me?” The man responded with expletives, shouting that he would and ordering the victim to leave. The victim said, “He’s touching me, he’s touching me.” The man continued using profanities, telling him, “Zionist, you are not welcome here.”
The victim said that after they started cursing him as a “dirty Zionist,” he knew that the situation had changed, and he ran to the road. “There, I stopped filming and started defending myself with kicks. A commotion started, and I tried to escape.”
He said one person tripped him and he fell, and a crowd gathered over him, who he described as anarchist protesters.
“I realized I needed to get up quickly to escape, felt I had to get out of the situation, and ran to a nearby restaurant. I locked myself in the bathroom and texted the guy I rented the apartment from that I was in danger and being attacked; he called the police. I texted my family that I was being attacked,” he said.
The mob followed him into the restaurant and tried to break down the door, according to the Israeli, who said that he heard shouts in English: “Bring an axe to break the door.”
Around 15 minutes later, he said, police knocked on the door—and arrested him, not the perpetrators.
“I was happy they came to help me. But when I came out, they started searching me, pulled out handcuffs and arrested me. I emphasized that I was attacked, and the officer spoke with the people who attacked me, who told him that I was the one who attacked.”
He was quickly released. Asked whether any of the perpetrators had been arrested, he told Raskin that police had told him he needed to come down to the station with any pictures or video in his possession in order to identify them, after which he said he would file a complaint.
He said that he was lightly injured in the incident.
“Yes, they hit me, mainly with flags, and that’s why I kicked them, because I needed to keep my distance. I have some bruises, but I moved on,” he said.
He told Raskin that he had been surprised at how quickly it escalated, and offered advice to other Israeli travelers.
“I would recommend being more alert and not speaking Hebrew. You never know where it might catch up with you. I’m still here for now but will return [to Israel] in the coming days,” he said.
The attack in Athens is part of a troubling pattern, with several other Israelis and Jews having been targeted in the city recently.
