An Israeli tourist says she was refused service at a restaurant in central Athens immediately after telling a staff member that she was from Israel, in an incident she described as humiliating and frightening.
Anna Doshin, a new immigrant living in Haifa, told ynet that the incident occurred on the night of July 13 at around 10:30 p.m. at Vinoir Bistro in the center of the Greek capital. Doshin said she arrived at the restaurant alone and ordered a hookah. As a waiter brought the order to her table, a young employee approached and asked which country she was from. “When I replied that I was from Israel, he told me, ‘There is no hookah for you,’ took the hookah from the table and refused to serve me,” she said.
Vinoir Bistro in Athens
Doshin said there had been no argument or inappropriate behavior on her part before the exchange. “I remained calm, got up and quietly left the place,” she said. “It was the first time something like this had happened to me. I thought saying I was from Israel would be completely normal because I heard a lot of Hebrew around me and saw many Israeli tourists, but it turned out not to be.” She said she was uncertain whether the employee was a waiter or the owner.
The experience was especially distressing, Doshin said, because she was staying in an apartment in the same building, directly above the restaurant. “First of all, I was afraid because I was there alone and I am a woman,” she said. “Every day when I passed the restaurant, because I was staying right above it, I felt uncomfortable and scared. I felt humiliated and embarrassed, so I immediately went back home very shaken.”
Doshin said she believed the only reason she was denied service was her nationality. “What hurt me most was that the refusal came immediately after I said I was from Israel,” she said. “I understood that they were refusing to serve me only because of my nationality.” The restaurant could not be reached for comment.
Palestinians attack Israeli in Athens’ Syntagma Square
Israeli-owned restaurant in Athens vandalized by masked assailants
(Video: Social media)
The incident comes amid a series of reports by Israelis who say they have faced hostility or discrimination abroad because of their nationality, against the backdrop of tensions surrounding the war.
Last September, a 29-year-old Israeli man was lightly injured after allegedly being attacked by three Palestinian men in central Athens. The incident took place near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Syntagma Square and also involved a 30-year-old Israeli woman.
About two months earlier, an Israeli tourist was seriously wounded in the ear after he was allegedly attacked by a group of Syrian migrants at a beach near Athens in what was suspected to be an antisemitic assault. The alleged attacker was arrested, as was the Israeli after the suspect filed a complaint accusing him of making racist remarks.
In July last year, masked vandals targeted King David Burger, an Israeli-owned kosher food stand in central Athens that had opened only around six weeks earlier.
According to footage from the scene, the vandals entered the restaurant, damaged property, scattered papers and sprayed threatening graffiti, including anti-Israel and anti-Zionist slogans.
The attack later prompted a public dispute between Israel’s ambassador to Greece, Noam Katz, and Athens Mayor Haris Doukas.
Katz accused the mayor of failing to do enough to make Israeli tourists feel safe in the city. Doukas responded angrily, criticizing the ambassador for focusing on graffiti while accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.