Tenerife – Three Jewish tourists were abused and attacked while on holiday in Tenerife when a group of men spotted one of them wearing a kippah and accused them of killing children.
After travelling to the Canary Islands last week to go hiking, north London residents David, Judah and Stephen, whose names have been changed, decided to visit an area of the Playa de las Américas resort featuring bars and nightclubs.
Once they arrived, David said, he realised the area was seedy, with club promoters, prostitutes and drug dealers loitering around.
He told the JC: “One person came up to us and saw that my friend was wearing a kippah. He asked if we were from Israel. We denied that we were and tried to push past and move on.”
The group tried to lose the promoter by walking away without engaging in a confrontation.
By this point, Stephen, the only member of the trio wearing a yarmulke, had taken it off to avoid attention.
When they walked back past the same area, however, men began following them again and asking “intently” if they were from Israel.
Judah said: “We were walking to the car park when two guys appeared out of nowhere. They started shouting, ‘do you like killing babies?’ and ‘do you like Israel?’ I was dumbfounded, not scared.”
David added: “My friend said, ‘no, I’m Christian.’ The guy got in his face and asked if he likes killing kids. My friend said again that he’s a Christian, then the guy punched [him] in the face.”
The men were unable to prevent the assault because it seemed to come out of nowhere, they said.
“While one was talking to me, another one punched my face,” Judah said.
“I tried to clench my fist to respond, and he hit me again. Then I fell onto the floor, and while I was trying to stand up, I fell back down again.”
Despite David screaming for help, men standing outside nearby bars did not react.
Other than some bruising, Judah said, he was not injured following the incident.
David added: “I think there’s a little bit of shock in terms of what we experienced.
“We didn’t want to make the rest of our trip about that, but it was hard not to. We did our best to have a good time, we did whale watching and hiked on the volcano, but we limited our interaction with locals as a result.”
Both men said they would be more circumspect about being visibly Jewish in public when abroad in future.
