Israeli Teens "Causing Serious Damage" To Israel's Image

Israeli teens are causing damage to Israel's image, says the Israeli tourism ministry.

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Teens from around the world are prone to become excessive in their behavior if infused with alcohol. But that usually entails being loud, rude, obnoxious and maybe falling into an intimacy one will regret the next morning. But Israeli teens have certainly raised the bar for drunkenness acts.

Consider the case of Israeli teens being kicked out of hotels in the Greek resort island of Ios. The matter has become so concerning to Israel that the consulate in Athens has informed the foreign ministry.

Three weeks ago a group of Israeli teenagers was kicked out of one of the hotels in Ios. Another group was expelled from an island hotel two weeks ago and the most recent incident occurred this week when a third group was kicked out of two hotels. All incidents involve Israeli teens visiting Greece in a pre-army trip.

In the case of the most recent latter, five teens from Jerusalem (three of who are 18 and the remaining two 17) immediately got drunk and started to spray the fire extinguisher after checking into the Homer's Inn. When asked to pay for the damaged, the teens refused and started to curse at the hotel staff. The teens were then kicked out of the hotel and transferred to the Mare Monte hotel. It was just as bad here: they continued to run wild and run a set of towels. Again, they were forced to leave and transferred to a third hotel.

Their parents were just as much as less respectful and helpful when only the parents of one of the teens agreed to take responsibility for their son's action and pay the hotel damages.

According to the report, shortly after arriving at the Homer's Inn hotel in Ios this Sunday the Israelis got drunk and began spraying fire extinguisher fluid around the hotel. When asked to pay for the damages they caused the youths refused and began arguing and cursing.

A representative on behalf of the Issta travel agency was called in and transferred the five Jerusalem teens, three aged 18 and two aged 17, to the Mare Monte hotel, where they continued misbehaving and ruined a stack of towels. One of the Mare Monte staff had this to say: "All of the other guests complained about them. We told them to keep quiet. They settled down for a while but on the second night they began being loud again and also caused damage to property. The other guests came to the front desk and presented an ultimatum: 'Either the Israelis go or we go.' That's why they were kicked out."

Once again they were kicked out and transferred to a third hotel. They seem to have got the message here after their travel representative issued an ultimatum to them: "We made it clear to them that should they continue their unruly behavior they would spend the rest of their holiday on the beach."

Their parents were just as much as less respectful and helpful when only the parents of one of the teens agreed to take responsibility for their son's action and pay the hotel damages.

The two hotels that kicked out the Israeli teens have stated that they would no longer reserve rooms for Israeli youth.

Israel is worried about its image. As noted the Athens consulate felt fit to inform the foreign ministry and the tourism ministry has stated that such actions cause serious harm to the image of Israel and Israelis, especially in a small island like Ios where word travels quickly. And that the image damage caused is often difficult to improve.

An Israeli travel representative who booked the boys' trip stated:

"These hooligans are causing serious damage to our image. We became entangled in unnecessary conflicts with the locals and resort to diplomacy to handle them. The complaints we receive suggest these Israelis behaved abominably: Getting drunk, breaking things and behaving in a barbaric manner. We know that Israelis board flights back home utterly drunk, vomit and occasionally lose consciousness. We received complaints from the Santorini airport of such Israelis."

Perhaps it is not surprising that Israeli youth behave this way - break other people's property - and their parents refused to take responsibility for such conduct because, after all, Israelis are raised on the mindset that they can just take and use other people's property as they wish. If one believes that being Israeli entails him to seize the property of Palestinians - and one is just about to enter the army to part take in and defend that seizure - and that being Israeli allows one to do as they please to Palestinians with impunity, then why should we expect this youth to suspend such arrogant behavior when they travel outside of Israel? If they are not raised to show courtesy to their neighbors, why should they show courtesy to anyone else? The entire premise of Zionism embeds a people with an arrogant disregard for the rights and property of others. In that regard, this behavior of the teens and their absent parents is quite typical and the natural result of a Zionist education.

And memo to Israel: the biggest harm to your image which is most difficult to erase if your brutal mistreatment and occupation of the Palestinians.