An Israeli couple was refused admission to an Italian hotel despite having made a reservation there, and the manager said the Israelis were “responsible for genocide.”
A Jewish organization in Venice reported the incident on Nov. 14.
The couple had used an online booking platform to reserve two nights for the beginning of November at the Hotel Garni Ongaro in Selva di Cadore, a mountain village near Cortina d'Ampezzo, which hosted the 1956 Winter Olympics.
A day before the departure, they received a message from the hotel’s staff: “Good morning. We inform you that the Israeli people as those responsible for genocide are not welcome customers in our structure.”
The hotel manager then invited them to cancel their reservation, offering them free cancellation.
The governor of the Veneto region condemned the incident, calling it “extremely serious.”
“I feel deeply disturbed and I’m shocked by what has happened,” Luca Zaia said. “Veneto must guarantee its doors are open to all.”
Italy has seen a steady rise in anti-Semitic incidents, about 80 to 90 per week over the past year compared with 30 per week before that, according to the Anti-Semitism Observatory in Milan.
In October, vandals defaced a mural in Milan depicting a survivor of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas terrorists that killed 1,200 Israelis.
These occurrences have taken place against a backdrop of incidents across Europe in which Israelis and Jews face anger or even brutality triggered by the Gaza war.
So far, the Gaza Health Ministry has reported that roughly 43,000 Gazans have been killed in the war.
The Israeli army has said that almost half of Gazans killed in the war were members of Hamas.
Following a Nov. 7 game, Israeli soccer supporters were attacked across Amsterdam in riots that injured at least five people and resulted in 62 arrests.
The Israeli army sent planes to the Netherlands to evacuate Israelis who wanted to flee.
Israeli fans were ambushed outside the stadium and across the city.
People were thrown into canals, were stabbed, had their cars rammed, and had their cellphones and passports stolen.
Others were besieged at hotels or apartment buildings or turned away from businesses when they sought shelter.
The Israeli news media, calling the violence a pogrom, expressed outrage that some media outlets downplayed it as typical violence among soccer fans.
Three days later, dozens of rioters clashed with police, setting a tram car on fire and smashing windows while one yelled, “Cancer Jews.”
France doubled the usual 2,000 officers for a “high-risk” soccer match.
Drawing even more attention to the game was French President Emmanuel Macron’s attendance “to send a message of fraternity and solidarity after the intolerable anti-Semitic acts” after the Amsterdam incident, which followed the match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv.
