Day: August 4, 2025

CAFES, CONCERTS AND CAMPSITES – “JUDEN VERBOTEN”

In Europe being Jewish in public is unacceptable – again!

By David E. Kaplan

If the Verona ‘balcony scene’ in Romeo and Juliet exemplified love, a recent ‘café scene’, not on a West End stage, but in central London, exemplified hate.

It is cerebrally exhausting and emotionally draining keeping tally of the number of Jew-hating incidents that occur daily around the world but one  incident  – a scene in a London kosher café – encapsulated it for me. Why? Because in its raw knee-jerk reaction just to the public presence of Jews, debunks as myth that anti-Zionism is also not antisemitism.

Spewing Hate. Video footage shows the woman accosting young Jewish diners at Reuben’s kosher restaurant on Baker Street and  “….when she saw I was filming,” says Yael Isaac, “she came back, threw our water at us and took her hand, put it in our salad and threw it at our faces, threw my phone on the floor and all our food with it….. It became clear that this was not an ‘anti-Zionist’ attack.”

SET THE SCENE

Here were a group of girls, sitting at a table, minding their own business while eating in a kosher restaurant, when suddenly, in steps an agitated woman, who, according to multiple videos of the ‘incident’, approaches the girls and asks:

 “Are you Jewish?”

When one of the girls replies in the affirmative, the woman screamed “free Palestine” in the girls’ faces and told them they “were killing babies”.

But here is the telling marker:

When one of the girls asked but ‘What if I don’t support Israel?’ the response of the aggressive protester was as later related to the media:

 “…she didn’t care.”

Of issue was only:

 “…that I was Jewish… that’s all that mattered to her.”

Israel had everything and nothing to do with it. While Israel may have been the trigger for the assault as a consequence of a global media and PR frenzy accusing its soldiers of killing babies –  the tried and tested accusation from Medieval times –  it had little influence on the woman assaulter whose ONLY interest was that the girls were Jewish. This is precisely the only point of interest the Nazis had to round up and transport for mass execution!

Is it any wonder this same theme is being acted out across the globe. A family vacation in Milan, Italy turned into a nightmare for a 52-year old French Jewish father when he was attacked in front of his 6 and 12-year-old children at a highway rest stop by a mob shouting “Free Palestine”. Speaking to French channel CNEWS, he described how about 20 people surrounded him, shouting “Free Palestine” and “murderer” while “…they trampled me, kicked me in the legs and stomach.” When he got up, “someone strong pinned me against a wall and tried to hit me. At that moment, I realized I couldn’t see my son.” Are these the same folk that are concerned about kids in Gaza when they could not care less about a 12 -year-old kid in front on them, whose father they were beating? No, these are raving antisemites, looking to inflict harm not for love of Palestinians but for hate of Jews.  As French-Jewish advocacy activist Yossi Spitezki expressed:

“A Jewish man stops at a gas station on an Italian highway and is harassed with ‘Free Palestine’ chants just because his son was wearing a kippah. He’s French, with no connection to Israel. Where have we come to?”

Unrest at Rest Stop. A French Jewish father and his children are attacked at an Italian highway rest stop by a mob shouting ‘Free Palestine’, leaving him injured and traumatized, while local police ask man to ‘tell Netanyahu to stop bombing Gaza’. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/uBSkIakj4RM?feature=share

“NOISY”JEWS!

Spain expelled its Jewish community  following the Alhambra Decree in 1492 and clearly they do not want them back – even to visit. About 50 Jewish children and teens (aged 10-15) and their summer camp counselor were forcefully removed from a Vueling Airlines flight in Valencia, Spain, because they were singing in Hebrew while boarding and waiting on the plane before takeoff. Following the group being removed, police allegedly instructed the children to place their phones on the ground to prevent them from filming the arrest. When the children’s group head councilor intervened, arguing that the order was illegal, she was then forcibly restrained, handcuffed and taken away. Authorities told the group they would not be permitted to reboard the flight, citing “noise” as the reason.

Antisemitism in ‘Plane’ sight. Dozens of French Jewish children on a summer camp trip were removed from a Spanish flight in Valencia after singing Hebrew songs. Seen here is their camp director being aggressively arrested.

No, the reason was not “noise” but – Jew hatred.

Is it any wonder that now, not only Israelis but Jews everywhere, when travelling, have to consider not only the usual – weather, hotels, cuisine, best beaches, cultural sites, cheap flights, but also antisemitism.

They have to ask the question:

 “Will my family and I be safe?”

VENOM IN VIENNA

Well, there is no guarantee of safety in Austria which has seen a recent spate of antisemitic and anti-Israel incidents from restaurants, campsites and even the country’s most prestigious cultural event, the Salzburg Festival where last Saturday, protestors stormed the stage disrupting Austrian Vice-Chancellor Andreas Babler’s opening speech shouting “Blood on your hands!”

Just days earlier, Israeli couple Nissan and Michal Dekalo were turned away at a camp site while celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary. After parking their camper and preparing to check in, the couple presented their Israeli passports — prompting a chilling response from staff:

“We have no place for Jews here.”

Told to Leave. Israeli couple Nissan and Michal Dekalo marking their 25th anniversary in Austria were denied entry to a campground after revealing their nationality. Nissan Dekalo, a survivor of the October 7 Hamas massacre in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, said the manager told them, “There’s no place for Israelis here – leave.”

Dekalo, who lives in Kibbutz Nahal Oz near the Gaza border  defended his kibbutz  for 13 hours on  October 7, 2023 while his wife and children hid in the protected space. Now, there is no ‘SPACE” for him at an Austrian campsite!

In Vienna, three Israeli classical musicians — Amit Peled, Julia Gurvitch, and Hagai Shaham — were refused service at Pizzeria Ristorante Ramazotti after speaking Hebrew while placing their order. Peled recalled that when asked what language they were speaking, and he replied “Hebrew”, the waiter then responded:

 “In that case, leave. I’m not serving you food.”

No Place for Jews Here. Renowned violinist Haggai Shaham, pianist Julia Gurvitch, and cellist Amit Peledwere grabbing a bite before a concert in Vienna, Austria, when the waiter learned that they had been speaking Hebrew said, “….leave. I’m not serving you food.”

Expressing outrage and astonishment, Peled wrote on social media:

“The initial shock and humiliation were profound. But what struck us even more deeply was what came next — or rather, what didn’t. The people around us… went back to their dinners… as though nothing had happened. Welcome to Europe 2025.”

Or was it Europe 1938?

When French-Jewish advocacy activist Yossi Spitezki asks, “Where have we come to?”, it would be more accurate to ask, “Where have we returned to?”

Some eight decades ago, WWII was fought and won, but for Jews, it seems that although Germany lost, its  ideology won.





While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).