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Hi from Switzerland!
In an ideal world, I would just inform you that I have published a YouTube video from Fantasy Basel, the festival where the only conflict is Star Wars and the only weapons are made of plastic.
But the world is far from ideal. The world’s very foundations have been shattered by what is going on in Palestine in the last two years. Or in the last eight decades, depending on how you count.
In the newest development, Gaza-bound aid ship Madleen, with Greta Thunberg and other prominent activists carrying food and supplies to people starved by the occupation, has been intercepted by Israeli troops. Everyone on board this humanitarian mission was practically abducted in international waters.
IDF soldiers gave them sandwiches and water as if the activists were the starving ones, and the Defence Minister instructed them to enjoy their meal while watching the footage from Hamas‘ October 7 attacks, including the Nova Music Festival massacre, whose survivor, Yuval Raphael, ignited that earlier Eurovision Israel boycott call.
You might ask yourself: What does this have to do with the world of traveling and tourism? Well, apparently a lot. And not just because it is simply NOT acceptable for foreign militaries to kidnap EU citizens sailing in international waters, for a piece of sandwich-propaganda, without consequences.
In this perverted reality, we have slowly become accustomed to living in, Israel has already used violence as nourishment. Their organized bombing spectacles with a front-seat view (popcorn included) show the extent to which a typical Israeli, in an obviously successful propaganda bubble, has been insensitized to human suffering.
In that disturbingly brainwashed environment, genocide tourism has been normalized, and soldiers get well-deserved massages after demolishing yet another hospital.
Due to its Holocaust history, Israel regularly pulls out the ultimate world victim card (not the first nation in war with such a narrative) and boosted by religious rights “given” in the Bible (nota bene, the book has been freely distributed to the visitors of the Swiss Comic Con, recognizing SF lovers as legit potential fans), the “chosen people” seem to be lulled into believing in their divine superiority. In this Jewcentric worldview, any reasonable protest against the lack of reason is labeled as antisemitic.
Jewcentric model, as wrong as the geocentric one, doesn’t consider that the world might not share their opinion. As we know from the Theory of Mind, the infant state cannot grasp that other people have separate feelings, which makes raising a toddler probably the most challenging period of human development.
Social media is bursting with examples of tourist destinations turning against Israeli visitors living “tourism as usual”, completely unaware of the bloody trail their government leaves on generations and generations of their descendants.
In Crete, where a cruise ship brings 1,500 Israeli tourists every week, locals prepare a loud “not welcome”, while one islander explains how she had not seen a single Palestinian tourist sipping a martini. The signs in Hebrew tell that “the beaches of Greece will not wash the blood” from their hands. Some Israeli visitors still get surprised by the “humiliation on vacation”, like these who were called baby killers at Vouliagmenis Lake near Athens.
Whether in Naples and Milano lately, or in Vietnam and Thailand a year ago, local restaurants and shops are ready to lose business rather than serve visitors from Israel.
We’ve already seen hotels in Italy, Norway, or Japan canceling Israeli bookings. On the institutional level, the Maldives officially closed its borders to Israeli citizens, while some countries, like Australia, have denied visas to visitors from Israel.
Being a Jew abroad these days is not easy. But instead of disturbing destinations with entitlement (“my money built your country”) or threats (“I’m gonna kill you”), Israeli tourists would probably get more sympathy for standing up to the regime that justifies and even glorifies violence with a reasoning that has only parallels in Nazi Germany, the same one that wanted to eradicate Jews from the face of the planet.
Sadly, the reactions of governments to continued atrocities in Gaza show that silence, just like history, is a concept that repeats itself.
We don’t need more dark tourism sites.
Have a loud week!
Ivan Kralj
Pipeaway.com
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