10 Israeli Tourists Attacked in Argentina Hostel

(JNS.org) Ten Israeli tourists were violently assaulted earlier this week in an anti-Semitic attack at a hostel in the Patagonia region of Argentina.

Media reports indicate that the group of backpackers woke up at 1 a.m. Monday due to the sound of a shotgun going off near by. Three men entered the hostel and assaulted the guests with broken bottles, sticks, and Molotov cocktails. They also forced security personnel who arrived at the scene to retreat.

“It was a terrifying moment, several hours of fear,” said Yoav Pollac, the owner of the Onda Azul hostel in Lago Puelo, according to the Argentine newspaper Clarín. “They shouted, ‘Go, f---ing Jews. You f---ing Jews are robbing us in the Patagonia region.’”

Pollac, who told The Guardian that the attackers have not yet been arrested, decided to close the hostel temporarily due to this week's incident and a previous anti-Semitic incident at the site, posting on the hostel’s Facebook page that “last October they burned down one of our cabins with a Molotov cocktail. I can’t take the risk of one of our guests being killed.”