The police in Bansko have received numerous reports of inappropriate behavior by tourists from Italy

Numerous reports have been filed with the Bansko District Police Station against Italian tourists of Jewish descent, whom the international media reported had been attacked outside a hotel in Bulgaria on anti-Semitic grounds.

“At around 11:40 p.m. on August 2, a report was received about people threatening to take the law into their own hands at a hotel. Police officers were immediately dispatched to the scene, and no physical altercation took place. All individuals mentioned in the report have been identified - five Bulgarian and five Israeli citizens”, announced Hristiyan Parmakov, chief of the Bansko Police Department.

PHOTOS OF THE DAMAGED HOTEL SEE HERE

“About two weeks ago foreign tourists, mostly minors, arrived in Bansko. We have received reports of disorderly conduct on several occasions”, Parmakov added. According to him, after 11 p.m., they were making excessive noise, throwing objects from balconies and windows, banging on the windows of the first floor of the hotel where they were staying, and making obscene gestures. Reports were received that the individuals were jumping over fences and trespassing on the private properties of Bansko residents. Parmakov announced that the hotel where the foreign nationals were staying sustained 15,000 euros in damage.

The manager of the hotel where the foreign tourists were staying also provided more details about the incident. Asen Levov said that the bulgarians never set foot on the property or entered it, and that the conflict was entirely verbal while the tourists were on their balconies. The manager categorically denied that this was an anti-Semitic accident.

“Our hotel is one of the oldest in Bansko, and we often host Israeli groups. We’ve never had any problems with them before. The group in question arrived in mid-July and stayed until August 3. There were 200 children and 40 organizers who had gathered for a summer camp. The group was too large, and the adults clearly couldn’t handle the young people. There were also people from France and the United Kingdom, but Italian citizens of Israeli origin were involved in the conflict that gained widespread attention”, he emphasized.

Levov reported that hotel staff had called the police several times. “On multiple occasions after dinner, the Jewish tourists would lean out of the windows, mock the pedestrians, and throw plastic cups and bottles at them”, he stated.

A woman who lives in the neighborhood also filed a report with the police regarding acts of hooliganism by the foreign youths. “Around midnight that evening, we were coming home from work and saw some Israelis jumping off the hotel balconies. They went out onto the street, climbed over the fences, and entered our neighbor’s yard. We tried to tell them in English to leave, but they didn’t listen to us. They were acting very rudely. An older man came out and told them ‘poliz’ - I assume he was their teacher. At that word, they began to leave the yard”, said Elena Spasova.

The Bulgarian Jewish organization “Shalom” condemned the anti-Semitic incident. “Law enforcement must do their job. We remind everyone that the normalization of hate speech and anti-Semitism leads to incidents that are harmful not only to the Jewish community,” said Dr. Alina Levi, chair of the “Shalom” Jewish Organization in Bulgaria.