Well Jew hatred is alive and well in the world, as I learned the other night when I was targeted for being an Israeli Jew. I arrived to Lithuania on Tuesday to travel and that same evening signed up for a pub crawl organized by my hostel. At one of the bars our group was standing outside when a random guy not connected to our group asked me where I'm from. I told him Israel then his eyes widened and he said that he's from my "enemy country." I asked him what he meant and he said that he's from Egypt. I tried to be diplomatic and told him that we're not enemies since there's a peace treaty, and that I've traveled to Egypt before and it's a nice place. He asked me if I'd served in the army, and what I "think of politics," and if I think the land of Israel belongs to Jews or to Palestinians. I continued to try to diffuse the situation so I just told him that I'm not at the bar to discuss politics. He kept asking and I kept dismissing him with the same answer. After a few times I shook his hand, told him to have a good evening, and went inside.
Later on throughout the night while inside I noticed that he kept staring at me. After about an hour he came up to me uninvited and told me "You're not from Israel because there is no Israel there is only Palestine." I still was trying to diffuse the situation despite the fact that he was obviously trying to manipulate me into a confrontation, so all I said was, "Look I don't know what you want me to say I'm from Israel." He repeated that there's no such thing as Israel, there is only Palestine, that we are occupying their land. Then he stuck his middle finger in my face. I was shocked and next thing I knew he also grabbed my cheek.
At this point he crossed the line by putting his hands on me so I straightened by hand between him and myself to create distance. I told him to get lost. His buddy came and told me to stop "attacking" his friend. I still was trying to keep my cool after all this continued to hold my hand out so that they wouldn't get close. Aside from keeping them away I was not physical. They still tried though with increasing aggressiveness to get close to me and I started to fear for my safety. Then the original one that spoke to me outside punched me in the face. I didn't try to punch him back and still just held my arm out to create distance. Then he took a glass beer cup, and smashed it over my head, shattering the cup.
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