Two young Israelis visiting Montenegro appear to have been targeted by a group of people for being Jewish during a pre-army vacation, N12 reported on Monday.
The two Israelis, Yoav and Dor, told N12 that they were visiting a casino when a man approached them, made conversation, and then asked where they were from.
After the two said they were from Israel, “our nightmare began,” Yoav recounted.
“The guy wouldn’t leave us, started pestering us, and offered to take us to a ‘much nicer casino.’ At the beginning of the conversation with him, he said he was on a family vacation, but then we saw that he knew all the locals sitting at the tables around him. That’s when we started to get suspicious and realize that something was wrong.”
The two were able to escape the man and exit the casino, only to be confronted by a group of around 15 people.
“It felt like a planned ambush in every regard. They were waiting for us, they noticed us and chased us. A hunt began in the alleys and streets.”
Yoav and Dor split up, with Yoav finding a hiding place in a private garden, where he was able to call his parents.
“I heard them right on top of me, searching house by house, shouting ‘Jews, Jews!'” Yoav said. “After a few minutes, I managed to sneak into the outside kitchen of another house, where I called my parents.”
Dor, meanwhile, had run down the main road, where he was caught and kicked by the pursuing mob.
“Miraculously and with his last strength, he managed to escape them and get away until he reached the hotel,” Yoav described to N12. “I hid outside for two and a half hours.”
Israelis aided by Foreign Ministry after antisemitic attack
After Yoav made contact with his parents, they were able to contact the Foreign Ministry.
“They were amazing and made sure to take care of the children and help them as soon as we found out about the incident,” Yoav’s mother said.
“The director of the department for Israelis abroad at the Foreign Ministry and the Israeli consulate in Serbia, which is responsible for the Montenegro sector, called the police, who accompanied the children and were in contact with us throughout the entire incident, which took place at night, and also afterward.”
An investigation by Montenegro authorities is ongoing, N12 noted.
