A disturbing incident of violence occurred Sunday in Limassol, Cyprus, where a young Israeli man was talking on the phone at the entrance of his hotel when a group of antisemitic youths overheard him speaking Hebrew and attacked him with severe violence until he lost consciousness.
Calls to the Israeli consulate were unsuccessful because staff were on weekend break. The injured Israeli didn't know whom to turn to for help and support from an official Israeli representative while wounded with serious eye socket damage and grave danger to his eye.
"They hurt my son at the hotel entrance in Cyprus – and everyone disappeared," the young man's father wrote on social media. "My son, a young Israeli, was violently attacked at the entrance of the hotel where he was staying in Cyprus. Not on the street. Not in a bar. At the hotel entrance – a place that's supposed to be safe and secure.
"He was brutally beaten, injured in the head and face, and evacuated for medical treatment," his father wrote. "But what's no less shocking is what happened afterward. We contacted the relevant authorities. We also contacted the Israeli consulate, and the response we received was: 'Sunday – we're off.' Just like that. When an Israeli citizen is wounded, abroad, after a violent attack, the system simply isn't available, there's no taking responsibility, no response, no sense of backing. If this was your son – you wouldn't be silent. Such violence and such indifference cannot pass quietly."
The young man eventually managed to board a flight to Israel and is now hospitalized at Ichilov Hospital after complex surgery in which doctors attempted to save his eye.
