Ambassadors of Bad Will

By BAILA LAZARUS

Opinion - 1225 words
(Published in the Jerusalem Post May 2004)

Until traveling in Asia, I had thought that Israel's public relations troubles were limited to inexperience and ineloquent speakers from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the difficulties in fighting its image in the media as a Goliath to the Palestinians' David. But traveling through Thailand, Myanmar and Laos in recent weeks, I have come across a phenomenon that is far more widespread, in-your-face and uncontrollable -- Israeli backpackers.

Now let me start with the caveat that I have met, in my travels thus far, a few wonderfully amiable, courteous and helpful Israelis, but they were far from the norm; and the stories that I have heard from other tourists about their run-ins with these temporary Israeli exports confirmed my own feelings that members of this Jewish incursion are doing more harm than good to Israel's reputation in the eyes of the world. Rude, loud, overbearing and belligerent, these travelers do not so much visit a locale as invade it; and, more often than not, against the wishes of the host areas.

I have backpacked in Europe, the Middle East, the Caribbean, South America and now Asia. I have stayed in youth hostels, pensions, guest houses and every type of hotel up to the five-star variety and never have I heard of travelers being refused accommodation because of their nationality. But the reputation of Israeli backpackers has become so bad, they are often refused rooms in areas such as Nepal and India -- two places, in addition to Thailand, to which these sightseers make a beeline. And if the guesthouse or hostel owner doesn't want to make his distaste obvious, he simply says the place is full.In my own experience in Bangkok, I often frequented an Internet cafe (that also serves as a travel agency) next to several guesthouses that are run by and cater almost exclusively to Israelis. I have watched day in and day out as they bark requests at the patient staff, crowd the cafe (preventing Internet users from having adequate space) and complain loudly when a bus doesn't show up exactly on schedule (we are talking about Southeast Asia, after all). Rarely have I heard the words "please" or "thank you" being uttered. Never have I seen any use of the appropriate, and easily learned, Thai greeting of "Sawatika" with two hands placed together under the chin. On more than one occasion, after one of these "clients" has left the cafe after using the travel service, a member of the staff has caught my eye, rolled his eyeballs and shook his head, as if to say, "Yes, unfortunately, this is what we have to put up with."

One day, while chatting with a fellow Canadian in a restaurant, I mentioned that I was doing a story on the Chabad centre in Bangkok and how it has been helpful to Israeli backpackers.

"Israeli backpackers? Oh brother," was his immediate response. "Don't get me started."
He actually didn't need me as a catalyst at all as he was quite keen on relating all his negative encounters with Israelis in Nepal and India, and stories of sharing similar complaints with other travelers."If there's one thing most travelers will agree on, it's that they all hate the Israeli ones," said my dinner companion. "I think they have no social skills."
He did not say that people have no patience for Israeli backpackers or that they simply dislike or are frustrated with Israelis, the feeling is one of complete aversion.

Testing his theory in a taxi in Myanmar, I asked the driver/tour guide what he thought of the tourists that come to Yangon. He said he found many Swiss and British to be very likeable. "And who do you not like," I asked.
"Israelis!" was his only response.

In a most recent experience, in a guesthouse in Luang Prabang, in northern Laos, I was sitting outside when three Israelis came looking for a friend who was supposed to be staying there. Most guesthouses in Laos require you to take your shoes off at the door and it is such a common practice all over Asia that any traveler with an ounce of consideration would at least look around or ask if it were necessary. In this case, there was a pile of removed shoes just at the entrance, a rack by the door where guests had left their shoes, as well as a sign asking visitors to please remove their shoes. Ignoring all three signals to take off their footwear, the Israelis marched into the guesthouse toward the room where they thought their friend was staying. They banged loudly on the door and yelled, "Uri! Uri!" loud enough to wake anyone who might have chosen that time to take a nap out of the hot sun. The three left, held a huddled discussion on the street, then one started to return, again entering the guesthouse shod.

"Your shoes," I called to him. He looked at me with a face as if someone had just shoved a lemon in his mouth, hesitated and finally slipped off the thongs he was wearing.

Later that night, as I was drifting off to sleep, the Israelis returned and had brought friends. They were looking for rooms after all and had chosen this guesthouse. They banged up and down the stairs, yelled and laughed loudly, called to each other from one room to the next and argued in the corridor, completely oblivious that there might be people other than themselves in the world. One woman got into an argument about the cost of laundry because it was 20 cents more per kilo than in another guesthouse.

The next morning they were told to leave with the excuse that the rooms in the guesthouse had been promised to other people for the night.

This lack of consideration seems to be repeated everywhere. On a boat from Thailand to Laos, crowded with chairs and people, an Israeli girl turned a chair sideways so that while she was reading, she could put her feet up on a bench that ran along the side of the boat. By doing so, she completely blocked the way to the back of the boat, which contained the toilet, and when someone tried to pass and said "Excuse me" to her, she begrudgingly shoved her chair over about two inches and went back to reading.

While one might argue that Israeli backpackers do not a national reputation make, I would say that the ripple effect these ambassadors of Israel make is disturbing. And we are not talking about a few hundred tourists who go to a country or two here or there and have contact that is limited to people in the tourist industry. We're talking about thousands of Israelis who travel abroad throughout the year interacting with thousands of other tourists from every country in the world who then relate their interactions to thousands of other tourists, as well as to friends and relatives back home. And while you will always encounter bad apples in every nationality of traveler, there is no doubt the Israeli bad apples fill a basket. They seem to be the only ones who haven't caught on to the fact that they are no longer at home.
Baila Lazarus is a Vancouver freelance writer traveling in Asia.