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An Israeli tourist identified only as “R” recently canceled her booking at Decumani Hotel De Charme in Naples after the property sent her an automated email endorsing BDS Italy’s “No Room for Genocide” campaign.
“R” told N12 she no longer felt safe visiting. “I wrote that I didn’t feel safe to go there,” she said. “It made me a little less eager to travel, but I’m getting over it. It’s still a very unpleasant feeling, and it ruins my mood even before the trip.”
The email declared that Decumani “endorses the No Room for Genocide campaign” and pledged to welcome “Palestinians, refugees and all those peacefully resisting oppression.”
BDS Italy launched the campaign to pressure governments to prosecute Israelis it accuses of committing war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. The organization distributes this wording through an organizing toolkit designed for hospitality businesses that use Booking.com.
The toolkit also instructs participating businesses to request “background clarification” from guests to determine whether they are citizens of countries it claims have committed atrocity crimes or served in those countries’ militaries during the period in which the alleged crimes were committed. It remains unclear whether Decumani requested this information from “R.”
The campaign’s criteria extend beyond military service. The toolkit states that any Israeli who lives in, works in, or supports an “illegal Israeli colonial settlement in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT), including East Jerusalem, or in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights” was “knowingly participating in a war crime,” regardless of whether that person ever served in the military. BDS Movement’s campaign page claims that among the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who served during the Gaza war, the likelihood of involvement in atrocity crimes was “extremely high.”
Similar hostility toward Jewish travelers surfaced last month at a Travelodge in London, England. A visibly Jewish guest found “Free Palestine” displayed on the television in his room, and a friend checking into the same hotel later encountered the same message. The first guest also said a front desk employee refused to look at him or properly serve him.
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