Ten Israeli backpackers were severely attacked in a hostel in Argentina last week. The guests were awakened by smashing windows and the sound of guns. Yaov Pollac, owner of the hostel, told the Guardian that three male attackers screamed, “You shit Jews, you are trying to take over Patagonia.”
The assailants threw stones and smashed windows. They chased three cars in which the guests tried to escape and wrecked them. “They injured me, my brother and my father who is almost 70 years old, ” Mr. Pollac said. Even police officers who arrived at the scene were attacked, with three of the six hospitalized, one after having his jaw broken. Pollac has closed down the hostel after one cabin was destroyed with a petrol bomb. The hostel is popular with Israeli guests it attracts through its Hebrew language Facebook page.
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Perhaps there is a connection, perhaps not, but the attack occurred in the early morning hours before Alberto Nisman was scheduled to testify, but was found dead in his apartment from apparent suicide. He had accused the Argentinian government of a coverup of the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association in Buenos Aires. Sources say Nisman’s findings held Iran responsible for masterminding the attack, and that Argentina, given its oil deals with Iran, hushed this up.
