What was meant to be a final vacation before beginning military service turned into a frightening ordeal for Noya and her friends. In an interview with Channel 14, she described two separate incidents that she says occurred during their stay in Lloret de Mar, Spain — one at a nightclub and another at a pool party — where, according to her account, they were targeted because they were Israeli.
“We said we were from Israel — and everything blew up”
According to Noya, the first incident took place at a local nightclub. She and her friends had paid extra for access to the venue’s VIP area in an effort to avoid the crowds. “We did it because it was extremely crowded and we wanted to stay away from everyone, especially with anti-Semites around. You never know what they might do,” she said.
According to her, at first the evening passed calmly, until one of the partygoers approached them and asked where they were from. “We’re not ashamed of it, so we said we were from Israel,” she recalls. “Suddenly he went crazy.”
Noya says the man began to physically attack them. “He pulled my friend’s leg and tried to knock her down. Then he pulled my long skirt and almost knocked it down, and he almost knocked down another friend’s skirt as well.” Noya says that the man even motioned for her to go outside with him and threatened her with hand gestures that resembled beatings. “We were a group of girls, and it was so scary. We didn’t understand where it was coming from. It all happened in a few minutes.”
She said they tried to calm things down to prevent further escalation, but to no avail. “We tried to answer gently so he wouldn’t get even more mad, but he just kept cursing us.”
Noya says that the club security guards removed the man from the venue, and at the same time she and her friends contacted airline representatives, through whom they purchased the vacation package. However, she claims that although the attacker was removed, he and his friend were waiting for them outside the club.
Shortly after, she says, a much more serious incident occurred. “Suddenly the security guard – big, tall and plump, really strong – approached my friend. She is the most innocent girl; she did nothing. She was sitting on the sofa in the VIP and was on the phone.”
She claims that the security guard grabbed her friend with great force. “He just violently grabbed her. She is a small, thin girl and he picked her up. When she tried to resist, he threw her to the floor and started dragging her like she was a doll.”
According to her, her friend screamed, cried, and had a panic attack. “He touched her all over her body, behaved cruelly, and left marks on her body from his strokes,” Noya says. She and her other friends tried to stop him. “We shouted at him, ‘Leave her alone,’ and tried to talk to him, but he didn’t listen. He just dragged her to the floor and threw her out of the club.”
“They threw us to the floor and laughed while we cried”
According to her, the other girls were also attacked when they tried to help their friend. “When we tried to help her, the other security guards threw me to the floor several times. They choked another friend by the throat and pulled her hair, and they did the same to another girl.”
The incident, she describes, did not end even after they were thrown out of the club. “When I just came in to wash my face because I was crying hysterically and couldn’t breathe, they laughed in my face. They didn’t let us take our phones and things. They saw that we were crying and hysterical and just laughed at us.”
When they finally left the place, she claims, the two partygoers with whom the confrontation had begun recognized them again and approached them. “Luckily, there were Israelis and representatives there who kept them away from us, and the club owner also took them out. But he kept screaming. It was the scariest thing ever.”
Noya adds that one of the most shocking moments for her was when the man pulled her skirt. “If I hadn’t been holding my skirt up, I might have been standing there naked in front of everyone.”
“He said he would upload the video to TikTok.”
According to Noya, another incident occurred a few days later, this time at a pool party that was also purchased through airline connections as part of the vacation package. The party was attended by Israelis alongside young people from Britain, Italy, France, Germany and other countries.
Again, she says, it all started with an innocent question. One of the participants asked one of her friends where she was from. “She said she was from Israel, and then he just started cursing her.”
According to her, the man pulled out his cell phone and said he intended to post the video on social media. “He opened a camera and said he would upload it to TikTok. It was a pool party, and he started taking close-up photos of her whole body while she was in a swimsuit.”
At the same time, she describes, he and his friends surrounded the young woman and shouted anti-Israeli slogans at her. “They shouted ‘Free, Free ‘Palestine’,’ ‘F*ck Israel,’ they laughed at her and kept cursing her. She just stood there crying in front of everyone.”
“It was abuse”
Even after returning to Israel, Noya says that she and her friends are still struggling to let go of the events. “It was just the scariest thing there is. We were there in fear of our lives. We were all crying hysterically. It was abuse.” According to her, one of her friends is still suffering from the trauma and physical harm. “To this day, she still has marks on her body from the security guard’s pulls.”
An airline spokesperson responded: “It is sad to hear about any anti-Semitic incident in Spain or anywhere else that Israelis experience. Needless to say, the company has no connection to parties in Spain and/or anywhere else, and this is clearly stated on the company’s website.”