Israeli Tensions in Crete

Greece, and specifically the island of Crete,

has an Israeli

problem. You guys know I'm in Crete right now.

My partner and I are traveling through Greece, but I had no idea

just how bad this issue was. If you guys didn't know, an

Israeli man was arrested this past week in Crete for deliberately

setting fire to the Cretan countryside,

and that fire almost burnt down two entire towns.

But what you probably didn't know is in that exact same

area where the fire was burning, the Israelis have

been fighting to build an all-Israeli

exclusive resort here on the island of Crete.

And I only even know about that after having spoken to locals.

Now, here's what I do know. When you drive around the

island of Crete, this is what you see.

On virtually every single retaining wall, on

every highway, on every bridge, on every

available potential area where you could place

graffiti, there are messages in solidarity with

Palestinians, with Gaza, with Yemen, with

Syria, and a lot of messages about

how much these people do not want Israeli

tourists here. The part that I find really interesting, though,

is that at almost

every single one of these graffiti spots, there has been evidence that Israelis

have tried to paint over the message that the locals have placed.

And that is also not a unique thing.

Look at what Israeli tourists have done in Patagonia,

in Colombia, in Thailand, in Bali.

Don't even get me started on the, uh, place in the

Philippines where they opened up an all-Israeli resort just for

people to go and blow off steam after having served in

the IDF in Gaza. Israeli tourists are hated

virtually worldwide, but I just think it's really interesting

coming face to face with this issue here and having heard from the

locals just how awful the problem is.