Israeli media: Israeli tourists behaviour in UAE is ‘shameful’

Israeli tourists in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been behaving in a “shameful” way, Ynet News reported yesterday.

Israeli tourism companies say there were rowdy parties, damage to luxury cars, Israelis cooking inside their hotel rooms in clear violation of hotel rules and attempts to avoid paying for minibar purchases by replacing the liquor with water.

“The UAE is very accessible to the Israeli visitor now,” says Amalia Lazarov, owner of Trevelicious travel company.

“The fact that you can speak a few words in Arabic does not make the hotel desk clerk your friend. It is disrespectful to behave as if he is,” she says.

“I have been working in the UAE and in other Arab countries for the past 12 years and am happy to see Israelis are finally welcomed there after years of dreaming of this opportunity. Now it is all blowing up in our faces because of this inappropriate behavior.”

Lazarov warned that things will “end badly” if this behavior continued.

“Israelis should undergo some sort of training before visiting the Arab world and paying $95 for an entrance visa is not enough,” she says.

“I would by lying if I said this did not have an impact on the conversation in the UAE. Some of the companies with which Israelis are coming into contact are not Emirati-owned. They are Egyptian and Jordanian and Lebanese. If we don’t behave better, we will pay the price,” Lazarov says.

Omar Abu Khaled, an Egyptian tourism agent in Dubai, said he knows knew Israelis well from his time working at Sinai resort Sharm al-Sheikh.

“There are no people more generous and kinder than Israelis, and none more fun loving when on vacation. But some just do not understand where they are and how they must behave,” he says.

“About a week ago I had five [Israeli] friends who wanted to take a jeep tour of the desert near Dubai. We negotiated a price, but they opted to rent their own car. I told them how important it was to drive safely and not behave in a rowdy manner but within an hour I received the call that after driving wildly, the car overturned and crashed causing great financial damage.”

When I got to them they began arguing with me, claiming that they had driven perfectly well,” he says.

“Finally they paid up but they should be grateful I did not call the police.”

Eran, who took his son to the Gulf state for his bar mitzvah celebration, recounts the words of a local tour guide that took him and his party into the desert:

“He told us we will be the last Israelis he will work with as Israelis have a reputation of being difficult and problematic. I was very ashamed.”

Recently, there were reports that Israeli tourists are stealing items from hotel rooms in Dubai.

“Recently we have seen Israeli tourists come to the hotel and pile up all their bags in their bags, stealing towels, tea and coffee bags and even lamps,” said a manager of a hotel in Dubai.

Not only stealing, but also smuggling drugs, as dozens of Israelis who have travelled to Dubai to celebrate the New Year smuggled hashish and marijuana into Dubai.

“All we did was to smuggle some hashish and marijuana for celebrating Sylvester and getting high. It isn’t cocaine, it’s light drugs. I don’t believe that we’ll get in trouble. A death sentence? for a few hundred grams in our suitcases? We only smoke in our hotel room,” one of the Israelis who smuggled light drugs into Dubai told N12.

Over 66,000 Israeli tourists were reported to have visited the UAE since normalizing the ties between UAE and ‘Israel’ on 15 September.