A crew from i24NEWS' Hebrew channel was attacked over the weekend in Belfast, Northern Ireland, while filming for a documentary series on Europe's rising antisemitism.
The incident happened while i24NEWS reporter Yonatan Raveh and cameraman Nadav Abbas were conducting street interviews near a well-known bar complex. Raveh told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that he believed the attacker, a man, had overheard them telling two Irish interviewees that they were from Israel.
"He came over to us and started asking questions. We put the camera on him, and then he gave us the middle finger, and shouted "f*** Israel."
"We were not looking for any trouble, we were trying to be as peaceful as we can get, and we just walk away. But he started to follow us."
The man attempted to grab Raveh and Abbas' camera equipment, and made inappropriate gestures toward the camera. Raveh and Abbas called for police or security from any of the nearby establishments to intervene while the man followed them threateningly.
Raveh told the Post that bar security came over, saw what was happening, but "didn't do anything."
Beer mug thrown at i24NEWS cameraman
The man then threw a large glass beer mug at Abbas, hitting him in the head and cutting him. Security then intervened and put the journalists in the bar.
"They said they called the police, but we didn't care. We saw that the man didn't show up again, so we [left] we didn't want to wait for the police."
As it was their last day in Northern Ireland, the crew decided to return to Israel so Abbas could receive medical treatment there instead.
While this was the first physical assault the crew suffered in Northern Ireland, Raveh told the Post that there were numerous verbal altercations, curses and slurs prior to that.
Reflecting on what he saw in the country, Raveh said there is a "big divide," especially in Belfast, when it comes to views on Israel.
"In the specific case of Belfast, the city is kind of divided, it's like two tribes inside the same city. The Irish Catholics were very anti-Israel, very pro-Palestinian, and the Protestants were pro-Israel.
The crew, which as mentioned are filming about antisemitism in different locations, have experinced violence and threats before.
Raveh spoke of an incident in Madrid, Spain, where "the pro-Palestinians were surrounding us, and we had to delete the material that we shot. It was a threat."
"It wasn't super, super violent, but it was a pretty scary situation. The protesters surrounded us and said, 'now you delete the photos, now you delete the materials.'"
A similar thing happened in New York.
Raveh reflected on the most recent incident with a message of praise for his videographer: "I would like to thank Nadav because he's really a brave man who dealt with a problematic situation and was super cool with it, and he's the best cameraman that I can get."