CNN
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A hotel in the Japanese city of Kyoto is said to have cancelled an Israeli tourist’s reservation on the grounds that it was a “war crime”. This drew criticism from local authorities as the hotel had violated regulations.
The tourist received a WhatsApp message from a hotel employee at the popular tourist destination informing him that his booking planned for June had been cancelled in response to the Gaza conflict, according to the Israeli embassy in Tokyo.
A message confirmed to CNN reportedly read: “We regret to inform you that due to the war crimes committed by members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in the Gaza conflict between Israel and Palestine, we are unable to accept reservations from individuals we believe may have ties to the Israeli army.”
It is unclear why the hotel employee believed the person had ties to the Israeli army.
The traveler who received the WhatsApp messages first filed a complaint with the Israeli embassy in Tokyo. He was able to make a new reservation at another hotel in Kyoto and continue his trip as planned.
The embassy accused the hotel of “a clear case of discrimination” when news of the alleged incident went viral last week.
The hotel, which did not respond to multiple requests for comment from CNN, was also sharply reprimanded by the Kyoto city government, which accused the hotel of violating Japan’s Hotel Act, which regulates the hospitality industry.
“Our position is to provide safe and quality accommodation to citizens and travelers, and we will strictly respond to situations that do not meet that standard, such as this one,” a Kyoto city government official told CNN, adding that a city official had personally visited the hotel to inform them of the violation.
Ido Bromberg, political adviser at the Israeli embassy, told CNN that the person who allegedly sent the WhatsApp messages was a simple employee of the Hotel Material and not its manager, owner or director.
The embassy has sent a formal letter of complaint to the Japanese government, but Bromberg stressed that there is no hostility between the two countries.
“We know that this is not typical of Japan in general, nor of the Japanese hotel industry,” he said. “We know that the hospitality of Japanese hotels is excellent and extremely pleasant, so we hope that the hotel will take the necessary measures to ensure that this does not happen again, and that this will be done with the employee in question.”
“We consider this to be a very isolated incident and hope it does not happen again.”
Bromberg pointed out that there is a direct flight between Tokyo and Tel Aviv operated by the Israeli airline El Al and said that Japan is an “attractive” destination for Israeli tourists.
The Israeli embassy said it would welcome an apology from the hotel but would not take legal action against the allegations.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas fighters entered Israel through Gaza and took about 250 people hostage in a brutal terrorist attack that killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
Shortly thereafter, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israel was “at war.” Since then, more than 37,000 people have been killed in Israeli military offensives, according to health authorities in Gaza.
A United Nations investigation this month found that both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes during the war in Gaza.
CNN’s Rinka Tonsho contributed reporting.
