Israeli tourist says Syrian man ripped off part of his ear in altercation on beach in Greece

An Israeli tourist had part of his ear ripped off by an attacker at a beach while vacationing in Greece, then was arrested by police over alleged racist comments he made to his assailant, he tells Channel 12 news.

Speaking from a hospital in Greece, Stav Ben-Shushan says he and his wife were at Bolivar Beach on the Athenian Riviera speaking to another Israeli couple when a man started filming them and chanting: “Free Palestine, fuck Israel, I am Hamas.”

He says they initially ignored the disturbance, but then the man threw sand at the other Israeli to whom they were talking. Shushan says he started shoving the attacker before security guards intervened to separate them and removed the assailant from the beach.

Shushan says that an hour later, he was walking back to his wife from a bathroom at the beach where he saw the man return and approach her, and appear to attack her.

When he rushed to intervene, the attacker ripped part of his ear off, Shushan says.

Shushan was arrested after the man, who he says was from Syria, accused him of making racist comments.

The incident follows two other anti-Israeli incidents in Greece over the past week.

A group of Israeli teenagers were attacked early Wednesday by a gang of anti-Israel assailants while vacationing in the Greek island of Rhodes, less than a day after an Israeli-owned cruise ship was prevented from docking at the Greek island of Syros and was instead rerouted to Cyprus due to a large anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian protest taking place at the port.