A group of Israelis at a ski resort in Bansko, Bulgaria, was subjected to a violent antisemitic assault when a bystander heard one of them singing to himself a song in Hebrew with the words “Tel Aviv.”

When the bystander heard “Tel Aviv,” he administered a shoulder strike to the singer, shouting, “F*** Tel-Aviv!” A father tried to separate the two, but instead was knocked down, and the attacker kicked him in the face with a ski boot. He has been hospitalized with fractures to the skull and sinuses.

A member of the group posted a message he sent to a relative on X:

“Hi Daniel, I wanted to report a shocking case of antisemitism and severe violence that just happened to us at the ski site in Bansko. It all started when our friend was singing for his own enjoyment in Hebrew, ‘Tel Aviv, ya habibi, Tel Aviv.’ A local/foreign person who heard him approached, shouted ‘F*** Tel Aviv,’ and head-butted him hard in the face without any provocation,” the relative posted.

“A fight broke out when friends and other Israelis tried to separate them and help. The father of one of the friends, who was only trying to calm things down and break it up, was brutally attacked by one of them, who kicked him directly in the face with a ski boot,” the post continues.

“The result is very severe: the father is currently hospitalized with fractures to his skull and sinuses. This was a violent, premeditated antisemitic attack simply because they heard us speaking and singing in Hebrew,” he added.

“We would appreciate your help in publicizing this case to warn other Israelis and to ensure the attackers do not escape punishment,” he concluded.

The history of Bulgaria’s Jews during the Holocaust is astonishing, especially considering the fact that Bulgaria was a Nazi ally. Because the Orthodox Church, high-ranking politicians and the public opposed deportation, none of Bulgaria’s 50,000 Jews were deported, the only country that kept its all Jews safe (Denmark succeeded in ferrying most of its Jewish population to safety). But Bulgaria’s record is mixed. It helped deport Jews from other occupied territories in Macedonia, Thrace and Pirot to Treblinka. It also imposed heavy restrictions on its Jewish population, including forcing the men into slave labor. Still, given such a record, the rise in antisemitic violence against Jews is especially disappointing.