My first encounter with Israelis was when I was backpacking through South
America in my twenties, and I remember being shocked by how consistently awful
they all were. I guess after their mandatory military service they tend to go
traveling for a bit, and whenever I'd run into them they were reliably some of
the nastiest people I'd ever encountered.

They weren't ever nasty to me, though. I am a white westerner, and I never had a
problem with them. They were nasty to the impoverished brown-skinned people who
were hosting us. They were obnoxious and bullying toward local guides, they'd
leave the place in a mess, and they were always trying to screw over the locals
for a better deal or extra meals or favors. One time they tricked a hostel into
putting up a sign in Hebrew for other Israeli backpackers which said ugly things
about our hosts (they told the hostel owner it was a great review), which I only
know because they were laughing hysterically about it and told me. They
consistently treated the people who were looking after us like they were much
lesser than us. Their pushiness and entitlement were just unbelievable.

It was a very educational experience for me. I knew the Palestinians were being
treated unfairly because my father had told me so, but I also had a great love
of Jews and Jewish culture. I had visited Auschwitz and Dachau and Anne Frank's
house in my travels, and I remember having some romantic ideas about
kibbutzim. This was my first time directly encountering the reality that there
is something unhealthy about Israeli society. Not Jews or Jewish culture, but
Jewish Israelis.
-- Cont'd at https://caityjohnstone.medium.com/we-really-are-the-bad-guys-and-this-really-is-the-evil-empire-9ec35b2759a8