Anti-Semitic email from British supplements firm sends Israeli NGO into action

Israeli citizen Hilton Licht ordered natural supplements from Tribestan UK, a natural supplements company. In response, he received an anti-Semitic email.

By Sheri Oz, World Israel News

On Monday, Israeli citizen Hilton Licht wanted to order some natural supplements. Instead, he received a dose of anti-Semitism.

Israeli human rights organization, Betsalmo, jumped in, sending a letter on Licht’s behalf demanding an apology or it would take the matter further.

British online supplements company Tribestan UK, which claims to ship worldwide, sent Licht the anti-Semitic email which read, “We don’t ship to Jews because they Rob us ! Sorry but that’s a fact ! They scam the world. No offence.”

Licht posted on his Facebook page the email in which the company stated their refusal to ship to Israel and he told World Israel News that he hopes that all those who receive similar emails will report them and let the truth be known.

Tribestan’s email to Licht. (Courtesy)Tribestan, for its part, claims its email was hacked.

Before its hacking assertion, Shai Glick, CEO of Betzalmo, expressed his shock at the British company’s refusal to serve a customer simply because he lived in Israel and at the grossly anti-Semitic nature of the message. He called the behavior anti-Semitic, outrageous and illegal as “it is forbidden to discriminate based on religion or race.”

Glick sent a sharply worded letter to Tribestan CEO Daniel Davies on Monday, requesting a public apology.

“Your words are reminiscent of similar words from the 1930’s that led to the Holocaust and the murder of six million Jews. We must not tolerate hatred and racism. I demand that you immediately reverse your decision and apologize to the customer,” Glick wrote.

Glick said on Monday that if there is no personal apology to the customer and no public apology, he will file a complaint with the British legal authorities that deal with discrimination and racism.

In addition, he will inform the British Ministry of Finance. He will also turn to Israel’s Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon and Minister of Strategic Affairs Gilad Erdan with a request that they will follow the matter up with their British counterparts.

The Tribestan website clearly welcomes orders from around the globe: “Remember we ship Worldwide daily,” its site says.

After David Lange of website israellycool inquired into the matter, Tribestan made its hacking claim and did issue an apology.

“Over night our email got hacked over wifi via a business phone. … We are a small business and none of us would dream of sending such offensive language. Sorry for the issue and please accept our apology,” it read in part.

Tribestan’s apology. (Courtesy)

Ran Bar Zik, a programmer at Verizon Media and Tech writer for Haaretz, told World Israel News that claiming to have been hacked “is a really lame excuse.” If they were hacked, Bar Zik says, Tribestan can easily prove it by showing their logs.

Furthermore, he says the hacker would be more interested in other things than just sending anti-Semitic emails – perhaps keeping the customer’s payment rather than returning it to him. And Tribestan would be obligated by law to report the incident to the E.U. authorities on cyber security, he says.

World Israel News has reached out to Tribestan but has not yet received a response.

anti-Semitism