Some Israeli cafes in India have allegedly been refusing entry to Indians – or, essentially, to anyone who isn’t Israeli or Jewish.
This isn’t exactly news. It has been known for years that some places in the country turn Indians away, even though they are located in India and, in many cases, run by Indian owners.
The topic has resurfaced, especially among independent journalists, travel vloggers and social commentators. The big question is: how is this still happening in our own country, and why does it keep slipping past any real accountability?
The Infamous Cafe In Kasol
The most prominent name here is Free Kasol Cafe in Kasol, Himachal Pradesh. Kasol has long been called “Mini Israel” because of a steady influx of Israeli backpackers that dates back decades. Over the years, travel vloggers and tourists have described Hebrew signboards, menus built around Israeli cuisine, and even locals who speak fluent Hebrew.
In 2015, the cafe came under scrutiny when British tourist Stefan Kaye wrote a Facebook post alleging that his Indian partner, Ritika, had been refused a menu and told the cafe was “members only”, while he was handed one without any issue.
In the post, published on August 17, 2015, Kaye wrote, “This restaurant in Kasol is called ‘Free Kasol’. The freak asshole who runs it refuses to serve Indians. I walked in there with Ritika yesterday afternoon. They would not give her a menu, claiming it was a ‘members-only’ cafe. The owner did not realise we were together; I then asked for the menu and he duly obliged. I pulled him up about his claim that it was members-only, and he decided to stick to this yarn. Conversation went like this.
“‘Why did you give me the menu then?’ I asked him. ‘Because you asked to see it.’ ‘So once I had looked at it, I would not have been able to place an order?’ ‘That’s right,’ he answered. Obviously, we were not convinced by the owner’s explanation, so we asked a few puzzled-looking diners if they had to show a membership card to walk into this cafe.
“Of course, none of them had to do any such thing. I confronted the owner and accused him of blatant discrimination; he then tried to shoo me out and claimed loudly, ‘It is my cafe, and I can do what I want!’ We weren’t prepared to leave under these circumstances and made it clear to the exclusively white and predominantly Israeli clientele that the owner was operating a form of apartheid in his cafe.
“They continued sipping tea and eating schnitzels. It transpired that the owner is in fact Indian and has visited Israel every year for the past 15 years. His explanation for excluding a customer based purely on her ethnicity was that he ‘was in a bad mood’.”
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In Goa As Well
In another instance, a video went viral online in early September in which a female traveller was denied entry to a cafe in Goa because, according to the staff, entry was reserved for Israeli/Jewish people.
In the caption of her video, the woman wrote that while strolling through a village in Goa, she “saw a Hebrew sign; I just wanted a coffee, like in any other place.” But when she tried to enter, “the Indian guardian asked me if I was Jewish.” In the video, she can be heard asking a staff member, “Why is this even allowed, that only Jewish people can enter?”
The guard replies, “Only Jewish people can enter this… this is only for Jewish people; no other ethnicity can enter,” and can be heard explaining that “this is a prayer place for Jewish people; it’s not a restaurant… this is a prayer place.”
The traveller, however, wrote, “It is not a synagogue. It is a restaurant and cafe, and there was a portrait of the leader of the Chabad Lubavitch,” adding, “‘Private property’, yet it is open to the public… well, Jewish public only!”
Zionists export apartheid. Italian woman can’t get a drink at a “Jews only” bar in Goa, India. Religious pretext. pic.twitter.com/KVkD8KSLlC
— tim anderson (@timand2037) September 19, 2026
In May, a Reddit thread on r/india_tourism went viral after a user described their experience in Dharamkot. They wrote, “I recently went to Dharamkot in Himachal with so much excitement. I had heard so much about the place and saw many beautiful videos online, so I thought it would be an amazing experience. But reality felt very different. As an Indian, I honestly felt like a third-class citizen there.
“Cafés and restaurants behaved in a way that made me feel unwelcome, almost like I was a beggar who couldn’t pay, even though I was a customer like everyone else. Many restaurants even denied us entry. And when we finally got a seat somewhere else, they took a very long time to serve our order.
“What hurt more was seeing Israeli tourists getting their food earlier even though we had ordered the exact same thing before them. At first I ignored it and thought, ‘Chalo, ho jata hai sometimes.’ But after noticing it again and again, it really ruined my mood….”
Another user, agreeing with the original poster, commented, “Last June in Dharamkot, we ordered ginger tea. A few minutes later, two white guys arrived and ordered something. They got their ginger tea and tarts served before us.
“Similarly, in 2023, a bakery was running Indian cooking classes upstairs. And it wasn’t open to Indians, was not interested in it anyway. This bakery/cafe was quite big, not sure if this was German bakery, but it is on your left side when you descend towards Bhagsu Falls from Dharamkot. Love getting treated as outsiders in our own country.”
Another commented, “Although I didn’t try to get into any Israeli cafe or eateries, it was surprising to see so many Israelis there. And they come into any shop with entitlement. Honestly, I didn’t see them behave politely with anyone. I wonder why the locals put up with it.
I abhor all those Israelis treating our countrymen as second-class citizens in my own country! They have ruined parts of Goa and Himachal. Everyone knows why they are here… Drugs. And it’s enraging that nor the locals or administration take any strong action against driving out these junkies.”
In October 2025, another Reddit post on r/India, titled ‘Experience staying in Himachal with a glaring question’, raised similar concerns. The user wrote, “What I couldn’t get over (within 2 days of stepping foot in Kasol) was the glaring presence of Israelis. Now, I’m not saying tourists are a bad thing. But there’s something unnatural about their presence.
I know how tourists act, and this isn’t like that. They’re clearly long-time residents but somehow don’t seem to mingle with locals. It’s like they’ve created these places, which a friend described as ‘supremacist enclaves’, and they seem to be influencing the culture (I’m guessing they’re using their money to do it), so yeah, just curious if anybody has insights on what’s going on.
“One extreme case I found was when I was denied entry to a cafe that seemed to be exclusively for Israelis. And another space which has a poster of “Messiah is here” and something like “The improvement of the security systems in this building was made possible thanks to a generous contribution The Security Assistance Fund of THE JEWISH AGENCY FOR ISRAEL In cooperation with KEREN HAYESOD” this place seemed like a children’s library or care center (?).
Security for what? Why is the Jewish agency for Israel involved if they’re just tourists. Not to mention every places basically caters to israelis with hebrew menus, signs and posters.”
Several others shared similar experiences, with one user commenting that when they visited Goa, they “learnt that there were Russian-only/Israeli-only beaches in Goa where they run the beaches, and Indians are discouraged from going there. This was all supported by the local Goans.”
Another user wrote, “When I went there for the first time a decade ago, it was the same. We got lost on our way to Pulga, and when we reached a hotel around 9 pm, they refused to give us a room even when they had empty rooms because Israelis only. Felt like a second-class citizen in my own country.”
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: Firstpost, NDTV, News18
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This post is tagged under: Israelis, Israelis india, Israeli cafes india, israeli cafe goa, Free Kasol Cafe, Free Kasol Cafe banned indians, Dharamkot, Dharamkot israelis, Israeli tourism, Israeli tourism india, israelis in india, Israeli tourists india, israeli tourists
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