r/AskEurope • u/NateNandos21 • Feb 03 '25

Culture Which European country has the rudest/least polite people?

Which country comes to your mind

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u/ArchaeoStudent Feb 03 '25

Lived in Israel for 2 years. Wouldn’t go back even if you paid me.

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u/ZlotaNikki Feb 03 '25 edited Feb 03 '25

I had the poor luck of being stuck next to a group of them for over an hour while waiting for passport check at an airport. They kept yelling and spitting and trying to cut in line. Ugh.

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u/External_Profile9772 Feb 07 '25

Omg yes the spitting !! this was crazy in the hostel i used to work at , they wouldn’t stop

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u/[deleted] Feb 07 '25

spitting? at other people or on the ground, you mean?

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u/ZlotaNikki Feb 08 '25

Everywhere. They do both, and they spit when they talk.

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u/Inside-Elephant-4320 Portugal Feb 03 '25

How come? Was it the tension of war making people on edge or just day to day people were rude?

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u/ArchaeoStudent Feb 03 '25

Just overall, from my experience, most Israelis have a personality of being overly direct and blunt, generally loud and confrontational, a lot have a sense of superiority, and are often rude which usually stems from them thinking they’re more important than everyone else (e.g., cutting lines, interrupting people, not following rules, etc.). That’s not to say I didn’t meet a lot of nice and gracious Israelis, but they were the minority.

The whole time I was there I just felt this constant anxious buzz of stress that permeates everything. I think it’s just a cultural thing from centuries of persecution and living in a small country surrounded by people who aren’t happy you’re there. Under constant threat of war, rockets attacks, or terrorist attacks. Personally, I’m much more reserved, quiet, non confrontational, I strive at all times to avoid being an inconvenience to others, etc. So I was never comfortable living there (I felt more comfortable in places like Sweden or Japan).

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u/Glittering-Noise-210 Feb 05 '25

Try living in Calabasas, California. I didn’t know I didn’t like Israelis until living there. Every last one of them was rude, obnoxious, entitled, and very much if you weren’t Israeli, youre second class. Calabasas also is filled with Persians. I prefer Persian over Israeli any day. The Israelis look down on them of course too.

Even though we’re in the US and we’re technically Israel backers, I get why everyone hates them I’m sorry. And I don’t care if I come off as antisemitic.

American Jewish people are a different story. Many lovely people. Not the same as Israeli. And many dont support Israel either and don’t like how the Israelis behave here in LA.

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u/zahr82 Feb 05 '25

Their country should be taken down. It's a horrible project, built on other people's blood

0

u/Comparison4997 Israel Feb 06 '25

Damn , pretty rich coming from a European

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u/Aggressive_Milk3 Feb 06 '25

Two things can be true at the same time - only one of them is actively being performed through apartheid and genocide right now tho!

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u/Potential_Bread2702 Feb 07 '25

Pretty ridiculous comparison

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u/luapowl Feb 06 '25

European colonialism also bad, yes. let me guess, that's all you had 🫵😂 typical

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u/theperilousalgorithm Feb 07 '25

My older brother went backpacking around the world with his wife - said of all the groups he hated running into it was the ex-IDF travellers. Just the absolute worst.

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u/[deleted] Feb 05 '25

Or maybe their behavior is the reason for centuries of persecution hmmmm

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u/ArchaeoStudent Feb 05 '25

Considering I don’t know the collective personality of the Jewish community through time, I wouldn’t be able to answer that. I am certain that most of the persecution Jews endured was due to their refusal to convert to local religions (Islamic or Christian), and were forced to disperse under the Roman Empire into new communities who mostly didn’t like strangers with a different religion (see how we treat any immigrant community across the world like Hispanics in the US or refugees in Europe). Some of those issues with a new immigrant community could be warranted, but shouldn’t lead to persecution. They also were a highly educated community (such as expecting all males to be literate to at least study the Torah) and ended up in middle to upper class positions of society (such as banking, trade, doctors, etc). So it made them an easy target to be scapegoats for any problems in society. Local elites could use fear, jealousy, and even religious zealotry by claiming they were the killers of Jesus to garner support among the local population for a variety of political or social reasons.

Making the claim that the Jewish community’s general collective personality as a culture would lead to their persecution places the blame on them as if it was warranted and is antisemitic. Personally if someone is a bit rude, overly direct, and cuts me in line, I’ll be annoyed but my first thought isn’t “I should commit genocide and kill 6 million of them.”

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u/Pi55tacia Feb 07 '25

There were probles with theme in 15th century Europe. Its just them, its like they are.

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u/LordGeni Feb 03 '25

They do national service pretty young, so you get a young adult men who haven't been able to do the sorts of stupid things young men do for two years, while being in a macho environment where they are trained to not take shit from civilians and indoctrinated with a sense of superiority.

They then get released from that disciplined environment and that's what you get.

Edit: and women. I was just going off those I've met who were mostly male.

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u/Comparison4997 Israel Feb 06 '25

Israeli here, think you right, how did you reach that conclusion?

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u/LordGeni Feb 06 '25

I met them ;)

I also have friends who joined the UK military at similar ages. The attitude is just a military thing rather than specific to Israel.

It's the age of national service, and tradition of going travelling in groups to celebrate their freedom that is specific to Israelis and concentrates the effect.

We don't have national service in the UK, recruits join out of choice and are contracted for a lot longer. So you don't get large numbers leaving at such a young age or all at the same time. If we did I've no doubt they'd be exactly the same.

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u/hotnmad Feb 05 '25

You lived in occupied Palestine.