Israeli receives anti-Semitic messages from eBay supplier

Rosh Ha’ayin resident discovers the words Hitler, Jude, and SS scrawled on invoice for book he received delivered from an outlet in UK.

By JEREMY SHARON
eBay bill with two swastikas 311 (photo credit: Courtesy)
eBay bill with two swastikas 311
(photo credit: Courtesy)
An Israeli eBay customer was shocked to discover anti-Semitic messages scrawled on the invoice for a book he received on Wednesday, delivered from an outlet in the UK.
Michael Romano, 24, from Rosh Ha’ayin, opened the package containing his new book to discover that someone had drawn swastikas on the receipt and written the words Hitler, Jude, and SS on it.
The Thames Valley Police, under whose jurisdiction the incident falls, has confirmed that it is being treated as a hate crime under the UK Malicious Communications Act of 1988 and that an investigation is currently underway.
The book was bought through an eBay supplier called Brit Books based in Buckinghamshire.
Operations manager for Brit Books, James Acquaroli apologized for the incident and told Faith Romano, Michael’s mother, that the company is conducting an internal investigation and has also reported the matter to the police.
“It had to be someone from the supplier because the package had not been tampered with,” said Faith Romano. “Clearly what’s happened is someone’s seen that the package is going to Israel and decided to pass on their little message. Living in Israel, we never experience anti-Semitism, and Michael, for the first time in his life, felt threatened for being a Jew, which he has never had to deal with before.”
EBay also apologized for the incident, calling it “extremely regrettable.”